Moth’s Pursuit Of Beauty
Published by Peter Lumba at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Peter Lumba
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Also by Peter Lumba Published at Smashwords
African Greenhouse Cooking Kit (Non-Fiction)
Not Even The King’s Daughter (Fiction)
Four days With Grandfather (Fiction)
The Guardian Angel Of Stolen Love (Fiction)
The Sexism Path Gets Narrower And Darker (Non-Fiction)
Chapter 1: Best Of Friends
A long time ago, sorry to say, both Moth and Butterfly found themselves orphaned in their adolescence. What’s more, each of the two beautiful girl-insects was the only child-insect of her parents. In spite of everything, they were not left without hope. For each one of them was an heiress to a small fortune. Owing to the similar circumstances they found themselves in, they found it gratifying to pay frequent cordial visits to each other. This made their friendship grow stronger by each day that passed, until they eventually became the best of friends. So much did they come to like each other’s company that a day hardly passed without seeing each other. Even though Moth was evidently prettier than butterfly, Butterfly had not only a warmer disposition towards the other young insects but was also more often than not in high spirits. Nonetheless, both had prettier faces than virtually all the other girl-insects in their village. Suffice it to say, their elegant slim figures were the envy of most girl-insects in the village.
Even so, no sooner had they begun catching the attention of the young boy-insects, than it occurred to Moth that Butterfly attracted more and longer stares from the boy-insects than she did. As you would have thought, this made her believe that Butterfly was more beautiful than she was. That’s why she inwardly decided that she would start spending more time in sprucing herself up. But in spite of spending increasingly more of her precious time in doing that, her dogged effort did not seem to bear fruit. Over and over again, Butterfly continued to draw most of the boy-insects’ attention. This did not only make Moth pretty miserable, but it also made her jealous of her friend. Consequently, although for a long time Moth had actually liked her friend and had genuinely enjoyed her company, she began being hateful and moody. Despite the fact that they were used to teasing each other, all of a sudden she began taking most of Butterfly’s jokes personally. Still trying to puzzle out why the boy-insects were not quite interested in her, she continued to spend more and more time in examining herself in the mirror. However, no sooner had she exhausted her bag of tricks without significant results, than she concluded that she was actually ugly. So at the end of the day, she felt very discouraged and upset for spending so much time in vain. Henceforth, her many days of intimate friendship with butterfly were succeeded by frequent fallouts.
Among the trying days of their friendship that followed was a day Butterfly lived to remember. On that particular day, they were taking an evening walk together and both were on the face of it in good moods. They were having a heart-to-heart talk when suddenly Moth told a very funny joke that almost killed Butterfly with laughter, for she laughed and laughed and laughed. Even Moth herself could not help laughing at her joke. When butterfly could not laugh any more, for her ribs had not only begun aching but she had also fallen short of breath, she gasped out, “You…you ugly thing! Where did you get that one from?” That did it! To her surprise, Moth’s mood suddenly changed and she began crying.
Shocked, Butterfly asked her, “What is the matter, Moth? Why are you crying?”
Sobbing quietly, her eyes flashing with infuriation, she answered, “I know I am ugly, Butterfly. But you don’t have to remind me!”
Butterfly gave Moth a surprised look. Then she said, “Stop kidding, Moth! Who said you are ugly?”
“You said it yourself,” sobbed Moth.
“My goodness!” cried Butterfly. “I said nothing like that.”
“You did say it!” retorted Moth. “You think I am deaf?”
“Moth, I have never known you to behave like this. What is the matter with you today?”
“Stop your pretence, Butterfly,” said Moth. “Didn’t you call me ‘an ugly thing’?”
Butterfly was lost for words. “But that was not to say you are ugly. Can’t you take a joke, Moth? That was just a figure of speech I used!”
“A joke! A figure of speech! Umh!”
Fearful things might get worse Butterfly apologised to her and excused herself. She said, “I am very sorry, Moth. Forgive me if I have hurt you. I will be seeing you.” And off she went leaving Moth on her own.
After that day, similar incidents became so frequent that Butterfly no longer enjoyed Moth’s company as she used to. She even began suspecting that lately Moth had actually taken to hating her and she wondered why. It disturbed her so much to see their friendship wear down so gravely. Besides, Moth’s persistent bad moods were not only harmful to their friendship, but also to her own image. If truth be told, the more she hated her friend, the moodier she became and the more loathsome and frightening she looked to the boy-insects. This being the case, the boy-insects continued to ignore her while they continued to spoil butterfly with their attention. Regrettably, this turned Moth’s hatred into bitter resentment towards everyone and more than ever to the boy-insects. To give vent to her feelings, she began discrediting the boy-insects to her friend.
Chapter 2:Moth’s Attempt To Discredit Grasshopper
One bright afternoon, the two friends were having a stroll together. Suddenly picking on Grasshopper whom she knew was Butterfly’s closest boy-insect friend, Moth said, “Forgive me for saying this, Butterfly, because I know you are close friends with Grasshopper. I honestly do not like Grasshopper.”
Butterfly looked at her fried curiously. She asked, “Why don’t you like him? Grasshopper is a nice boy-insect.”
“Grasshopper admires all the girl-insects I know,” replied Moth. “There is no way he can stick to one girl-insect.”
“How do you know that?” asked Butterfly.“I know! It was just the other day he was asking me for friendship, but I turned him down,” she lied, sighed tellingly and continued to say, “Incidentally, handsome boy-insects are no good. Majority of the girl-insects are always chasing after them.”
“Precisely the same way boy-insects chase after beautiful girl-insects,” Butterfly shot back. “That is expected.”
“But Grasshopper cannot be trusted,” countered Moth.
“I don’t believe you, Moth,” said Butterfly suspiciously. “Everyone else I know thinks Grasshopper is a good boy-insect.”
“Not me!” remarked Moth with a sneer. “I have severally caught him with different girl-insects in highly suspicious circumstances. Into the bargain, virtually all those young insects you know will tell you I am not lying, only that they dare not tell you.”
“Are you not just trying to discredit Grasshopper because you know he and I are good friends?”
Changing her expression to that of annoyance she asked, “Are you suggesting I am jealous of your friendship with him?”
Narrowing her eyes slightly, Butterfly answered, “I didn’t say that Moth, but I am just curious,”
“Look here Butterfly, there is no need of fighting because of Grasshopper,” said Moth. “I am sure you don’t mind his wayward ways.”