Ladybug Discoveries

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She loved to sit among the long strands of grass and wonder at the pretty words said to her in books. She found that those words were what made her understand and understanding was what made her intelligence grow. She was a thoughtful little girl and one day a mystery occurred; a bug the size of a teensy little button landed on her thumb. It was a lady bug with bright red and black spots all over its shell. She stared at it and it stared at her and spoke a word.

Buzzzz.

She didn’t understand this word so she tried saying it to herself.

“Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz.”

She tried it in different pitches, different accents (of the few that she knew), different lengths of time, and accented different syllables. By then the lady bug had flown away. She looked at her thumb where the lady bug had been marching about and found microscopic footprints. She ran around looking for a magnifying glass to grab and used it and a camera to take a picture. The picture couldn’t see what she saw though. It missed the most important details of her discovery.

She thought long and hard about the cute little footprints and came to a decision. She decided to use her intelligence to investigate the mystery of the word by following the tracks and clues.

Shout, shout, shout, said her mother. She looked up from her right hand startled and realised that her mother was forming words.

“- are you doing? Would you please come in Jelly! I need your opinion on some cupcakes for your birthday!”

So she ran through the towering grass of her backyard and found herself in a much neater household as her mother licked her own fingers. She gestured for Jelly to try a cupcake so she did. She asked for a knife and her mother handed her one. She carefully cut the cupcake into four not quite equal quarters and looked at the pink swirls that were captured within the fresh white yellow cake of the cupcake. She delighted in the feel of how fluffy it was inside her mouth. She chewed slowly with a frown on her face making sure her mother recognised that this was a serious matter and not just her wanting to eat a cupcake. Each quarter tasted the same but also quite different. She then gave her verdict.

“Raspberries.”

She nodded her head and her mother smiled.

“Of course darling, but what colour frosting would you like?”

Jelly liked surprising people so she decided that the cupcakes frosting must be...

“Blue.”

She smiled righteously, very sure of her choice and proud to have made such an important decision. She would have liked to help out more but she also liked to be surprised and she knew her mother knew so she told her she would be back later and walked happily out the door and back into the jungle that is their backyard. She grabbed the magnifying glass and the camera again and walked into the adventure awaiting her.

As she slowly tiptoed through the grass, she suddenly felt her foot catch and ended up with her face squished into her magnifying glass which lay stuck between her right cheek and the green of the grass. She stopped moving suddenly and looked excitedly through the glass and quickly clicked the camera. She lifted the magnifying glass slightly with her eye still very close to it showing a magnified curiosity in one of her brown eyes. It was those footprints again! But this time, not on her finger. She was genuinely disappointed in the camera and how it couldn’t see what she saw. Here was evidence and she couldn’t even record it! Frustrated she threw it away (not very far mind you) but then realised her mother might not be happy about that so she quickly picked it up again and tried to clean it as best she could so that any permanent damage couldn’t be easily seen. She put it near the house carefully leaving a trail so she could find the footprints for a second time. She grabbed a pencil and notepad and decided she could draw it even though she knew it wasn’t proper evidence but it was still something more accurate than the stupid camera.

She looked for the magnifying glass and to her horror found it missing. The footsteps were still there though, this time, much bigger. They looked very peculiar. It hardly represented human footprints at all. But then again she guessed it couldn’t represent a human footprint as it was actually a ladybug’s footprint. She started sketching a line which turned into grass and then started on the footprint (or should she say ladybug-print?).

Thoughts that hadn’t occurred to her were: why had the footprints gotten bigger? And why was the grass much bigger than her?

As she sketched she heard a slow dragging sound that sounded like the friction of something heavy being dragged across paper. She didn’t want to get too freaked out so she ignored it until she was satisfied with her finished sketch. By then the noise had gotten fainter and she had to listen really hard if she wanted to find out what was happening. So she stood very still and located it as coming from the direction in front of her. She skipped half a step as she almost collided with a leg. Well it didn’t look like a leg but she turned her head upwards and found herself eye to eye with a pray mantis.

“How did you get taller than me?”

It looked at her and didn’t seem very interested so Jelly decided to walk on careful not to run into anything else.

The noise got closer and closer as she skipped merrily toward it. She was excited. She had never encountered such a crazy happening. She noticed that the footprints seemed to be headed in the same direction as the sound and she jumped up excitedly. The wind had picked up as if it urged her onwards. She rounded one more piece of grass and found to her astonishment, her magnifying glass.

It was just where she had left it. In fact she had ended up back where she had started. She stomped her foot in annoyance and frustration and then realised her mistake too late. A ladybug had been underfoot and squished to death. She gasped in horror. Tears fell down her cheeks. The footprints she saw before led to where the ladybug lay squashed. She knelt down beside the still red and black spotted 2D bug. It choked out one last word just gasping for life. One last word.

Its last meaningful thought before it succumbed gratefully to the unknown.

Buzz?

It didn’t sound like a statement but rather a question. It was a question that Jelly was quite well acquainted with already and had asked her mother many times before (to the annoyance of her mother).

“Good question Mr Ladybug. Good question.”

She said sadly as she tried to stop more tears falling. It was her birthday. But she had no right to do wrong just because it was her birthday. Just because it was the day she came to life did not mean she could end a life. Balance didn’t work that way. It shouldn’t! She felt like a murderer. It was terrible. Why did she have to get annoyed! Why oh why oh WHY?!?!

Her mother came out wondering what was going on and found Jelly curled in a ball with her eyes shut tight. She put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and asked what was wrong.

“I-I ...I ...got a-angry and st-st-st-stomped and murdered a p-p-poor innocent life.”

Her mother looked around and couldn’t find anything wrong. Then she saw it; the small red and black squashed bug. She silently laughed to herself and hugged Jelly tight.

“Shhh Jelly. Don’t cry. It’s alright. Sometimes things happen that we can’t help and we shouldn’t dwell on it or else we’ll end up making our future our past. Ok? Jelly?”

“Ok.”

Jelly looked up and had stopped crying. What was wrong with this place? She thought. If dying leads to a better place why would you stay here? She let herself be lead into the house making sure she didn’t forget her notebook, pencil, and magnifying glass.

“Now why don’t you get ready for your birthday party? That pretty dress is waiting for a beautiful princess to wear it. So you should tell her to get lost and wear it yourself.”

“Mum!!!”

“Just joking darling. You are the beautiful princess of course. Now be happy and enjoy your birthday!”

Jelly, still not completely cheered, tried to be encouraged by her mother’s words but couldn’t find it within her. She automatically put on her new dress without emotion and decided to look through her notebook at the footprints she had. She looked through each drawing trying to understand what the word buzz meant thinking it might unlock some hidden message that could distract her from her now murderer status. On the last page she found a page full of proper footprints all lined up in a way that looked like words.

Buzz Buzz, Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz. Buzz.

She said it over and over again and thought, because it was usually what happened, that it would make less and less sense as she repeated it. But the opposite happened. Her mouth opened in an o shape and then transformed into a small smiled.

It was an accident!