Thought of finally taking a break to roll up my sleeves, blow the dust off the writing desk and sit and gather the fluttering paper rainbow butterflies and stick them to the book.
They’re around, just a catch away. The touch of the rainbow butterflies, oh boy ! they almost take my breath away. I kiss each one of them and stick them to the book. They’re mine and they’re beautiful. How I miss them !
The other day A shouted from her boat.
“Look, Look !”
I watched.
It was a bright one.
Bright ones are usually flapping around the boat, within my hand’s reach at anytime.
But this one was almost in the water.
Ah! May be the wind carried it down.
It twisted and turned. Turned and twisted.
It stood there for a moment, mustering all its strength to defy gravity, hoping that the eastern wind would carry it to me.
But it met its end, the frail paper and its seven colors.
It touched water. Did it shiver?
It floated for a brief second and faded.. into the blueness of the sea.
Before it vanished, did it grow eyes to look at me ?
I looked around for others. I saw them falling too. Like leaves in an autumn tree.
Soon it was dusk and I could see nothing.
They take birth everyday, the rainbow butterflies. When the dawn breaks I see them fluttering around my boathouse so energetically. They are of a million colors. Strange hues that I don’t even know the names of.
May be A might know. She knows so many things, so many strange esoteric secrets. When is she coming on to this boat ? I’ve made so much of space for her. Right out of nowhere I tell you. It is just magic.
Sometimes I wonder if they are new ones or the old ones reborn. I wish I could hold on to each one of them before they’re lost. At least then, I’d know whether they are new.
But they make everyday colorful.
A beautiful colorful day – may be that’s all that matters.
A loves them, these rainbow butterflies. I’ve stuck some of the beautiful ones to our Sycamore Tree. She’s stuck hers too. No wonder the tree is more colorful than green. And what more, it looks different from every angle. And it makes our island look different.
I wish I hadn’t lost them. My dear rainbow butterflies.
Now I know, it was my preoccupation with the fishes that cost me my rainbow butterflies. I made bigger nets and cast them wider to catch bigger fishes. Now I begin to wonder, are the fishes taking revenge? Are they eating the rainbow butterflies that I gave up to the sea ? Are they conspiring with the sea and the winds to gobble up my rainbow butterflies?
What do I do ?
Do I fight the fishes ?
Or safeguard my rainbow butterflies ?
Do I make bigger and bigger and bigger nets and capture all the fishes so that they might let my rainbow butterflies be ?
Or stop catching the fishes and tend to my rainbow butterflies ?
What if, after I travel across the sea and capture all the fishes, there are no rainbow butterflies left ?
What if, after I gather all my rainbow butterflies and make my boat colorful, I lose my strength to fish ?
Header Image - “Orange Sulphur in Miss Huff” by Vicki DeLoach via Flickr.