Story 2: Caterpillar

Melati is a caterpillar. She can't remember her life before being a caterpillar, all she knows is she has to eat a lot now because people say one day she will have to be confined in a small pouch. And she won't be able to find food in the pouch thus, she is now eating for her future.

But she hates the fact that one day she will have to be kept in that pouch. For her, that's ridiculous. She's blessed with defensive fine hairs that will irritate any creatures that dare to come near her, with venom potent enough to terrify any known living organisms nearby.

She doesn't see the purpose of going into the pouch; to make her more mature and complete, so said her friends. She's happy living on her own, taking care of herself. She can't understand why are her friends so excited with the pouch thingy. They talk about it most of the time, making it sound like heaven on earth; not having to find food on their own, stay there and be protected from the world.

Sometimes she wonders, what happens after the pouch?
There were no elders to talk to her about that.
Sometimes, she saw misfortune happening to her friends. They were hurt when they were in the pouch. Crushed, eaten or stamped on, being helpless and too dependent her friends weren't able to defend themselves neither can they be prepared for it. They were blind. And in blindness, they face their deaths.
Why would she put herself at risk?

But then it occurred all too suddenly and naturally.
It was as if this was her destiny, she went into the pouch phase.
She felt blissful. She didn't have to find food on her own. She felt protected from the outside world, seeing only her pouch every single day. Finally, she understood what her friends meant by heaven on earth. It was indeed the closest to heaven she can possibly hope for.
She was euphoric, kept signaling her caterpillar friends to enter their own pouch.
She evolved to be one of those pupae she used to mock. Life was good.

Gradually, however, she started to feel breathless and suffocated. She starts to wonder if going into the pouch in the first place was the correct thing to do.
She saw her caterpillar friends playing around freely, while she was kept committed in the pouch.
She started to long for the outside world.
But at the same time, she was terrified of it.
She lost her fine hair and venom. She depended too much on the pouch, became too comfortable in it.
She can't possibly imagine how to survive without it. Not that the pouch has been feeding her, she has been surviving with the food she kept when she was a free young caterpillar. But the pouch blinded her, making her forget what life really was before. And most importantly, she knows she is not going to be the same caterpillar she was if she ever goes out of this pouch. You can't turn life back, that is one thing she knows for sure.
What happened after the pouch? No one can answer that.
So she endured in agony, thinking every second whether she should leave the pouch and face the unknown, or stay there suffocated.

After a long self-debate, she felt ready and mature enough to finally leave the pouch. The pouch is not where she wants to spend her whole life, she finally realised that.
It took her an immeasurable effort to leave the pouch, it was so painful and hard, to begin with, it was as if her body was crushed and squashed.
During the process, she almost gave up. But giving up at that stage is a death sentence, so she persevered.

Much to her delight, she came out as a beautiful, unique butterfly with her own wings enabling her to fly anywhere she wanted. S
he can find food of her own.
She doesn't have her fine hair anymore but she still has her venom although not as potent.
But she learned the most important skills, to fly and to evade trouble and predators. She now sees the world from a completely different point of view, "the bigger picture of it" if such a description exists for a butterfly.

She can see her caterpillar juniors, and how some of them getting themselves all ready to pupate while some of them keep mocking the prepared ones.
Now she knows why didn't the Elders tell her about what happened after the pouch, as much as she wants to tell her juniors, she can't do so. They don't talk the same language anymore, they can't understand her.

She now recalled seeing beautiful butterflies flying nearby, without knowing these butterflies are what came out from the pouch. Maybe those butterflies were screaming their lungs out, warning her to take the pouch with a pinch of salt, for the phase after the pouch was invaluable.

Theme of the story: The Life Cycle


-AkMaR-


http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com

Saturday 7th April 2012
11.37 am
Preston, Lancashire
England.