Pink butterfly

Once upon a time there was SunWall, a kingdom where the sun barely rose. Lucia, five years old, was told by her mother to go gather grass. The grass was pale because there was no light, and it carried no taste, but it was the only thing left. They survived on grass soup, and because of it Lucia was gaunt, and her mother barely had the energy to make it through the day.

“Did you find any?” her mother asked slowly.

Her mother looked at the handful of grass Lucia held out, and said, “Lucia, you are such a good girl.”

Her mother lowered herself to the floor because standing was too hard, and she took the grass and dropped it into the pot.

“Mom, why do we eat soup again?”

“This is what we have.”

“Can we have something else tomorrow?”

Her mother did not answer. She stirred the water, and after a long pause she said, “We will have soup again.”

“Mom, where is Ana?”

Her mother’s hands stilled above the pot.

“Your sister is a butterfly now.”

“What is a butterfly?”

“They are small creatures with wings, the most graceful in the world. Your sister is one of them now.”

Lucia did not remember her well, but she knew she once had a sister, and that her mother had told her to look after and play with her, because otherwise her father would grow angry. One day she was gone, and Lucia never saw her again. Her father had also vanished, taken to work for the Lord in the fields, until the day he would be chosen as a Sunkeeper, and when that day came they would finally have food. When Lucia asked her mother when her father would be chosen, her mother became angry and turned her face away, and Lucia did not ask again.

That night her mother gathered her onto her lap.

“Lucia. I have to tell you something.”

Her mother fell silent for a moment, and then she began.

“When I was a little child like you, my mother told me how the sky in SunWall used to look. It would soften into gold, and then bloom into pink, and then darken into purple, and only then would the sun go down for the night.”

“Pink?”

“Those are colors, and there are many more. When we see the sun, the sky could be blue. I never saw it either.”

Lucia was silent for a long while. Then she said, “I like pink.”

Her mother had a faded smile, and then started to cry, very quietly, so that Lucia would not hear. After that, she kissed the top of her head and held her very tight. When she spoke again her voice had altered, as if it were already going somewhere else. Lucia could feel the change.

“Lucia, listen carefully to me. Tomorrow I have to leave, but do not be afraid. I will be a pink butterfly, and I will wait for you, and one day you will be one too, and we will find each other.”

“Mom, please do not leave me.”

“There is a world where pink butterflies fill the air, and life is good. Whatever happens tomorrow, you must keep making soup until your father comes home.”

The reason that SunWall had become what it was is because it was ruled by a Lord with a heart of stone, who controlled the sun. He kept it locked inside his palace, gathered behind his walls. The light and time there never moved, and everyone in his court looked young, because nothing under that stolen sun could age. Outside the palace, in the villages, the people withered too quickly.

The Lord took the strongest from each family and forced them to work the fields, in special places where some light was permitted, only enough to grow the food. They were forbidden to bring anything home, and the leftovers from his palace were thrown to the animals.

To send food to your family, you had to steal it, and those who were caught were killed before the others, so they would know. But they also knew their families would die without food, and so they risked their lives anyway. That was how Lucia’s father died too.

There were public gatherings where the Lord came outside and announced new Sunkeeper positions, and anyone who worked in the fields could become a Sunkeeper. People wanted to have this position because they were given a small share of his light, a few hours a day inside his walls, and they aged less. They were also given a small share of the food, enough to bring some home. No one knew the rules of who could become a Sunkeeper, because the Lord altered them whenever it pleased him.

SunWall was a wealthy kingdom. If the Lord had returned the light and shared what he kept, the people would have had food for seven generations to come, and the Lord would still have had more than he could ever use.

Morning came. Lucia woke into a silence that had not been there before. She remembered what her mother had told her, not to be afraid, because she was a butterfly now. Lucia was afraid, but she wanted to be brave. She started to cry, then wiped her eyes fast. She told herself she had to make soup and wait for her father to come home. As she fell asleep that night, she whispered, “I want to be a pink butterfly.” Little did she know that her father and her mother would never come home.

Then came the big day, when the Lord announced the new Sunkeeper positions. Everyone gathered before the gates of his palace, the threshold where his light ended and gray began. Some of them stood on their last breath, but if they were chosen, they would have a few more days of life and a little food to bring home. The Lord stepped onto the platform and prepared to read his rules.

Before he could speak, the wind came.

A strong wind came from nowhere and shook the walls and swept across the entire kingdom, and a great light tore through it. People shielded their eyes, and some of them fell to their knees

The Lord did not fall. He felt himself become smaller. His bones shrink and his skin becomes thin and dry as paper. He felt his arms split open along their length and curl outward into shapes. He tried to scream and a small sound came out, and to stand, but could not find his legs.

When the people opened their eyes, the Lord was gone. The crowd looked at the platform and could not understand what they were seeing.

The rules the Lord had been prepared to read had transformed, and the writing on the page was no longer his. It was inscribed in letters that looked as though they had been pressed into the paper by the light itself.

To the Lord, the man who kept the sun. You are a pink butterfly now, the most gracious creature there is. The only way to return is to make a child smile. The wish wants the best for you, and wishes work in your favor.

Lifetime of a butterfly. One day.

The Lord flew through the village from house to house, but found only old men, and the sick lying still upon their mats. He did not see a single child. The day was burning down, and the Lord began to panic, landing on shoulders and pulling at sleeves and beating his wings against windows, but the people only flinched at him, brushed him aside, and kept walking as though he were not there at all.

And then he came to a small house at the edge of the village, and he stopped.

There was a child inside, a small girl, no more than five years old, lying on a thin mat. Her hand was open. Beside her was an empty pot, the last of some grass soup. There was no one else in the house.

He looked at her, and slowly he understood. She had been the last child in all his kingdom.

Then the same wind that had taken him drew near him again, and showed him what had happened. It revealed how the child had died alone, in this house, on the night before he had been turned into a pink butterfly. She had wished to become a pink butterfly so she could find her mother, but instead he had become one.

He understood there was no way for him to return, and that he did not deserve to. He lay down on the mat beside the child and waited for the day to end.

As the day ended, the walls of his palace gave way, and the sun he had kept for so long broke loose at last. Through the cracks in the small house, the Lord saw the light come back to the kingdom he had ruined.

The people of SunWall never understood what had happened. But the sun returned to them, and the kingdom lived on, year upon year, generation upon generation. Pink butterflies filled the air and life was full and good, just as Lucia had wanted.