Wiggle, Wiggle, Caterpillar

I am Carter, a monarch caterpillar. I desperately want to be like my parents, Macy and John, and my four siblings, Paul, Adam, Emma, and Corie, who are already butterflies. Why do I have to be the youngest? I think that every day. Corie and Paul just earned their flying licenses yesterday! Adam and Emma are still in the pupa, but they’re close to emerging. But me? I’m just a fat, ugly, squishy yellow bug.

Today Mom and Dad went away to heaven. I’ll miss them, but such is a monarch’s short time on this earth.

I’ve felt like eating for as long as I can remember. In fact, that’s the only thing I do. But one day I woke up, and for the first time in my whole life I wasn’t hungry. Instead, I started feeling strange. Then I started to weave a green case around myself. “Hooray,” I said sleepily.

 I finished my work at last and fell fast asleep. Weeks later, I emerged from the pupa, feeling weird, meaning well rested. “Where am I?” I asked. Then I looked down and saw something new. “Wings! I have wings!” I yelled. I was excited, even though they looked sad and crumply.

Soon my wings dried, and I flew to a flower. There I met a girl named Francesca. We mated not long after and spent a delightful summer together.

We were Ohio butterflies, so in the fall we had to fly two thousand miles to reach a tree in Mexico. Once we arrived, Francesca laid our Lilliputian eggs, and they hatched. We decided to name our children Millie, Sam, Fatema, and Carter Jr. They are the most wonderful caterpillars in the world.

I knew I wouldn’t live long enough to see them become butterflies, but I’d enjoyed my life and was content.