from Trevor’s window - a novel in progress

“What about this one?”

“Which one?”

“This one right here.”

“Oh, that one. I could barely see it. It was hidin'.”

“Well, that’s how nature helps this little one. It can hide so the bird and the wasps cain't hurt it.”

“I have a question for you.”

“Okay. Go ahead. You can ask me.”

“Well, you told me all the ways nature helps protect the caterpillars from the birds and the wasps. But what about shoes? Remember, you said poppa’s boot might accident'ly crush the life out of one of them.”

“That’s a good question, Carter. The answer is the way nature helps these little ones most of all. Come over here and look at this with your eyes.”

I stood beside Carver and we looked at one of the most wondrous things in all of the whole, wide world - the caterpillar wrapped in a chyrsalis waiting to become a butterfly. 

Yes, the chrysalis. 

Did you know the word chrysalis comes from the Greek word 'chrysolos', which means 'gold' in English? 

Most chrysalises have a gold tint in their color, a tint that tells the world something important is happening inside of it, a change is taking place, a metamorphosis is occurring, something completely different will come out from what went in.

“We’re a community,” said my brother, “You and me. 

We wrap ourselves around each other and around the world. Something important is happening inside of us, a change is taking place, a metamorphosis is occurring, and something completely different will come out from what went in.

Because we’re each other’s chrysalises.

Because we have each other.”