Flight
By Joseph R. Schmidt
Short Story
About 1500 words
Freddie watched as the yellow and black striped bird shifted effortlessly around the overgrown lilac. Fragrantly in full bloom, the lavender flowers looked like a giant ball of cotton candy. Could it be a bird? he wondered. It was so small.
She hovered for a moment and then landed. This lilac's scent generated sufficient stimulus, and with her long proboscis, she gathered nectar. When her antenna registered a lesser desire for that irresistible scent, she worked her wings hard, shifted to the next small flower, and repeated the process. She stopped suddenly and crawled to the underside of the flowering clump where her compound eyes searched for predators.
Freddie left the swinging bench and crept to the edge of the porch, to where the sun baked the railing.
"Where are you off to?" his mother asked, dragging stray hair behind her ear with her index finger. She sat in the wicker chair reading a magazine while sipping lemonade in the early June heat.
"Shh! I'm going to look at the Hummingbird."
"Oh?" And after a moment she said, "That's not a Hummingbird. That is a Hummingbird Moth."
Freddie had never heard of such a thing and wondered how his mother could be so sure.
She sensed a fresher flower, a matured bloom for her eagerness. But movement on the horizon warned her to veer away, and she did.
"Rats! It flew away," Freddie said.
"No-no. It's moved to the other side."
"But I can't see it"
"Come sit down." His mother laughed quietly. "Drink your lemonade—where are you going?"
Freddie raced upstairs to his bedroom and rummaged through his closet. He then slid down the banister, jumped from the fourth step, and emerged with his grandfather's butterfly net. The screen door smacked the doorframe with the same urgency. "Is it still here?" he asked through gasping breaths.
"Yes." His mother folded her arms. "Why don't you just sit and watch it?"
"I want to catch it."
"Where will you put it?"
"Dad's terrarium."
His mother tilted her head. "I'm not so sure it will like it there."
Freddie nodded quickly. "It will."
His mother frowned, took a sip from her lemonade, and narrowed her eyes. "Just be careful not to hurt it."
"Okay."
The Hummingbird Moth rested in the bright sun and thought of where she might lay her eggs. She would have to decide soon. Not in the sun and not too wet. Just on the underside of a large leaf. A shadowy figure appeared on the horizon. It moved closer, but she had seen it before. Yet the presence made her uneasy and she jolted her wings into vibration. Away she would go, for the flowers had given her enough energy to lay her eggs.
She headed for the sun, the warmth she needed. Her wings suddenly stopped and her antenna twisted as they never had. The world turned into a hazy mesh and the horizon could not be found.
"I got it!" Freddie swung the net around to show his mother. The net twirled unexpectedly and opened for a moment.
The porch ceiling came into focus for the Hummingbird Moth and she surged for it. She worked her forewings and hindwings as though through a thunderstorm. She tried to retract her leg but it was caught and snagged. Again, the opening turned to blurry mesh.
"Carefully, Freddie!" his mother warned. "Quickly now. Don't let it struggle so." She opened the screen door, and Freddie moved smoothly into his father's study, holding the net straight out in front with the bottom of the net flopped over the rim and the immobilized Hummingbird Moth within.
He waited while his mother lifted the black cover of the terrarium, and then he took the rim of the net in both hands, managing the net itself while he unfurled it.
Her antenna lay over yet she sensed strange and unfamiliar plants. Her leg somehow became untangled and she tumbled, so she vibrated her abdomen in order to motivate her wings. The rocky ground smacked her on her back and she lay there a moment. Where had the sun gone? It was still bright enough for day. Would it rain soon? It could not possibly, for the air was still too hot and the pressure too high. Yet the sky had turned alarmingly dark.
"Isn't it pretty?"
"Yes, Freddie, it is very nice."
"It's not moving very much." Freddie lifted the black cover to the terrarium. "Should I pick it up?"
For the Hummingbird Moth there was movement on the horizon and then the sky reappeared. A new wave of stimuli rushed past her antenna. She flapped her wings and jumped for the daylight.
As Freddie reached for the cover, and his mother's hand returned it to its place. "No!" she said and laughed. "I don't want the moth flying around in the house."
Freddie bent over with a hand on each knee. He smiled as he watched.
His mother put one hand on her hip and swiped a lock of hair behind her ear with her other. "Why don't you take that out on the porch?"
"Okay." Freddie grabbed the terrarium with both hands and lugged it through the screen door, which his mother held open for him.
"Here. Set it on this table where you can watch it while you finish your lemonade."
Freddie set it down and then sat on the swinging bench, rocking slowly, pushing with just his heels.
The Hummingbird Moth crawled across the rocks onto a branch that grabbed at her wings. Where had the pale flowers gone? she wondered. The air was too stale. She conserved her energy while she contemplated. She must escape and lay her eggs before she expired.
Freddie stood up. "I should feed it." He went to the railing, reached over, and plucked a bunch of lilacs. Returning to the terrarium on the bench, he lifted the lid.
Movement formed in her compound eye, and the Hummingbird Moth remembered how the darkness above her had before vanished with such a thing. And indeed it did, so she headed for the open air. A cluster of pale flowers blocked her path, but she bent her thorax and changed course to avoid it. At last, she saw where the sun had gone. She yearned to return to the world she knew.
"That was close!" Freddie yelled and giggled. "That tickles." His hand pushed the crazy moth back and he closed the cover. "Watch it eat."
The Hummingbird Moth sat confused. Such a putrid oil to coat her wings; from where had it come? Had it rained after all? Somehow, she remained trapped. Her antenna detected the maturation of the pale flower, yet she did not desire more energy. She folded her wings and waited. She must escape. She must lay her eggs and perform her function.
Freddie sat on the swinging bench with his elbows on his knees, propping his face with his hands. "Why isn't it eating? It was eating before."
His mother put her magazine down. "I don't think it likes it in there."
Freddie tilted his head, squishing one of his cheeks up into his eye. "This is boring." He grabbed his lemonade and finished it.
The Hummingbird Moth had discovered a pattern; it was all she could think of. She had been too slow before. And she had not expected such an obstacle. She climbed from the prickly branch and then climbed the clear surface, closer to that darkness. Her energy was beginning to droop.
There! She knew the pattern. That shadowy movement. She started her wings harder than before. Her antenna brushed against the blackness, detecting unnatural oils.
"What are you doing?" his mother asked.
Freddie looked up and saw her simple smile.
The blackness retreated and wild currents of air pushed the Hummingbird Moth in peculiar directions. She rose above the clear surface and found the horizon. Up she went, away from that shadowy form, away from the oiliness, to the light, to the untainted scent of the pale flower. Her wings would never be the same she knew, but she found a safe place to rest.
Freddie watched the Hummingbird Moth as it sat on a green leaf of the lilac bush. "Will it be Okay?"
"I don't know, dear. But now it has a chance."
Freddie pointed excitedly and smiled. "It moved! See? There it is on the flower again."
The Hummingbird Moth collected the irresistible nectar from the clumps of pale flowers. She knew she must regain her strength in order to lay her eggs. The sun's warmth helped. Where would she lay them? she wondered. She must very soon.