The Worm and the Caterpillar
The worm and the caterpillar were the best of friends. Every day they would sit together and talk about the good and bad things in life. While the caterpillar had nothing but good things to say about his own life, such as feasting on succulent leaves and basking in the sun, the worm only had not so good things to say about his existence. He lived in the ground and was nourished only by the mud and silt that he burrowed through constantly. Filth and burrowing. This was destiny. However, he did have one great joy, and that was the daily meetings with his beautiful friend, the caterpillar, despite his envy of the caterpillar’s luxurious lifestyle.
This joy soon came to an end when he showed up one day to meet his pal. The caterpillar never came. The worm waited for days and then weeks, but still no caterpillar. Finally, when the worm had just about given up, a breath-taking butterfly perched itself on a blade of grass and asked the worm about his sorrow.
“My best friend is gone, and I am now alone.” Wept the worm.
“Do not cry, my dear worm, for I am here.” Said the butterfly. “And we will be friends forever.”
At first the worm thought this was some kind of trick, but eventually began to recognize his old friend’s mannerisms in this new friend. For weeks, the worm felt happier than he thought possible, but over time his envy began to grow again, but stronger than ever. All the worm ever wanted was to be as beautiful as the butterfly. The meetings continued, but the feelings between the two disappeared.
One day, when the worm could no longer take it, he exploded at the butterfly and declared that they could no longer be friends. But as this happened, a child came from nowhere thrashing the surrounding environment. As the butterfly tried to flee, the child snatched him from the air and tore his beautiful wings from his body and threw him to the ground where he shivered and died.
Witnessing this, the worm tried to escape the madness of the child, but was not nearly as quick as the butterfly and knew that he was also doomed. The child, laughing hellishly, pinched both ends of the worm and tore it apart. And then, as if everything was normal, the child skipped off happily to wreak havoc on the rest of the world.
The worm lay there for days, stewing in the guilt that he felt from his final words to the butterfly, and viewing the tragic end of his friend whom he envied so much that their relationship became irreconcilable. But after time, the two halves of the worm regenerated and lived the rest of their lives together.
Aaron Hartsfield