The Boy and The CaterpillarOnce, a long time ago, when men built with their hands and women cooked with fire, there lived a boy in a small village far away from here. He was a happy boy, his heart was pure and his mind was innocent. All he truly longed for was someone to love.
As he grew older, he changed from a comely child to a handsome man. He had spoken to many girls, and many more had shown interest in him. However, deep inside their hearts he saw a coldness. The kind of mild coldness that would make a girl smash a bug because she found it ugly, or hate another girl simply because she was prettier than her. He felt no contempt for them…but he knew in his heart that he could never be with someone who was capable of vanity, envy, or hatred. For this reason, he began to become hopeless for ever finding a girl he would love.
Then, one day, as he wandered through the forest, he heard a beautiful voice calling to him, "Hello there, boy. What is your name?"
The Beauty of the voice immediately piqued his interest, and he began to search for its owner, but he could not find her anywhere.
The voice laughed and said, "What you look for is too large. I am smaller than any girl you would normally see. I am on the tree to the left of you."
He turned toward the left and slowly walked toward the tree, but found no girl…normal sized or smaller. All he saw, sitting on the branch of the tree, was a small caterpillar.
He was just about to continue looking when he heard the voice again, and this time there was no mistaking: the caterpillar was speaking to him, "Yes, I am the voice you heard. Though I am small, and though I may not seem beautiful, I was once a more beautiful girl than any you have seen before. However, a witch, envious of my beauty, turned me into a caterpillar so that she may never be forced to look at me as I was again."
He swallowed before he spoke, for he felt somewhat awkward speaking to a caterpillar, "That story is a tragedy milady, but what can I do to help you? I am a mere village boy."
The caterpillar sighed, "I have given up the curse being broken…all I desire now is a friend. For, since I have been transformed, all the friends I have had have abandoned me."
The boy was happy to grant her request, and held out of arm for her. She climbed it and rested on his shoulder.
Time passed, and he spoke to many other girls. But he found that he grew less and less interested in them. Instead, he began to speak more and more to the caterpillar that rested on his shoulder. He found that, unlike the girls that he knew he could never be with, the soul inside of this caterpillar was pure and beautiful. They spoke every day, and their friendship grew. Eventually, he began to realize that he was falling in love with her. For a time, he hid his feelings, until one day he could take it no longer:
"Caterpillar," he said, "I think I'm falling in love with you."
Her response was immediate, "Boy, I have loved you since I first met you, since I first saw how pure your heart was. But I thought that you would never love a creature as low as me, a mere caterpillar."
He smiled and said, "I care not whether you are woman, or caterpillar, whether you are beautiful or plain, whether you are intelligent or dumb. I see only the beauty in your heart, and that is all I desire."
And for the first time, they both wished she were a woman. They wished it so that he could embrace her, so that he could hold her and kiss her face. But she was merely a caterpillar, and all she could give him was a simple, loving sigh.
After that, they were happy. They often wished for things, a kiss, a hug, a physical expression of their love. They were happy, but they longed to hold each other. And as the days passed, as their love only grew deeper. It changed from a want into a need. And it frustrated them every day. Yet still, the boy would not leave the caterpillar, for he loved her soul.
Eventually, the caterpillar told him, "Boy, as a caterpillar, I have reached a point in my life where I must build a cocoon for myself, and transform."
The boy asked quietly, "Will you transform into a butterfly?"
The caterpillar answered uncertainly, "I am not sure. Normal caterpillars change into butterflies, but I am anything but normal. I may change into something else."
The boy thought, then hopefully asked, "Will you become a human?"
"I hope so," the caterpillar said, "So that you may hold me, and never let go."
So, the caterpillar left the boy's shoulder and built a cocoon for itself in the forest, encasing itself within it. And every day, the boy would journey into the woods and wait by the cocoon, hoping to be there when his love returned. Months passed, and the cocoon grew larger, and larger. And as it grew larger the seed of hope in the boy's heart also began to grow. Soon, it was the size of a man. And at that point, he became almost certain that what emerged would be a girl with the soul he had come to love inside of her. A girl he could hold and kiss and love forever.
And one day, after months and months of waiting, the cocoon finally broke open. What the boy saw was more than he had ever hoped for.
He saw neither butterfly, nor woman, but an angel standing before him. Light emanated off of her. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. And he knew, just from looking in her eyes, that she was the same caterpillar that he had loved.
But when he tried to embrace her, she stopped him.
"Why do you hold me back?" he asked, "I merely wish to hold you, like we talked about, like we dreamed of."
She shook her head, "I am sorry, boy, but I am no longer a caterpillar. I am now an angel. And as an angel, I can be with you no longer. For you, as a human, are simply too far beneath me."
Shocked, he argued, "But…that's not fair. That's not right. I loved you when you were a mere caterpillar. I loved you when you were nothing more than a fleshy bug on my shoulder!"
She smiled gently as she stroked his cheek, "And I wish I could do the same. I wish I could love you even though you are nothing but a caterpillar to me, but alas, I cannot."
And he watched as she flew away, on her beautiful golden wings. And stood there, watching, even when she left his sight, his arm reached out as if trying to touch her. He stood there for days, watching, wishing, incapable of anger, incapable of anything but love for her. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. And weeds grew around him, dirt gathered on him, and shrubs grew off of him. Soon, he became fossilized in the soil. A statue created by nature.
They say that it is possible, if you wander in the forest long enough, to see him now. And that if you do see him, he will speak to you. But it is not you he will be speaking to, it is the angel that has long since left him. And what he will say will not be in our words, but in the old language, more loving and sad than ours would have ever allowed. And understanding what he says is impossible, but in his voice you can hear his longing, his sorrow, and his endless, eternal love.
