I sit in my room filled with all sorts of bugs in jars with labels of all of their names on them. I look over to my favorite one I've ever collected. On my nightstand sits a green caterpillar with little blue spots, I had named him Carlos. He was wiggling around in the leaves and grass I had put in the jar. I smile and pick him up and watched him nibble on a leaf. He seems kinda lonely, I think.
"Eve!" I hear my mom yell from the kitchen down the hall.
"Yes mom?" I yell back walking to the door to talk.
Mom opens the door with a big smile on her face, "Hey honey guess what day it is?"
"Umm.." I mumble, "Tuesday?"
"Well yes, but even more important it is the feast day of the fairies and today is the one and only day humans can supposedly see them," she joyfully exclaims. "Do you wanna pitch a tent with me and watch for the fairies?"
I stare at her for a while and glance back at my caterpillar, "I don't know mom, I was planning on maybe seeing if I could catch another caterpillar like Carlos."
Her smile fades a bit, "Well you can stay out with me and look around for another Carlos," her smile grows back. "That seems fair right?"
I look up at my mother and say, "I guess. If it'll make you happy then I will go and camp with you. If, you let me stay home from school tomorrow." I smile triumphantly knowing my mom would call me in sick to do this.
"Yes. Yes, I will. Now come help me carry the tent out," She walks out the door and I follow closely behind.
We walk down the hallway lined with pictures of me and my mom. There is one of my dad taken a long time ago in black and white. My dad volunteered to serve his country and he ended up dying in the line of duty. Next to his picture was a triangle box with the flag that covered his casket folded up inside it displayed proudly.
It has been a few years since then and mom says that she will never remarry for dad was the love of her life. My grey tabby cat brushed up against my legs as I went towards the stairs. "Hey kitty," I pick him up and carry him down the stairs with me petting his little head. "How are you today."
He lets out a little meow so I set him down and go to help my mom dig the tent out of the closet. "I just need you to help me out the door I'll carry it from there. And set it up."
I nod and lift up one end up and start to walk backwards back up the stairs. I reach the top and I walk slowly for my mom to get all the way up the stairs. I help her carry it out the door and set it down in the lawn. "You good?" I ask wiping dust from my hands on my pants.
"Yes, thank you hun," She sets to work getting the tent out of the bag. I walk inside leaving her to do her thing and I grab a jar. I walk back outside and into the woods.
The trees are tall and all the leaves are in blossom. The grass is green off of my well worn path. There are little bugs flying around and a ladybug lands on my arm. I smile and continue walking knowing it'll fly away soon. I started off my path and towards a turned over log where I first found Carlos. I smile as I see a few of them resting on the log, "Hey little guys." I bend down to inspect them closer.
The little green bodies were all different shades of green and whereas Carlos has blue dots some of these have red ones. I pick off a few leaves from a nearby tree and put them in the jar. I then walk back to the log and carefully pick up a lighter green one with red dots. I set him in the jar and he curls up into the little caterpillar ball. I smile triumphantly and start to walk back to mom to help her with dinner.
I get back to the yard and see the tent set up neatly. I look in the window and there she is mixing something on the stove. Walking in the house and hear her whistling a little tune. Interrupting her I ask, "Need anyhelp with that?"
She turns around to look at me still mixing and stops her whistling, "Yea, could you come and stir this while I get the burgers going?"
"Yea sure," I walk and start to mix the Mac and cheese she has going and I test a noodle to see if they're cooked. It burns my mouth as I chew it, "A few more minutes," I mumble to myself.
When times up, I add the butter, milk, and cheese. I stir that in and it's ready as mom is taking the burgers off the grill outside. I take out the plates and serve mom's and I mac and cheese. I grab the buns and sit down. Mom walks in with the food and sits down, "Hey thank you for helping me."
"Yea no problem mom," I pick up my burger and put it on a soft bun and bite into it.
When were done eating I clean up and mom sits down for a couple seconds relaxing. As I am washing the pot mom asks, "Do you think we'll see the fairies tonight?"
"Maybe mom, maybe." After I'm done cleaning up I change into my PJ's and put Carlos's friend's jar beside him and I walk outside to mom lying down blanket's in the tent. When I get there I crawl in and lay half out on the grass looking at the stars. Mom brings out a lawn chair and a Dr. pepper and sits down. "Are you going to stay up all night?" I ask.
My mom simply nods to me and I frown at her determination to see the bedtime stories she once told me. I don't say anything else and crawl inside the tent and drift off to sleep.
I awake to sun in my eyes and I look around. Right I'm in a tent, I mentally sigh and get out not seeing my mom anywhere. I yawn and grumble, "Well if she wasn't going to sleep out here with me then she could have woke me up." I sleepily walk to the back door and see suitcases and boxes packed up. "Mom!" I yell, "Where are you!?"
I hear a loud bang from upstairs and mom comes rushing down the stairs with excitement and drowsiness in her eyes, "Good morning honey! I thought it was best to let you sleep because we have a big day ahead."
"What do you mean mom?" I ask taking inventory of all the boxes laying around.
"I saw the fairies last night and they were so sweet and kind and since I believed so much I got to see their fairy kingdom! And when they took me there I met the fairy king," She was smiling widely now, "He looked so much like your father," she looks off in remembrance for a while, "Anyways when we got to talking then he told us we had to move in the morning because there's a fairy war going on and he doesn't want us to get caught in the crossfire. So I've packed up our things and I was trying to get all your bugs down here cause he told me you had to let them go."
"Mom?" I ask absolutely in shock, "I think you've gone mad. I'm not leaving and I love my bugs I'm not leaving them."
"Oh honey," She walks over and forcefully grabs me, "We are leaving and that is that."
I push her away and run up to my room and slam the door. I looked around at my treasures and I looked out the window. I could hear sirens. Then I could see the lights and they pulled up to my house and got out of the cars. There were tons of them. I open my door and mom is there and she grabs me, "I told you we had to leave now look what you have done."
She pulls me into my room and slams my door. I scream.
I can hear them in my house and then I hear them coming up the stairs. Mom pulls me back hugging me tightly and is whispering to herself, "I can't go I can't go, I can't go." The police people break down the door and I'm in shock to what is going on. I was ripped from my mothers arms and another lady came to hold me as they tackled my mother on my bed and handcuffed her leading her out the door.
I push away from the lady holding me and I grab Carlos and run out to the woods. I sit down crying on the log where I had found the colony just last night. A few wiggled around and I clutched the jar close. I open the jar and let carlos fall out on the log. He curls into a ball and I pick up him and a few other and look down at them in my hand. My dark hair falling in my face I knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars wiggled softly in my hand, spelling out "goodbye."
The lady from the room came out to me and put her hand on my shoulder. She lead me to her car and I buckled up. We drove off from my home and from all my friends and I knew I would never see them again.
