for Emily Jeannette
“Daddy! Daddy!” The little girl ran into the house with a joyous smile that lit up her entire face. She ran to her daddy, and grabbed his hand and began tugging him towards the door. “C’mon daddy, you hafta see what I saw outside, c’mon!”
Greg smiled at his daughter’s excitement and allowed her to drag him behind her. Terri had been finding all kinds of things everywhere she went, and this new find could range from a weed that had died to a bird skeleton and Greg was mildly interested.
Once they were in the yard, Terri led Greg to the flower bushes that scraped on the windows and gave shade to the spiders that made their webs in the underneath where the bugs were plentiful. They reached the largest plant, a rose bush and Terri pointed.
“See? See the patercillar, daddy?” She was pointing at a long green thing that undulated up and then out crawling its way along a leaf.
“I see it honey, I see it. But it’s Caterpillar.”
“That’s what I said, patercillar.” Her eyes shone and teeth gleamed with the happiness of finding the bug. “What is it gonna do daddy?”
“He’s probably on his way to get food and then find a place to sleep tonight.” Greg really had no idea where caterpillars went on their journeys, but there was no need to tell the little girl that.
“He’s not gonna get eated by a bird is he?” Her little frown line was forming between her eyebrows, and Greg reached out to trace it with his finger.
“I hope not baby, but let’s move him to the ground, ok?”
“Ok, he’ll like being in the grass.”
They gently picked up the green worm, and moved it to the grass by the front porch. Greg did know one thing about caterpillars, “Now, if he stays here by the porch, then one day he’s spin a cocoon and then after awhile he’ll come out as a butterfly.”
The awe showed on Terri’s face and she spoke in a hushed whisper, “really?”
“Yep, maybe we should keep our eyes on the porch and see if we can’t spot him every once in awhile and watch his cocoon.”
“Ok daddy, we’ll come out every day and look.”
For the next week, dad and daughter went out to look for the caterpillar. Some days they found it, some days they didn’t, but it became a fun activity they both did together. Then, about ten days after they had turned it into something daily, Greg spotted something and he grabbed Terri’s hand.
“Look honey, see it there on that leaf?” He pointed at the little brown blob of natural material.
Terri had a harder time seeing it because she was looking for the caterpillar and Greg had to almost touch it to show her.
“Wow, daddy, is the patercillar in there?”
“Yep, he’s in there growing into a butterfly I think. We’ll look it up later and make sure, ok?”
“Let’s go look it up now, please?”
“Ok, let’s go.” They went back inside and did some research. “Well Terri, it looks like that our caterpillar won’t be turning into a butterfly after all.”
“Why not?” Her lip was starting to tremble and the tears were already coming. “Is he gonna die?”
“No, he’ll be fine. He’s going to be a moth.”
“What’s a moss?”
“A moth. It’s kind of like a butterfly, except that they come out at night and are stronger, faster, and spin silk. They are superior to butterflies in every way.”
Terri wiped tears onto her sleeve and nodded, “Ok daddy. Are we going to get to see him come out?”
“Well, I hope so, all we have to do is wait for a little hole to be there in the bottom. When that shows up, we’ll know he’s fighting to come out and we can wait and see.”
“How long will that be?”
“It could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, but we’ll keep an eye on him.”
“Can we still come out every day?”
“You bet we can honey, you bet we can.”
After six weeks of coming out every day, Terri went out by herself because she didn’t want to wake Greg up. A few minutes later she came screeching into the bedroom and woke him up anyway.
“Daddy daddy, there’s a hole in the ‘coon, there’s a hole in the ‘coon.”
Greg had no idea what she was yelling about but he got up and stumbled out into the front room with her. “What’s going on?” He rubbed sleep out of his eyes.
“The ‘coons got a hole in it! The patercillar is gonna come out as a moss!”
“Oh! All right, let’s go see.”
They ran outside, and she pointed, her finger almost touching but not quite, exactly like Greg had done many weeks earlier when he’d shown it to his daughter. They both looked at the hole, and knew they would soon be rewarded with a moth. Greg went inside to look up how long it would take now.
When he decides to come out from under the rock that is GM, Art Griswold writes the hate in his brain as a way of purging his urges.
He enjoys writing as an outlet and wishes he were more prolific.
Excited by his first opportunity handed to him by Literary Orphans, he hopes to continue down the path towards writing full time.
–Art by Sagi Kortler
Running sport media | Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG ‘University Blue’ — Ietp