Narration: The wings of a butterfly

AUTHOR: A traditional South American fable

STORY: Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Chimiduye and she lived in a small house in the rain forest with her relatives and mother and father. Boys and men hunted and girls and the women cooked and worked in a farm nearby.

The other girls and she never dared to step too far into the forest because they knew quite well it was very easy to get eaten by a wild beast or a spirit. And one day, when she was making a little basket she looked up and saw a huge butterfly in front of her and she followed in deep deep into the woods. And soon it disappeared into the vines and she realized that she had gone too far into the forest. And she wandered aimlessly through the trees only getting deeper into the forest then before.

And then she heard a little tap-tap-tap in the woods. And she thought hopefully, somebody's working in the woods and they can bring me home. And she followed the tapping sound, but to her surprise it was only a woopecker. She said to herself, if only you were human you could lead me home. The woodpecker said, "Why do I need to be human to lead you home? I could lead you home the way I am!"

She said, "Really?" And then the woodpecker said, "Why not." and flew away.

And then she wandered into the woods a little bit more and saw a big hut. And there was a lady inside it making a hammock. The lady said, "Don't ask me for help! You eat so many of us and boil so many of us, so don't ask me for help!" and old lady went away. The old lady was actually really just a bird transformed and fluttered into a tree.

And then a fruit fell from a tree and she picked it up and ate it. And then another one fell from the tree. She looked up and it was a group of monkeys. Her fear soon grew when daylight spread to darkness. The monkeys came down from the tree and she hid to watch them. And then to her surprise, the monkeys turned into humans. And one of the boy monkeys said,"What are you doing here, Chimuye?" And she said,. "I got lost." Then a woman monkey said, "Poor thing, you can come with us to the festival of monkeys. The Lord Monkey invited us."

And then they went to a big hut with a bunch of other monkeys wearing masks and costumes and drinking beer. And the Lord Monkey said, "Why are you here uninvited?" And the man monkey said, "We found her and brought her with us."

And that nights, she couldn't sleep from the King Monkey snoring. It sounded like somebody talking, and she listed to the king monkey and he said, "I'm going to devour her, I'm going to devour her." And she said, "Grandfather!" and he woke up and she said "you said you were going to devour me." And he said don't be silly, monkeys don't devour people. And went back to sleep.

She saw the Lord Monkey, and he wasn't really a monkey at all. He was a big beast with black spots. He was a jaguar! She got out of bed and got a torch and ran right out to the big hut.

Daylight soon came and she started to cry. She heard a fluttering and she looked up and saw a butterfly, and the butterfly said, "Follow me. I will show you the way home." "Really?" And the butterfly said, "Sure, follow me."

And soon they were at the river and on the other side was her family and friends. And she said,"I crossed the river without even knowing it! But how can I get back?" And the butterfly said, "I'll turn you into a butterfly." And she hummed "Who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew." And soon she was fluttering across the river.

The moment she touched ground she turned into a human and she went home. The end.

REVIEW: This story is from South America. My review is Ii do not get it at all. When I think of it, i think it's a little too changey. A little confusing. That is my review. I would like to change into a butterfly so I could flutter around. I'd sleep without a blanket. I'd sleep on a wall, and the most funnest of all would be to walk on the ceiling. But now I'm not a butterfly so I can't walk on the wall at all.