Metamorphosis

It was a Saturday afternoon unlike any other Saturday afternoon. It was his fourteenth birthday, and on this bright cloudless day, the boy spent his time camped out in their garden with his parents. Spring was at its peak, the sky shimmered brighter than any blue it had known, and the small family of three basked in the clear sunshine of this happy Saturday.
They'd laid out his Birthday feast on a jute mat on the freshly mown grass, green as moss and bejeweled with dew. It was a feast alright..mother was up early making his favourite food. There was cake, with thick splodges of buttercream frosting (his favourite thing in the world), fresh bread, fizzy drinks, fruits that he'd helped father pluck from their very own garden trees and fried snacks of all kinds. "it's a picnic" his mother had said, "but instead of going out, we're staying in, and we'll have so much fun in our own garden. The flowers are blooming, there are new birds, and all the trees have put on chlorophyll makeup".  The boy liked nothing better, he had few friends, and preferred the company of his books and playing by himself alone in their big garden.
The day was warm, accentuated by cool breeze, and soon his parents had started yawning and this he knew was their adult indication of nap time. Sprawled out on their jute mat, under a lazy sun, they lay dozing in that impossibly perfect weather.
 It was his fourteenth birthday, and he knew he had to do something fun, something silly, something like climbing that big cherry tree to get a better view of his surroundings. It was while he stayed stuck on the second branch of the tree that he caught a glimpse of something moving in between the leaves. "what on earth" he muttered, and bent a little more into the leaves to get a better view. It was like a rainbow had assumed a living form, and learnt to crawl its way on leaves. In a chaotic array of bright prismatic hues was a tiny caterpillar. "wow" he gasped. "I've never seen one so beautiful. It's so different than any other caterpillars in our garden. it's golden and purple and green and blue and so shiny". Gently he held out a leaf and the caterpillar leisurely crawled onto it and began nibbling.
"the little guy is hungry".
He carried the leaf, walking a gentle pace, lest it cause the caterpillar any turbulence and showed it to his now awake parents. "Mom, look..look what I found", he half shrieked, half whispered with excitement. "Oh dear, that's one beautiful caterpillar. Won't it be the envy of every flower in our garden", smiled his mother as she goggled at the hungry larva.
"Mom, can I keep it please?. It'll make such a nice pet, and such a beautiful one too".
"Of course, it's not like it's a dog, you can keep it. But what'll you do once it's a butterfly"?
"Then the butterfly will be my pet" he laughed and hurried to his room to give his new found pet a cozy room.

He found an old shoe box, and laid it with a layer of cotton and leaves to provide his pet a soft bed. Then ran out to the refrigerator and yelled out "Mom, what do they eat?"
"Leaves, leave the fridge be. Pick out some fresh ones from the garden".
"I'll help" father said and plucked out carrot and lettuce leaves and even some apples.
"take care of that little thing, he's one of a kind, and looks like a rare one"
"I will dad, and I'll give him fresh food each day, so he becomes even more colourful. we'll have so much fun together"
He rushed back to him room and looked at the ever hungry new found pet. "here, eat some more". It was almost strange, the way it looked at him, acknowledging him, or so the boy seemed to think.

Each day, he couldn't wait for his school to end. Running back to his room, peering into his shoe box, he'd spend hours talking to his caterpillar. "he understands me, and waits for me. I know it. He recognizes me."

One day, on account of extra classes at school, the boy reached home a few hours too late and as he ran to greet his pet his mom met him on the doorway, looking a bit worried.
"It's not eaten anything today. Just stayed there in its corner, not moving. I don't know what's wrong"
"what?" the boy shrieked and ran to his room
"what's wrong with you" he sobbed, "are you alright". He held out a lettuce leaf to his caterpillar. And it was almost as if he'd been roused from coma, the caterpillar moved, looked at the boy and started nibbling on the leaf.
"oh" he cried and looked at his mother.
wide eyed and a bit confused she said "it really is your pet. I think it was waiting for you"
"he is my little pet, isn't he" he smiled and for a second he though the caterpillar smiled back too.
"Tomorrow is Saturday, I'll take him out to the garden. Look how fat and pretty he's become."
It was true, the caterpillar was glowing with a warm bronze belly. Its colours shimmered with a radiant brilliance and echoed an exotic bouquet of unearthly flowers, wrapped in sparkling green translucence.

The boy woke up to the splatter of raindrops on his window pane. It wasn't morning yet and the day promised to be a sunless gloom he knew.
"I'll sleep some more, and surprise mom by coming early for breakfast. But before that, let me feed my fat friend". He rolled out of bed and stared sleepily into his shoe box.. but it was empty. "Oh my god" he switched on all the lights. "where are you, where are you, where are you" he half muttered half wondered half yelled hysterically.
"He's gone, oh my god, I can't find him". He ran to the smell of freshly brewed tea permeating from the kitchen and found his mom, bent over a mug, straining tea, half asleep, still in her soft slippers.
"Mom, I can't find him"
"Oh, wait. I'll come and check" She finished straining tea, mug in hand and followed the now almost weeping boy.
"Look, he's not in his box. He never leaves his box. Where is he"?
"Stop crying, there it is. Look at your study table. Near the table lamp."
There it was, not a caterpillar but a strange shaped silk box.
"Is that a chrysalis"he muttered?
"Yes, looks like your pet is finally going to be a big boy" she laughed sipping her tea and left the room.
"Oh wow, look at you, all weird and silvery and polka dotted golden. You're a fat pupa. Oh boy, I can't wait for you to come out. You'll be the most gorgeous thing this side of the planet. My pretty pet".
The boy had got into a habit of checking on his pet every hour to see if the metamorphosis had been complete.
"I wan't him to see me the first thing. I know he'll recognize me. He'll sit on my shoulder while I go to school and sleep on my pen when I do my homework"

And then one day as he got ready for school, he felt something stirring. It was deja vu. "I felt this way when I found him on our cherry tree. Him and I, we are meant to be"
Buttoning his shirt he gazed uninterrupted at the stirring chrysalis to greet his little pet, and crawling out slowly was his caterpillar..not a caterpillar anymore.
Its beautiful golden rainbow hued wings, were now a mottled gray, with black splotches of dull tar. The beaming crystal transparent skin now a papery cloth. Broad winged, powder sooty coloured grotesque moth.
It crept out slowly, unfurling its wings as dingy and ashen as death, its body a ghastly existence of loathsome horror. More insect looking than any insect, the caterpillar had morphed into a nightmarish wretch of a moth.

Horrified, the boy stared wide eyed and disgusted, and backed away slowly, too repelled and speechless to say anything.
The moth flew out, opened its wings wide as it could, and stared at the boy the same way it did as a caterpillar, and flew over to him.
By now the boy had rolled a newspaper, and swatted at the moth "eww..get out you, disgusting thing. eww".
he swat at it repeatedly, till he'd driven it out of the window, which he now shut with a loud thud,
"Ugh" the boy said.