Rustling

Rustling through the crisp leaves, Lisa kicked herself a path as she walked to school. It was a brisk Tuesday morning in October. Crunch, Crunch went the dead leaves as Lisa kicked and stomped. She had a smile on her face, after all not much brings instant joy faster than crunching a crunchy leaf underfoot. Stomp-stomp, crunch-crunch, she went.

It was lucky about the leaves, Lisa had woken up in quite the rotten mood. She had missed her bus by 10 minutes, both of her parents hurriedly rushed out the door as she ate, saying how they were so busy at work and couldn't afford to be late themselves. On top of that she had completely forgotten about the project she had due today. Crunch-crunch, stomp-stomp, Lisa again smiled mischievously; at at least she could control something.

And so Lisa trod on, crunching all the way as the sun slowly made its ascent into the sky. There was a bit of movement, very small movement in fact, to Lisa's right. She stopped and turned - there on a nearby young tree was a caterpillar's cocoon. It was shaking back and forth, the butterfly inside was trying to emerge. Lisa's mouth gaped in awe: this wasn't something you saw every day. She stood in conflict for a moment, if she stayed to watch she would end up being even more tardy to school. On the other hand, she was already late so what difference would it make?

Opening her knapsack, she removed a blue notebook and a pen. With a little quick thinking, note-taking and sketching she might be able to pull off a quick science project after all. It took several minutes of waiting as the cocoon rocked gently, then a bit more violently, finally a crack emerging. Lisa took note of everything, especially when the wings emerged: they were a beautiful mosaic of blues, purples, and greens, well with maybe just a hint of pink at the tips. The butterfly flapped its wings once to test them. Then took off with a flutter, ambling across the sky.

Lisa smiled, maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all, and on she went: crunch-crunch, stomp-stomp, crunch-crunch.