TINY IMPERFECT FICTION 13

Felicia was going places. Felicia was a Black Swallowtail caterpillar who was really on top of her game. She owned the carrot patch, ruled the Queen Anne's lace by Route 41, and prided herself by correcting new arrivals, fresh from the manure patch, that she was  not merely a Black Swallowtail caterpillar, but one who had an extravagant last name. Felicia would regularly tell new larva to please call her by her full name: "you may address me as Felicia Papilio Polyxenes, if you please." 

She sometimes wondered why in the world she was called a “Black Swallowtail caterpillar” and why not something more accurate, like a “Green And Black Ridged No-Tail.” She also wondered where her parents went, as well as her older brother Jim, who all just disappeared… so strange. She'd lost touch with her best friend Simone from her manure patch days as well. Best to just keep eating carrots, ruling the garden and not bust out her horns from thinking too hard about anything other than her own insatiable gluttony.

All was business as usual until last June, when Felicia was mowing her way through the garden buffet, her usual breakfast route, when she reached a smooth WALL that trapped her in the appetizer section of the garden. For days Felicia was stunned, confused, stymied, and staring up at the at the wall hopelessly. It was too slippery to climb, too high to get over and quite honestly a shock Felicia couldn't process simply by eating her way throug her feelings. After a while, she became too tired to care about anything, having eaten all of the carrot tops- she felt defeated, finished. Felicia curled up under a dying carrot top, wrapped herself in tired, sad, warming goop, fell asleep and gave up.  

Until…