Wings

Wings

By Bella Takacs

Thanks to my first teacher Cathy, for introducing

me to many things, including butterflies.

Maple Leaf Book Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont

Copyright 2013

CHAPTER 1

PROTECTED BY A SHELL

Caterpillars are held captive in tiny fingertip-sized eggs at first. These helpless larvae are protected by a shell with delicate ribs that meet at the top of the egg to help keep the egg from damage.

“BRUCE!” My mother’s high pitched voice called and awakened my half-asleep mind. “BRUCE!” The voice of my mom called again sounding like an alarm.

“WHAT?” I shouted back.

“It’s time to go." My mom’s call got muffled as a gust of wind set the grass swaying back and forth. Well, it really was time to go, so I slowly awakened my stiff limbs and started down the hill to my Nagymama’s house. We call our grandma “Nagymama”. I once read a book about different cultures. It gave the translation for “grandma” in places all around the world. I was small then and

I always loved showing my grandma every thing I knew, so I told her the Hungarian one. Well, she liked it and now we call her Nagymama.

About halfway down the hill I saw my baby brother rolling around in the garden, bending all the flower stems. This garden is Nagymama’s only hobby. She was going to be very upset. I rushed over and took him out. “Boosey!” he shouted back but I didn’t respond whatsoever as I carried him inside.

As usual on a typical summer day, my older sister Juniper was in a tank-top, short-shorts and texting with her feet on the table. Grandma was wearing a long flowy skirt, a poncho she knitted herself, and was looking out the window. For a second I thought about asking her what she was looking at, but realized that it was no use. Then I turned and saw something that didn’t fit the description “typical summer day”— Mom putting on maroon lipstick and dark green eye shadow. Something right then hit me like a bolt of lightning—a vision—a flashback: Mom and Dad sitting side by side, ten year old Juni, five year old me running around on the sandy beach; Simon up in the stars, not yet in our world. Mom was resting her head on Dad’s shoulder. They were in their own world living as one. Dad hated makeup, and said “Not only is it bad for your face, it’s bad for your soul,” so Mom didn’t wear it and now, she was wearing it.

Everyone thinks my fascination with butterflies is to keep my mind busy and protect me from broken family memories, but really it keeps me traveling back to them. I remember feeling bored when my dad went into vivid detail about butterflies.

“Eww!” Juni exclaimed.

“Simon needs a tubby” Nagymama said in a baby voice.

“What?” I said as I realized that I had totally spaced out.

“Why is he all dirty?” my mom said as her ears turned fuchsia.

“I don’t know. When I was coming back he was just rolling in Nagymama’s garden getting all, you know, dirty.”

“Ugh, lets get this over with”, my mom said as she lifted tiny Simon out of my arms. My mom was frustrated about everything since she and Dad got the divorce.

When Mom came out of the room with Simon I asked her if there was anything I should do. She told me that I should start packing up and that I had delayed going back to New York enough already, but I didn’t see her point. We leave New York and come to Vermont so Mom can relax... no, more like have us do her chores for her, but she’s always in the exact same bad mood coming and leaving. I wish I could see her smile one more time because, without a dad we need her, we really need her but we can’t have her. It seems she’s on a different planet, like this person standing right in front of me is holographic.

“I don’t belong here” I said in my head before I blurted it out, startling my family. “Oh dear” Nagymama said, her voice cracking uncontrollably. I could tell that in any moment she would burst out laughing. Juni, on the other hand was laughing so hard she actually put her phone down. I then looked at Mom who was snickering while tickling innocent Simon to laughter. I couldn’t stand her. I couldn’t stand any of them. “I’m leaving” I said softly, fighting back tears.

“Have fun” my mom said wiping her eyes and gasping for air. After that I looked at all of them. Juni was vigorously pecking at her phone like nothing ever happened. Mom was burping Simon and Nagymama was staring blankly at the ceiling. I didn’t bother to say any more before I walked out the door. I guess that was because I didn’t know that I would never see them again.

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CHAPTER 2

HATCHING OUT

Caterpillars spend a long time in a shell. When that time is over they eat their way out of their shell (which is very hard and tiring for a tiny caterpillar).

I found myself running. I didn’t know why, nothing was chasing me but as I felt the cool air rushing through my curls, it just felt right. I felt free.

I ran until I was surrounded in deciduous forest. I know it’s silly but I felt very independent. My dad and I used to come to the edge of these woods. With him I had been brave, but then I was alone. No one was holding my hand reassuring me there were no bears in these woods and I was happy.

I walked for a while before I sat down to rest on a large mossy rock. I liked it here, I felt like staying. I closed my eyes. “This is amazing”, I thought. I wanted to stay here, I would stay here. This would be my new home.

By then it was dark and getting cold and my thin T-shirt definitely did not conserve body heat. I was so cold and hungry that I suddenly thought that I could catch a fish from a stream with my hands. I don’t know how, but after walking to the point where even my arms were tired I found a stream—no—the stream found me. I slipped on a rock and fell into the freezing water. I let out a yelp when a sharp rock punctured the bottom of my foot. I started crying when I finally pulled myself out of the stream partly because of the pain in my right foot but mostly because even if I wanted to, I couldn’t go home now.

I curled up into a small ball and cried myself to sleep beside the river.

“Ahhh!” I said as the warm sun covered my stretching body. It was finally morning. I wrapped my swelling foot with my shirt, and started thinking about shelter and food.

I spent half the day finding the right place for my fort. By then I was really hungry and needed some food. I definitely was not a plant expert and couldn’t kill any animals but fish. So that settled it. I would eat fish, my least favorite food.

