A Broken Wing

4. Chrysalis

“It’s said that an average butterfly will live for just two weeks.”

The walls were lined with glass cases, squared by thick dark wooden frames, the deep brown offering a distinct contrast to the butterflies mounted proudly inside. A myriad of colours. The insects petrified, their wings spread as if in flight, each wall appeared as a curtain of colour. Blues, yellows, greens and reds, purples, gold, lime and orange; the place was alive with colour. Alive with death.

“It’s beautiful.” Honey said as she looked around, taking in every detail.

The shop was three floors made accessible by a spiralling glass staircase, the centre pole was part of a redwood tree and its bright bark twisted and turned up into the ceiling. The ground floor was a varnished panelled wood, a light yellow that had darkened with age and use. Bare brick showed through in places where the cases had not yet reached and the air was thick with the smell of coffee.

“So sad.” sighed Pandora, “Something so beautiful only graced the world for fourteen days.”

They took their drinks upstairs and sat overlooking the street, the glass wall letting the afternoon sun fall onto the wings of the butterflies encased in their eternal cocoons. Honey and Pandora sat in two red fabric chairs, their curved back felt like a hand cupping their bodies, someone holding them above everything as if they could fly. They placed their cups on the small glass table that lay between them and gazed out the window at the city life. Splitting the window and the couple was a brick column that rose up from the ground floor. Mounted inches above their heads was a single square case.

Papilio Ulysses

The two words were printed elegantly on a single small rectangle below the butterfly. Its swallow-tailed wings arching out around the card. The central parts of its wings were an iridescent electric blue framed by black that seemed as if they had been submerged in ink.

“So,” Pandora began, taking a sip from her coffee, “what’s new?”

Honey shifted in her seat looking down at the coffee in her hands. “We got a letter from the army.”

Pandora put a hand to her mouth.

Honey sniffed, “James left last night.”

“Oh my God. Baby I’m so sorry.” Pandora leant forward and placed a hand reassuringly on Honey’s leg. “If there is anything I can do to help. You could crash at my place if you want.”

Honey smiled, “No Pan it’s fine. I guess I’m just a bit shocked, that’s all, I mean I thought after I told him.”

“No you didn’t.”

Honey nodded.

“You only told him last night.”

She nodded again.

“How did he react?”

“He said that it was wonderful.” Honey paused and looked down. Then she looked up into Pandora’s face, tears rising in her own eyes.  “I’ve never seen him so happy and sad at the same time.”

“He didn’t want to leave. You know that, right?”

Honey’s mouth twisted a little, “But he did,” she bit her lip “he left both of us.”

“Only because he had to. Someone has to go. He’s going to protect you, to protect both of you.”

Honey looked out of the window. “I know.” She whispered. “I know.” She took another sip of the coffee, its deep flavour and heat reaching down into her, trying to warm her from inside like a hand extended in greeting. “It just seems though that every door is slowly closing on me and I’m running out of options. I mean my job’s going nowhere, we haven’t had a decent story in months, the rent is getting harder to pay and with a baby coming and James away.” She stopped. “I just feel trapped.”

“Honey, listen to me. When one door shuts another opens.”

“But what if there’s only one door?”

“Well then you find a window and you open that, get some fresh air in and climb out.”

“What if there are no windows?”

Pandora smiled, “Well. Then you go back to that first door, the one that’s just shut. You take one hell of a run up and you knock that fucker down. Ok?”

Honey laughed. “Ok Pan.”

Her eyes found themselves looking out the window. They knew somewhere beyond that horizon, in some desolate country was James. One day he would come home. One day, but not today.