by Trevor Parker
I’m hiking along the ridge trail that leads up from Twin Peaks to Black Peak. Twin Peaks are a double peak, shaped like a camel’s humps, that sit on the first foot hills overlooking Salt Lake City. Black Peak is three and a half miles further up this ridge that leads to the main spine of the Wasatch mountains.
Once past Twin Peaks, the sounds of the city quickly fade. The wind roars over the mountains. Nature becomes much more abundant: there are falcons, eagles, slow horny toads, fast spotted lizards, and many insects. It is spring and flowers are in bloom. The hillsides are covered with big yellow blossoms and dark blue flowers. The grass is green. Higher up there is still deep snow clasping to the peaks contrasting with the spring life around me. It is all very beautiful.
A shadow by my foot brings me to a stop. I look down and see that the shadow is actually a very large and very hairy caterpillar scurrying across the trail. It stops suddenly, sensing me. It is unsure of how to continue. I crouch down and stare at it. It is large and fat. It has long spiky black hair tipped with tan. There are a few red markings around its squat head. Two large black eyes, taking up all of the bug’s face, regard me. Then with enough time already lost, the caterpillar rushes around my foot with amazing speed and heads into the rocks and grass to the side of the trail. I follow it, bending over close to the ground and watching its progress.
And it hits me. This fat caterpillar has been eating well, and is in search of another healthy plant to consume. I look over and see a tall flower whose leaves are shredded and eaten. Its beauty already draining from the peddles as the plant’s life ebbs. This little caterpillar and so many like it live off of destroying the beauty around us. This ugly little caterpillar eats the things that make the mountain beautiful. If left unchecked, the caterpillars can bring destruction to whole forests and mountainsides. Luckily I came across it. I will not leave it unchecked.
I stand. Movement catches my eye. I am distracted from my current train of thought as a large yellow and black butterfly bobs in the wind in front of me. It is very large, as big as the palm of my hand. The yellow is vibrant and lays in stripes of varying shape and size on the black wings. It creates an intriguing pattern so articulate and breathe taking, it makes me wonder how nature consistently creates these types of things, and never repeats a pattern. The black of the wings is also captivating. As the butterfly dances through the breeze, the black shifts and sparkles subtly. It is iridescent. I have seen these tiger butterflies countless times and never noticed this before.
The butterfly swoops down onto the devastated flower to my side; respite from the struggle with the wind. I think this butterfly is really beautiful. It adds to the feeling of spring that surrounds me. In fact, as wonderful as the mountains are right now, wouldn’t it be more incredible if these majestic butterflies were everywhere? Swarms of them swirling in the air. They would drink a little from the flowers, but otherwise leave the mountain unharmed. It would be magic.
The butterfly lifts off the flower and flutters on along the ridge. I follow it with my eyes and thank it for visiting me, and then I turn and continue on my hike. But I suddenly remember the caterpillar, and my previous train of thought.
I turn back, and locating the caterpillar, squish it with the heel of my boot. Good riddance to bad rubbish. One less caterpillar to destroy the beauty that surrounds me. I then continue on up the mountain trail hoping to see just one more butterfly…
4 comments:
What a beautiful story about irony! Good job, Trevor.
Such violence! I hope the caterpillar left gooey gunk all over your shoe! ;)
I really like the picture painted in my mind at the beginning of the story. Nice story, almost fablelike
Trevor, this is a really interesting piece of environmental literature. I like all of the elements that are working in it, particularly the attention that you give – or intentionally neglect to give – about ecosystems, and the way that all the land is connected. If you haven’t already you need to read Edward Abby’s Desert Solitaire, I think that you would really enjoy it and it connects a human to the land in some really interesting ways. That said, and I hope I’m not too harsh; I did have some problems with the narrator of this story. I think that the narrator has too sophisticated of a voice to not know the connection between a butterfly and a caterpillar – which I got the impression that that was the case at the end. I do really like the desire that the narrator expresses about feeling a need to protect the environment from predators – even if the caterpillar is perceived as an irrational threat. (I don’t know if it was intentional that the dangerous insect, the caterpillar, shares its name with a brand name of heavy equipment that is sometimes used to destroy land??? but that could be interesting to play with too.) Anyway, I think that it might be better to either kill the caterpillar before he sees the beauty of the butterfly so there can be a realization, or make it clear that he knows perfectly well that it will turn into a butterfly and kill it anyway – which in my opinion would be more interesting. I still think that it is a really interesting story; there were a few more small things that I would consider. I really am opposed to being told that something is beautiful. I think that you need to let your descriptions carry the implications that the world around you is beautiful and highly respected by you and then the reader will infer it by your descriptions instead of the narration feeling like it was interrupted for the narrator to gloss all of the beautiful descriptions with the reaffirmation that “it was beautiful.” The other small thing was when the narrator says what the caterpillar was thinking, it seems like it might be better if it “appears” to the narrator that he “might” be thinking that. Leaving it the way it is gives the impression that the narrator can read the caterpillars mind or at least puts him in a place were he has a perceived superiority to the insect – he might, I don’t know. To add “appears to think” shows that the narrator is interested in the insect and sees it as a thinking thing, but realizes that he will never really know what the bug is doing or thinking. Also I wanted more description of the world around the narrator – what kinds of insects, what kinds of flowers, how does the man made trail fit into the nature that it cuts through? I did really like the description of the caterpillar and think that it was great that you took special notice of it even though you kill it in the end. Great story, I hope this wasn’t too lengthy and can give you some help with where you want to take this story.
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