It took awhile to find the stream I fell into after looking for a place to put my fort. When I found it I thought I would have better luck fishing with a net rather than a pole. The net wasn’t hard to make. All I did was weave some long pieces of birch bark together leaving only a few tiny holes so the only thing that could escape was water. The setup wasn’t tricky either. I just tied it to either side of the stream with the extra pieces of bark.

When I was done, I just sat on the bank waiting for a fish to come down the stream. It only took about ten minutes for one to come down. It still felt like I was dying of hunger though. When the fish came, I dove into the fresh water and grabbed the squirming creature out of the net with my hands. Right then I felt nothing but happiness. I walked back to the place where I decided to build my fort. Then the happiness ended. There was no way I could make a fire. I had nothing but the clothes on my back. I was going to eat this fish raw.

I didn’t do anything fancy with the fish. I skinned it with a sharp piece of slate. I didn’t mind the smell or handling this disgusting thing. The only bad thing about that fish was eating it. I decided to eat the fish while building my lean-to.

I liked it out there. It was peaceful and I was happy to call it home, but my family was so unpredictable they could have been doing anything anywhere by now. The constant worry that they had completely forgotten about me just wouldn’t leave my head.

The fish got better with every bite. That reassured me quite a bit because I was going to live on raw fish for now.

After I had made a large hole in my fort for the door I started building all the way around the tree. As I was building it reminded me of how I used to love playing with Lincoln Logs while Juni babysat me for Mom and Dad. This wasn’t the same though. Juni wasn’t coaching me like she always did. Back then I thought I hated it, but now I wanted it. I wanted her.

.CHAPTER 3

CATERPILLAR

The second stage in the butterfly’s life is the Caterpillar. Caterpillars shed their skin four times before becoming a butterfly.

When morning came I was immediately awakened by the sun’s blinding rays shining through the cracks in my lean-to’s walls. I wasn’t at all tired because without Simon wailing his head off every thirty minutes, the night was quite peaceful. I got up and crawled to the door of my fort. As I heard a loud crack I knew my back wished I had made the hole in my door bigger.

As I look at my lean-to, I realize that even if sun rays wake me up at 5-o’clock, this was home. After that, I started off to the stream where my net was to catch breakfast and whistled a tune that I couldn’t place but was as familiar as the sun.

That day I had nothing to do so I decided to go swimming in the stream. The water felt great. It was so cold I felt like screaming, but it still felt great. After a while I dried myself off with my T-shirt. I stayed by the stream for a bit and skipped rocks in a deep pool of water a little ways down the stream.

I was content until I heard a man whistling around where my net was. My first instinct was to run, but after taking some deep breaths I decided to confront whoever was there. As I approached him I noticed that he was using my net. I jumped when he asked “Hey kid, is this yours?” He went on “Well if it is thanks, but don’t you think you could have done better than this?”

“Yea!” I said, albeit too confidently.

“Well. Steve’s the name. What’s yours and where do you come from?” Then I told him everything, by the end he had handed me one of his fish.

“Do you eat these raw?” I asked dumbly.

“Of course not” he said back with a snicker. “I have a fire, well I have matches. Do you want to come over and cook it?”

“Really? Of course I do,” I answered.

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CHAPTER 4

COCOON

The next stage in a butterfly’s life is in a cocoon, or chrysalis. After four weeks, the caterpillar sheds its skin for the last time. Unlike all the other times the caterpillar sheds, this time a layer of pupa shows up and forms the cocoon.

That day was just like the last except for the moon. I found Steve sitting catching his fourth fish.

“Hey, uh. Bruce?”

“Yup thats me, how are you Steve?”

“Just fine thank you. Uh, I was wondering if you wanted to... well... come to my place for breakfast? I caught some fish for ya.”

“Sure, I’d love to.”

“Let me catch this last fish then we can get going.” Once Steve caught a fish we started on our way.

When we got to Steve’s cabin, he told me that he didn’t have a mother and that his father had loved him very much but he was a very stubborn child who couldn’t cope with six sisters and four brothers, him being one of the older ones and worst of all, only one parent. He had run away when he was thirteen.

“Wow, you actually had a reason to run away.” I said over a bite of fish.

“You have a reason too, and promise me that you will stay out here if you feel that it’s right for you.”

“I promise. Well, I better be on my way then.”

“OK, bye and well, you can come over any time. You could even stay here a while if things get rough.”

“Thanks,” I said and started walking home.

The next two days were the same and I went to Steve’s place for breakfast both days but on my sixth day out in the wilderness I woke up to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof of my lean-to.

I spent that day drawing on the dirt floor. I didn’t have any fish and didn’t want to go outside and get my only shirt wet so I decided to wait for the rain to stop.

The rain didn’t stop but Steve knocked on the side of my lean-to. I said “come in” and he stuck in his head to throw me two cooked fish. I shouted “thanks” but there was no response.

By now, fish was quite appealing to me and seemed like a delicacy. I would gobble it down without hesitation. I had planned on going to find some plants that I knew were edible though, like red clover and mint. But it was cold and wet today, so I would go out tomorrow.

One of the pictures I drew was of my dad. Unlike the others, I didn’t sweep him away to make room for more pictures. I looked at it for a while. I hadn’t seen my father for about three months now and even looking at a drawing of him in the dirt felt real.

Going to bed that night wasn’t as easy as all the other nights. I kept wondering what my dad was doing. My mom says that as long as she has custody of me I can’t even write to him. So he could really be anywhere by now.

I finally got to sleep by humming every song I could think of.

The next morning it wasn’t raining so I did my normal morning routine. After getting myself dried off from swimming I went to find red clover and mint. I wove a small pouch out of birch bark to collect the plants. Then I was off.

I had my pouch overflowing after about forty minutes. I was so amazed at how great the plants tasted. I couldn’t help but eating them on my way to the lean-to but when I got there something made me drop my plants. “Daddy?”