A Love of Butterflies

All right, all right. I know it's been like years since I've posted. My wife has been getting on my case about it, but truthfully I've been too busy making things to take the time to write.

So today (which first came out as "toady" given my lack of ability, or "abailaitiy", to control where my fingers are going on this keyboard) I'm going to tell a story.

Are you comfortable? Do you have a nice hot drink by your side? Are you snuggled up with your teddy bear, or what have you?

Good.

Once upon a time, sometime in the middle of last year, probably around August, I was sitting at my booth in Bastion Square, Victoria, BC, Canada (drop by for a visit if you're in the neighbourhood). Now this booth is down towards the water-end of the square, and I have a glorious view of the harbour all summer long. Between me and the water, though, is a wide set of concrete stairs going down to Wharf Street, cross the street and there's the last building on the row, a tall staircase going to a parking lot and, basically, the water with the hills in the background.

So there I am on this gorgeous sunny summer day staring out at the water as I am wont to do when this little girl comes bounding up the stairs. She sees the "pretties" at my booth and begins running towards me as her mother and sister come following up the stairs behind her. She begins looking at all my wares, eyes wide in amazement (I love the unspoken compliments like that), and promptly says "I want that", pointing to a butterfly pendant, just as her mom is within earshot.

I see her mom heave a sigh, so I say to the little girl, "Well, I'd love to sell you this, but I have a very important rule at my booth."

She looks at me, as if to ask what that rule might be, just as her mom and sister arrive.

"I'm not allowed to sell anything until you have looked at all the booths in the market."

Her mother stared at me with something between disbelief and confusion.

"So", I continue, "have you been all through the market, all the way to my friend Robert at the very end and back again?"

"Nooooo", she says, fascinated by this new rule, which I have just made up on the spot.

"Well," I say, carefully stalling while my mind catches up to me, "when I was your age, there was something I really, really wanted. I had saved my money all summer for it, but hadn't found it yet. And one day, I went to a market just like this and I saw something that I thought was a little bit interesting, so I bought it. And wouldn't you know, not even 10 minutes later I saw the thing that I was really saving for just a bit further up. And by then it was too late. I had already spent my money and couldn't afford it. So, I have this rule. You have to look at everything in the market before you can buy anything from me. After that, I'll be very happy to sell you whatever you want."

Her mother was astonished. Here I was turning down an obvious sale for some strange reason. She was grateful, but didn't really know what to make of it.

Anyways, they looked a bit longer, thanked me for my time, and went on their merry way.

At that point one of my neighbours, who had heard all of this, came up to me laughing, saying she couldn't believe I had done that.

"Yeah, but did you see how grateful the mother was? Besides, it was only five dollars. That was well worth it."

The day continued, and a few hours later we had a bit of a lull, so my neighbour came over to chat again.

"So, did that little girl come back to get her butterfly?"

And just as she asked, who should come by but that same little girl.

This time there was no sense of a rushed frenzy of needing to spend the money burning a hole in her pocket. She was calm, collected, and very courteous.

"Excuse me," she began. "I went through the whole market, and even saw your friend Robert. I really like his books. The leprechaun one was my favorite. Anyways, I saw everything and I decided I would like to buy one of these butterflies, please."

How could my heart not melt at such sweetness?

As she was saying this, her family came up behind her with looks of amazement at her change of behaviour.

"That's wonderful", I said with as much sincerity as I could possibly give. "Which one would you like?" I waved my hand at the variety of butterflies there on the table.

She carefully looked them over before declaring, "I would like this one, please", carefully pointing to a blue and pink one, "because it's the closest you have to purple."

"Ok. Now, I'm a little short of butterflies today", I explained, "so I have a special deal going on." I just love the way my mouth says these things before I realize that they're true. "They're normally $5, but if you help me make one, then they're only $4." I had noticed that she had 2 toonies and a loonie in her hand. Don't you just love the names for Canadian currency?

"Ok", she said.

I brought out my box of supplies and asked her, "Which colours would you like? You need to pick out 2 big scales, and 4 small ones."

"Oooohhhh! You have purple!" I hadn't thought her eyes could get any wider, but boy was I wrong.

We laid out all the materials on my board, and I connected the first couple of pieces with her carefully watching.

"Is this a butterfly?" I held up the two scales dangling limply from a single link.

"No."

I added a bit more.

"How about now?" They were still dangling, but there were just more pieces dangling now.

"No."

"Well, we need to add another piece here. Can you hand me the large link, please?"

So she did.

"Doesn't this look just like a butterfly", I asked, holding up a wadded mess of links and scales.

"Noooooo", she said, trying not to laugh.

"Well, maybe if I just add this link here", I remarked, arranging the pieces carefully in one palm, hiding it from her view. And I added the last link, which sort of snaps the whole thing into place, and flicked it up in the air. It spun around and landed right in front of her, a perfectly formed purple and pink butterfly.

If I had thought her eyes were wide earlier, I was sorely mistaken.

With a burst of seven-year old excited energy, she dropped the toonies on the table, grabbed her little treasure and ran off shouting, "Daddy! Daddy! Look at what I got. A purple butterfly."

My neighbour, who was still watching, had tears in her eyes. Neither of us said anything as we watched the little girl bounce out of sight.

But what really made my day was about two minutes later when her mother came back.

"You know", she said, "she would have been happy getting just the blue one. But you just gave her a memory that will last her whole life. Thank you."

And that, dear reader, is what makes this all worth it.