Real Life Zombie

Chapter Two: The Butterfly

What the hell. I've never seen something so weird before, it was kind of unnatural in a sense. Entirely out of place, it was so strange.

"Mom..." I called from outside the house. I was in the driveway and my mom had the kitchen window open. She was cooking pasta. "Mom!" I called louder this time. "M-O-M!" I sounded out every syllable so she knew I was trying to get her attention. "MO--"

"What Reese! What?!" She snapped.

"I love you," I said calmly.

"Jesus Christ, your a headache." She shut the window -which I was about four feet from- and walked out the front door. "What is it?" She demanded.

"Look" and I pointed at the ground.

"Oh," was all she said.

On the pavement was a completely white winged butterfly.

"It's so pretty," my mom said moving her hand closer to it. Just before her finger could feel it, the butterfly flew up above our heads and started circling around going no-where fast. "Hold on. I'll be right back," she went back inside and about twenty seconds later -the butterfly was still circling nothing- my mom reappeared with a big glass jar with holes poked into the lid. She delicately moved the jar toward the albino insect and closed the lid when it flew into the jar.

"Can we sell it?" I asked.

"God no," she said sternly. "This beautiful thing is lost, obviously. Probably couldn't find another flock of butterflies or something."

"Uh huh."

My mom rolled her eyes at me and walked inside, I followed her in. She placed the jar on the kitchen counter got a bottle cap and filled it with sugar and water and placed it inside the jar for the butterfly. "We'll keep it for a day, for good luck, then release it when we can." She gave me the jar and said, "Here put it in your room so your dad won't see it."

I nodded, "Okay sure." I held it at eye level careful not to spill the water inside and examined the butterfly, it was kinda more pale-ish then before. "Cool. Hey mom, quick question. Can I go to the library with Spike on Saturday?"

"Sure sweetie, want me to drop you off?"

"Nah I'm gonna hang with Spike all day so I'm probably gonna spend the night at his place." I fidgeted a bit.

"Hmmmm," she pondered. "It's not like you needed to ask to go the library if you were going to already hang with Spike all day, oh and also spend the night," she said slowly.

"Damn she's smart," I thought. I smiled innocently. She gave me her 'I Know Everything Look' and then smiled sweetly like she was the most loving Mom to ever grace the earth. So busted of course. But...

"You know what?" she said, "I think the grass has grown too tall over the past week. What do you think Reese?"

I groaned internally. Logically this was a pretty fair trade off: I mow the lawn, and I get to go to the party.

Doesn't mean I want to mow the lawn though.