The caterpillar lay there in her cocoon. She was snug in there, warm and tightly wound. Yet she felt frozen. She was unable to move. As she sat waiting impatiently for something to happen, she started to feel it little by little. It began as a tingling sensation in her tail. Slowly, the feeling moved little by little up from her tail vertebrae by vertebrae. The tingling vibrated from her tail up each part of her. The sensation spread through her small body like a syringe filling with blood.
There was tingling from her tail all the way up through her tiny head. Her whole body was full of vibration. She knew that this was the sign of something to come. She listened to the vibration. She asked it what it meant. She told it she was scared. She didn’t know when it would stop or if it would stop.
The tiny caterpillar was infused not only with vibration but with spirit. She closed her eyes and breathed into the vibration. Just as she took a deep breath in the tingling feeling increased. Her body twitched all over. It was as if lightning has struck her. She convulsed but she tried desperately to remain calm. She breathed, vibrating all the way.
Lightning struck her again, and she began to cry, but only a little. She wasn’t sad, she was merely fearful of what was to come.
She looked down at her body not knowing what was happening to her. All at once there was a warm sensation. She was surrounded by an all encompassing warmth as if the sun had shone on her small body, but there was no sun. She was alone.
The small fearful caterpillar felt that warm abruptly change into a wet feeling. She felt as if she were saturated by water. She was submerged by a gooey substance. She prayed that this would all stop. She wanted to feel like herself again, but she didn’t know who that self was.
The wetness expanded and she feared that she might drown. All at once she felt a sharp pain in her vertebrae. She cringed. She looked down and saw the hint of something. It was sharp and triangular. She closed her eyes and focused on that place in her body. She breathed.
All at once she opened her eyes and looked down at that place on her body. It was pulsating and swollen. Then it happened. Out of that pulsating spot sprouted a giant black mass. She breathed a sigh of relief. She stared at the blackness and saw that there was more. It wasn’t black at all. It was deep dark purple.
I did it. She thought.
She knew what was coming next. I’ve come this far She thought. I can do it again.
