Ani-mentals & Enviro-mentals helping the planet by their good attitudes
Orphaned at birth, Becan spent the first few years in an orphanage before attending a boarding school. And all through his days at Chapel in the Dirt Religious School (founded by Mater/Pater Praying Mantis) Becan was the brunt of the other student’s jokes. It wasn’t that the centipedes, the aphids and the earthworms were mean, it was more that Becan seemed to ask for it. You see, Becan was an earthbound bug who was determined to fly. All day long the other students would see him climb up rocks, and as he’d jump off he’d flap his arms with great gusto. Of course he was only airborne from the time his feet left the rock until his feet (or his face) touched the ground - which was only about a second. But he was a stubborn little fellow and never gave up trying.
Maybe the other students wouldn’t have noticed his antics if he hadn’t yelled, “Whee!” each time he jumped (but even that little bit of airtime gave him such a thrill he just couldn’t help himself).
Then one day a new student arrived from a neighboring village. Her name was Lavena and she had a beautiful black face and shiny red wings decorated with black polka dots. And even if Becan hadn’t seen her graceful flight, he would have fallen in love with her: she was that gorgeous. He wished he could introduce himself but he was too shy and so he tried to ignore her presence and continued to practice flying.
It was after his third jump, while he was lying flat on his face in the dirt, that he was approached by a group of earwigs who in an attempt to be helpful told him he was the laughing stock of Chapel in the Dirt.
Eghan the leader stepped forward, pulled Becan to his feet and said in a deep baritone, “You are a no account, no wing, lowly dirt lovin’ bug, man! You can’t fly now and you never will fly, so suck it up and stop makin’ a fool of yourself.”
Becan heard one of the group say to Eghan, “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”
Eghan turned to his friend and exclaim, “The dude has been fallin’ off rocks for twelve years!” Turning his attention back to Becan he stated, “Do yourself a favor, guy, get a hobby.”
As Becan watched the earwigs march away, Lavena flew down and landed on the newly vacated rock.
“You must be Becan,” she said, “My name is Lavena.”
So smitten he couldn’t speak, Becan simply nodded his head.
“I come from the same village as your mother,” she continued.
“You knew my mother?” Becan exclaimed.
“I didn’t know her personally, but I’ve heard many stories about her, about how beautiful she was and how much she loved to fly. She could fly higher and stay up longer than any of her people. And even now she holds the longest time in flight for the entire country.”
“Wow,” Becan said in awe. “That must be why I’ve always wanted to fly,” he added in amazement as a lifelong question was finally answered. Sadly he sighed, “But I didn’t get my mother’s wings.”
“Maybe that’s because you were meant for something else, a job that would have meant the world to your mother.”
“A job?”
“Our village needs help from someone very strong. Strong like you.”
“My help?”
Lavena nodded gravely.
“I can fly you to my village,” she said, “if you’ll help us by carrying our precious store of magic lady bug seeds out of the path of melting snow, to a safe spot. It’s only several feet away,” she explained hastily. “You see, we ourselves can fly to safety but there are too many seeds for us to carry and the rose blossom pouch is too heavy for us to move whether we’re flying or trying to pull it on the ground. But our leader, Llyr says that a ground hugging bug such as yourself is strong enough to move it. Will you help?”
“Take me to your leader,” Becan replied.
Lavena flew off and when she returned a minute later she was holding a small piece of vine in her hand.
“Take one end and hold on tight,” she said.
Becan did as he was told, and although being up in the air was something he’d always wanted, he was so nervous he kept his eyes squeezed shut the entire trip.
It turned out that Llyr was right, it took Becan, a lowly ground bug, most of the afternoon to drag the seed filled rose blossom pouch to high ground but the important thing was that he did it. He was so proud of his accomplishment that as Lavena flew him over the tree tops toward Chapel in the Dirt, he simply held on tight and took in the sights from his new perspective. And from then on anytime he felt the urge to fly he asked his sweetie, Lavena, who was only too happy to oblige.
No comments:
Post a Comment