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"Get your wing out of my
face!" Bruce said to the butterfly flying next to him. "Would you mind
taking your antenna out of my wing!" he asked another. "It is too crowded
here," he said, flapping his wings and aiming higher in the sky, above the
rest of the rabble of butterflies. "There," he sighed. Bruce looked down
at the group below him. "Finally I can fly without bumping into anyone."
The butterflies were
heading to southern Scotland, to a warmer climate. Autumn was in full
swing up north and the temperature was dropping quickly. "We all look the
same," Bruce said. "I see nothing but pale green bodies and white wings.
What a boring group we are."
Bonnie, another butterfly,
had been watching where Bruce was going and flew towards him. "Bruce, you
should stay with the group. There is safety in numbers and besides; we’re
headed for a storm. Look," Bonnie said, pointing to the puffy clouds up
ahead.
"They are kind of dark,
aren’t they?" He heeded Bonnie’s warning and the two flew back down,
joining the others. When the rain began, the soft drops pelted the
butterflies. Rain ran into their eyes, down their antenna, and gathered on
their wings. It rained for hours. "This is tiring," complained Bruce. "The
water feels heavy on my wings. Is this ever going to end, or is our whole
migration going to be like this; wet!"
"I’m sure it will end
soon," Bonnie smiled.
"Get your leg out of
mouth," Bruce yelled at another butterfly, pushing it away. The next few
hours went much the same. Rain and complain. Rain and complain. Finally
the clouds parted and the rain stopped. "Wow! Look at that rainbow!" he
called.
"It is beautiful," Sun-Li
replied. "Look at the colors. They remind me of summer flowers."
"I wonder what its like to
fly through a rainbow," Bruce said. "I think I’ll find out," he said,
flying up towards the rainbow.
"Bruce, come back here,"
Bonnie.
Bruce ignored her and kept
flying. When he reached the rainbow, he flew through it. "Wow! This is
cool!" He could feel the tiny drops of water that made up the rainbow and
felt the sun’s warmth on his delicate wings. Bonnie watched from below as
the group flew on. Bruce looked down and saw the others far ahead. "Oops.
I’d better go." He flapped his wings and caught up with Bonnie.
 "Bruce! What happened to
you?" she gasped.
"What do you mean? What
happened to me? Is something wrong?" he asked.
"Bruce, you are blue. Look
at your wings and your body," she replied.
He looked at his wings. "I
am blue. I must have picked up some of the color from the rainbow. I
thought the blue was pretty, so I flew in and out of it."
Bonnie thought about what
he’d said. "You mean if I fly up to the rainbow, I’ll not be plain old
white any longer? I can be another color?"
"I guess so. It happened to
me. Why not to you too?" Bruce said.
"Don’t let the others go on
without me. I’ll be right back," she said and flew towards the rainbow.
"You must hurry, Bonnie. A
rainbow only lasts a few minutes. If you don’t fly through it quickly,
you’ll not be colorful," Bruce warned.
She flew into the rainbow.
Her wings flapped up and down as she fluttered in and out of the beautiful
arc. When she flew back to the others, Bruce said, "Look at you! You’re
pink."
 Soon some of the other
butterflies noticed Bruce and Bonnie. "How did you two turn blue and
pink?" Blaire asked.
"We flew through the
rainbow. It must be magical or something because we aren’t white any
longer," Bonnie laughed.
"Come on," Blaire called to
the others. Soon the whole rabble of white butterflies was flying in and
out of the rainbow. "Whee! This is fun," he squealed.
A few minutes later the
rainbow disappeared. Some butterflies were brightly colored. They’d been
the first ones to reach the rainbow. The stragglers came back in pale
shades of green, blue, pink, orange and yellow, but they were still all
beautiful.
"Look at us now!" Bruce
cried out. "We’re all different and we’re all pretty! Some of us are
darker shades than the others."
That night they arrived at
their destination. The tired butterflies landed in a tree, thankful to
rest. It was
 covered with thousands of bright green leaves. Jackie, a
small boy, and his mum walked down the path and spotted the tree.
"Look, Mummy. The tree is covered with hundreds of different colored
flowers!" They walked up to the tree to get a closer look.
"Those aren’t flowers.
Those are butterflies," his mum said. "I’ve never seen anything more
beautiful in my life. We must go and tell the others in the village, so
they can come and see it." Jackie and his mum ran to the village. Soon all
the people were standing around the tree. "What happened to the white
butterflies that usually come here each autumn? Where are they?"
"It doesn’t matter, Mummy.
These ones are much prettier," Jackie said.
Bruce smiled at Bonnie. He
was happy that he was blue, instead of white. Bruce looked at the tree. It
was beautiful. He looked at Bonnie’s wings. They were beautiful. He looked
at his wings. He was beautiful too. And then he closed his eyes and went
to sleep, happy to be somewhere warm! |
