Butterfly Kisses

A flash piece I wrote some time ago. Based on a true story told to me by a friend...

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Butterfly Kisses

EJ Tett

I’ll tell you a story, though you mustn’t laugh. I was walking home from school one time; it was a cold autumn so I was wrapped up warm. I was wearing a hat that pulled down over my ears and a pair of woolly gloves. I really hate the cold. I suppose I was just being a bit of a wuss... it wasn’t that cold; there was no snow, no frost... It was October though, and it was October cold.

I walked through a park and then a housing estate to get home. There was a shortcut, but it was through a dark little lane that I never liked the look of, and you hear stories about people disappearing from dark little lanes...

Anyway, on my way home this one time I saw a butterfly on the pavement in front of me. It was one of those pretty red ones with the eye pattern. I just thought it was dead. A poor dead frozen butterfly. But it wasn’t, its wings moved when I bent to have a look. They moved slowly though, as if the butterfly was dying or hurt... Butterflies are so beautiful how could I not help?! I removed my gloves and picked the butterfly up, carefully and gently because they’re such delicate creatures.

I took her home with me and called her Apricot. I wasn’t entirely sure she was a girl though, I’m not up on sexing butterflies...

Apricot lived in my bedroom. I did some research on butterflies on the internet and then fed her on watered down honey. I’m never quite sure if she ate it or if it just evaporated but I saw her go to it one time and curl her tongue into it.

I would go to school as normal every day and leave Apricot in my room. She couldn’t fly at that stage so she would just crawl along my desk and bookcase. I’d leave her on my net curtain sometimes so that she could get some light.

After a few months Apricot became tame. Or as tame as a butterfly can be. Once she was able to, she would fly around my room and then land on my nose when I was sleeping; leaving butterfly kisses on my cheek. I was scared that I would swat at her in my sleep and kill her but I never did.

I loved that butterfly, I nursed her back to health, kept her warm in the winter and let her fly again. One day I came home from school and my mum looked like she wanted to tell me something. When I asked her what was wrong she told me that she’d gone up to my room and opened the window... not realising that Apricot was on the net curtain...

A gust of wind swept my butterfly out into the cold and down to the ground outside. When my mum went down to retrieve her, the dog followed her out...

You can probably guess what happened. The dog ate Apricot.