Palita the Butterfly
Digital, Personal Work, 2018
Sometimes, princes turn to frogs. Rarely do butterflies turn into a human.
Palita was once a butterfly who loved going to people’s houses. One time, she befriended a young boy who was bedridden, since he was twelve years old. She visited him daily to the boy’s amusement, then the amusement turned to hope.
Because the Divine saw how much Palita wanted for the boy to heal, she was turned to a young girl, so she could meet the boy in person.
Carefully, from the forest, she made her way through the throngs of people in the bustling and colorful market and streets of orange, red, and brown houses, until she reached the thick familiar trees and shrubs in the boy’s front yard. Her family of butterflies came with her.
She neared the front of the house, and then, she saw him.
He was seated on a wheelchair after being bedridden for two years! There were tens of butterflies fluttering around him, and the girl found him laughing.
The boy – his name was Josiah. He felt a strange presence. He turned his head towards the small red gate, and there he saw Palita.
Palita looked surprised; she couldn’t speak, but her eyes showed that she was both happy and nervous.
“Ma? Ma? There’s a gi – ”
When he gazed at her, he thought that she looked familiar.
Josiah, with his utmost strength in his body, tried to stand.
The girl was worried; she didn’t want him to walk towards her! But there, she stood, transfixed with how this sick but healing boy was walking, taking one slow step at a time.
When he was halfway there to Palita, the girl spotted a rather large rock in his way!
Josiah hit his left foot against it, he lost his balance, then –
a flash of white!
Palita’s human-sized white wings suddenly came out of her back, and she flew so fast towards Josiah and lifted him before he even hit the ground. Their eyes met, and although Palita thought he wouldn’t recognize her in her human form, he said, “Thank you for before, and thank you for today.”
The Divine looked at the beautiful sight of how someone as light and small as a butterfly could become a symbol of hope for a young sick boy who was now healing.