BUTTERLY HOUSE!
Beautiful Butterflies From All Over the World!
Exotic, Newly Discovered Species!
“Mommy, can we go in here?” Penni had been dragging her mother around the carnival for nearly two hours. Relieved at the thought of a short break, her mother agreed.
“Enjoy, ladies!” the elderly man taking their tickets smiled.
Penni burst through the tent flap enthusiastically, running ahead of her weary mother. “Honey, wait–don’t touch any of those bugs–”, but Penni was already giggling delightedly as a small flock of colorful butterflies fluttered daintily around her.
"“Mom, they’re just butterflies, sheesh! Butterflies never hurt anybody,” at nine, Penni was all fearless curiousity, and she held her hands out to the lovely, bright green greatures that were beginning to swarm towards her. They flew in pretty, circular patterns over her head for a few seconds, then began to land on her hands and arms. She noticed that the other butterflies seemed to flit away, as more of the green ones came toward her. “Hey, don’t chase the others away!” she said, laughing…
Her laughter was choked off abruptly, as she felt a hot sting! on her shoulder. “Hey! Ouch! Mom! I think a bee must’ve-- OUCH! Hey, get offa me–OUUUUCH! MOM!” Hot little stings suddenly were injected into her, all over. “Honey, are you all ri–”, her mother’s concern was cut off as she, too, was suddenly covered by thousands of jewel-bright, fluttering wings. “PENNI!! RUUUUN!”
Penni was helpless to answer. Her throat was swelling up, and when she tried to open her mouth, the nasty creatures started crawling in, stinging all the while. Penni’s arms and legs began to feel heavy, she was dizzy, and she could see nothing but the flicker and flutter of green wings. As she and her mother collapsed to the ground, the butterflies began to stop stinging, and start inserting their proboscises into the rapidly softening flesh of mother and daughter. Several minutes of slurping later, the only thing that remained was their blood-stained summer sundresses.
An hour or so later, the tent flap opened again. The elderly man looked in, nodded, walked calmly over to pick up the rumpled, ruined clothing. The lovely green butterflies hovered amiably around his head, and he whistled cheerfully as he stuffed the dresses into a plastic bag. “All right, you lot, you’ve eaten for the week, now tomorrow, remember, back to fluttering nicely, all right?”
Almost as if they understood every word, the dainty creatures lit sweetly on his arms, then flew gently away, circling in pretty patterns as they went.