Butterfly

Lodan sits, as he does every day he is free, on the meadow at the edge of the forest, his back resting against the trunk of a tree, and delights in all the life around him. Beautiful meadow flowers attract all manner of creatures, winged and unwinged, who come to feast on their nectar. Most beautiful of all, though, are the many butterflies dancing from flower to flower in the sunshine. Lodan can never tire of watching them.

What is that?

A young man is coming across the meadow with a butterfly net, and he begins hunting the colourful beauties! Before long, he has caught a particularly beautiful butterfly in his net. The poor little creature flutters desperately, unable to find a way out.

Lodan cannot bear to watch any longer.

He rushes at the fellow, snatches the net from him and empties it at once, before the young man can even begin to protest. But now the fellow is furious.

“Hey! What gives you the right to attack me like that and take my butterfly away? And that one would have been a particularly fine specimen for my collection!”

“Collecting animals and hanging their dead bodies on the wall is sick!” Lodan snaps, turning his back on him with contempt. The butterfly hunter is boiling with rage. He leaves the meadow to try his luck somewhere else.

The butterfly he has freed really is extraordinarily beautiful, Lodan has to admit. Delicate as a fairy, everything about the little creature is enchanting.

The little beauty does not fly away. Instead, she circles Lodan several times, then hovers for a moment right in front of his face – and simply dissolves into nothing.

Hoppla!

“I must have imagined that,” Lodan mutters to himself, and sets off for home.

The next day is wonderfully sunny too, just as a holiday ought to be, and naturally Lodan returns to his meadow of flowers. And there she is again, the beauty in the form of a butterfly.

She dances for a while with her companions, then settles on Lodan’s hand, the one holding his book, and rests there.

“It is good to see you again, you lovely thing,” Lodan whispers. “Do you want to tell me something, little fairy?”

The butterfly beats her wings and looks straight into the eyes of her rescuer. And somehow, all at once, Lodan feels happier than he has ever felt before. They sit there together for almost the whole afternoon, and never in his life has the sun seemed so golden to him. When it begins to sink towards the horizon, the little fairy circles Lodan’s face once more, just as she did the day before. She looks into his eyes for a brief moment – and dissolves again, as though she had never been there at all.

Lodan sighs and carries the feeling of deep happiness home with him.

For the next few days, Lodan spends his time on the meadow in the company of “his” butterfly. They keep each other company, and Lodan finds himself telling his little fairy, as he now calls her, all sorts of things – what he has been reading, what annoys him, what makes him happy, whom he likes and whom he does not. It feels perfectly natural, and he always has the feeling that she understands him.

Yes, he can feel that he has found a friend, that this being belongs with him in a way that fills him with happiness.

And then the holidays come to an end. Autumn arrives, and rainy days become more frequent than sunny ones. For the first time, Lodan is truly sad about it, as though he had suffered a terrible loss.

One morning he opens his eyes and feels utterly lost and alone. Then his gaze falls upon the windowsill.

A gentle glow comes from it, and sitting within that glow is – the butterfly. The boy lies in bed, scarcely daring to move, overwhelmed by surprise and boundless joy. But unfortunately, his mother is calling him to breakfast, and Lodan has to get ready.

His gentle little friend bids him farewell in her usual way and dissolves once more.

But Lodan is comforted. His friend has found him.

And so it goes on for many years.

Lodan grows up and becomes a young man. His “little fairy” continues to visit him – not every day, but especially whenever he needs someone. Then she is always there, faithfully, offering him wordless counsel and unconditional affection.

One day, Lodan is no longer alone. A girl sits beside him, talking and laughing with him, and before long it becomes clear: she is staying. Lodan is happy, but something is missing.

His “little fairy” is not there!

He cannot share this happiness with her!

“What is the matter with you today?” Aimea, his friend, asks him. “Why are you looking so miserable?”

“Oh, it is nothing…” he replies. “I think I just slept badly.”

Aimea does not quite believe him, but she lets it go.

Then his wedding day arrives. The couple stands before the altar, and the priest performs the marriage ceremony. And at the very moment Lodan says his vows, he feels something settle upon his shoulder and fill him with warmth.

He practically cries out his “Yes!”, and from that moment on, the day becomes a true celebration for him. His joy spreads to everyone present, and for all of them it becomes the happiest wedding they have ever known.

The young family grows. Children arrive, and every joyful occasion becomes even more joyful through the unseen presence of a beautiful butterfly. But life is not made of joy alone, and one day the family must mourn the passing of Lodan’s mother.

Lodan, Aimea and their two children stand beside the coffin, and then it happens:

the most beautiful and delicate butterfly they have ever seen is sitting upon the folded hands of the departed woman, giving off a gentle glow. They are all filled with tender comfort.

“Thank you so much, my dear little fairy!” Lodan thinks, and it seems to him that a smile comes back to him.

The happy, loving couple grows older.

Their children become adults and start families of their own, and Lodan and Aimea become grandparents. Lodan remains endlessly happy – with his wife, his family, his life, and above all because, at every important moment, his shoulder is invisibly occupied by a being to whom his heart has belonged since childhood: his “little fairy”, as he calls her so lovingly.

She never lets him down.

But no life lasts forever, and one day Lodan closes his eyes for the last time. His Aimea sits beside his deathbed, devastated. She cannot even cry. Then, suddenly, a beautiful butterfly settles upon the hands of the dead man, and a delicate glow shines from her.

For a moment, Aimea stops breathing. An incredible warmth embraces her and reaches into every fibre of her heart. And then, at last, her tears can flow, and she weeps all her pain from her soul.

The butterfly circles around her, pauses for a moment before her face, and dissolves into the air.

What remains is a warmth that Aimea will feel for the rest of her life.