The Butterfly Waltz

[Sarah Dalton]

September 2003 - Stopped this afternoon at a milkweed patch to gather some seedpods. I gathered two bagfulls – this is a busy corner that is just ripe for a filling station and I expect the bulldozers any day now so I was stripping every pod from the site – and netted two monarchs on the purple asters. I pushed back through high weeds over my head to get some pods in the back of the lot, took a swing at another butterfly and hooked my glasses off into the weeds. I scrambled around myopically and finally found them – I’d been afraid I’d have to drive home blind!

I worked my way around the lot, gathering more of the fat pods. About fifteen minutes later I realized that my cell phone wasn’t on my belt anymore. That was the last straw – I’d never find it in that tangle! Since the battery was low it would probably run down before I could return with another cell phone to call for it. I’d probably never even be able to HEAR it for the traffic noise at rush hour! I said “Oh, hell” and said goodbye to my phone.

But the asters still shone in the afternoon sun so I took another circuit around them looking for a monarch, then wandered back to get some swamp milkweed pods I’d spotted. As I was stuffing them into a bandana, I heard the faint but dulcet tones of “The Butterfly Waltz” (what else?) in the distance and ran back through the weeds to spot my phone just as the music stopped. What luck! Sometimes I wonder if my husband is telepathic!