And Now For Something Completely Different

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Dear Readers,

This week I’m trying something a bit different. I’ve written a short story that I’m hoping you’ll like. This isn’t my first. Perhaps you will remember my favorite, The Wrong Number which I published a little over two years ago but actually wrote four or five years ago.

Maybe you’re tired of all of today’s news. If so, this may give you a brief respite.

I truly hope you enjoy this effort.

— Chuck

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Flutter

Matt loved butterflies.  As a child he was fixated on these beautiful creatures.  When he was eight his parents bought him a butterfly net for Christmas and that summer he caught every butterfly he could.

As he got a bit older, he learned how to mount the butterflies for presentation.  Soon he had caught and mounted 26 of the 725 butterfly species native to North America.

After high school, Matt enrolled at the University of Michigan, majoring in zoology. He hoped to go on to receive an advanced degree specializing in Lepidopterology, the study of butterflies.  But having come from modest means, he needed to curtail his studies after graduation and get a job.  He took a position with the U.S. Park Service as a park ranger.

The beauty of the Park Service job was that Matt could pursue his hobby.  Each national park he was stationed at brought new butterfly varieties for his collection.

Matt was promoted in the Service and relocated several times.  Finally, he was transferred to the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Palos Verdes, California.

This was his dream come true! The Palos Verdes peninsula was the home of Palos Verdes Blue butterflies (glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis) which are among the rarest in the United States.  Matt had never seen one of these beauties.

With this promotion his income grew and he was able to purchase a small two-bedroom condo.  The second bedroom gave him a chance to fulfill a “bucket list” goal - to have a butterfly room.  This is a room that has flowering plants and bare branches for butterflies to roost.  Free from predators, his butterflies would fly about freely and flourish.  Matt put a small day bed in the room so he could enjoy his little pets day and night.

Soon, Matt had hundreds of butterflies and was spending most of his time in the butterfly room.  He even slept there on occasion.

At work, Matt used every free moment to search for a Palos Verdes Blue.

One afternoon in May, Matt was walking through one of the gardens at Olmsted and saw a very curious thing.  An unusually large red and black striped caterpillar was munching on a hibiscus leaf.  Every bit of six inches long, and fat as his thumb, Matt had never seen a caterpillar this large and this colorful.

Matt gently coaxed the chubby little critter into a small plastic reptile cage that he always kept in his Park Service truck.

When he got home, he transferred “Little Chubby Man” to a large 40-gallon fish tank he kept in the butterfly room for just this purpose.

Matt kept a close eye on Little Chubby Man and nine days after his capture, Matt awoke to see that Little Chubby Man had formed his cocoon and was resting comfortably.  The cocoon, or chrysalis, was the largest he’d ever seen, five inches top to bottom and nearly an inch and a half wide.

Little Chubby Man sat dormant for 16 days.  Each day the chrysalis got a bit darker, meaning that the butterfly inside was maturing and would soon appear.

Matt got home from work to find the shock of his life.  Little Chubby Man had hatched and the absolutely most beautiful butterfly Matt had ever seen was flitting around the room.  It looked like a flying stained-glass window.  Iridescent reds and purples and greens and pinks and yellows all were covering its nine-inch wingspan. Nine inches!  Matt could hardly contain his glee.

What was really odd was the size of the head of this beautiful creature.  The head was nearly an inch wide!  This was at least twice the size that Matt would expect, based upon typical butterfly anatomy.  But even more remarkable was the especially large proboscis that butterflies use to sip nectar from flowers.  This proboscis was much thicker and seemed to have a sharp spear at the end.  Amazing!

After dinner Matt took his laptop into the butterfly room to do some research on this incredible insect.  After several hours of searching, all he could find were references to legendary butterflies that had some pretty gruesome habits, but these were just folklore.

Matt became sleepy.  He shut down the laptop and decided to stay in the butterfly room that night.

The next day, after Matt hadn’t shown up for work, the park superintendent called Matt’s cell phone.  Every call went straight to voicemail.  For Matt, this was really unusual.

Worried about Matt’s wellbeing, the superintendent called the Palos Verdes police and requested a wellness check.

Corporal McKinley and officer Adams knocked on Matt’s door.  There was no answer. Concerned, they were able to force the door open.

The condo was clean and neat.  No signs of life in the kitchen and living room.  One bedroom door was open and an undisturbed bed and a few pieces of furniture were all that was there.

A second bedroom door was closed.  McKinley opened the door slowly and was shocked that hundreds, maybe thousands of butterflies were flitting around the room.

Adams saw it first and tugged on McKinley’s arm.  A man lying on a bed was pale white and was obviously dead.  A large and colorful butterfly was perched on his neck.

As they approached the butterfly it reared up, a drop of blood dripped from a long dark snout.  The two officers were shocked and in a split second the butterfly quickly flew out of the room and escaped out of the front door.

The coroner’s report was very general.  It listed the cause of death to be exsanguination via an oddly shaped neck wound.  But there was no mention of where the blood had gone.

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The following spring a young boy saw the biggest and most beautiful caterpillar ever. He put it in a jelly jar with holes punched in the lid and took it home to show his mother.