Once there was a lady who sat on a bench in the Butterfly Pavilion in Central Park with her sun hat. She waited for hours in the hot summer sun on a Sunday afternoon for her suitor.
“He told me he’d be coming,” she said, sighing at his rather late arrival. She remembered the man she envisioned in her mind, fanning herself with a slight breeze. When she couldn’t wait any longer, she took a fashion magazine from her purse and flipped through it. Then, a butterfly came and sat on her shoulder, and she spoke to the creature as if he was a man.
“Unless you already have a name, I think I’ll call you Skipper,” she said to the winged creature. “I’ve been waiting for a Gentle Man,” she whispered to the butterfly. “Do you think you could find him?”
The butterfly flew around her head in circles, and her eyes followed him through the pavilion. As it grew late in the day, the twinkle lights on the ivy sparkled, and she put on a sweater.
“I know I have the right day,” the Lady said, as the butterfly came and sat on her shoulder again. She looked at his bright blue and yellow colors with a touch of red, green, and black.
“Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow,” she said to the butterfly. “I can’t stand to wait any longer.”
The butterfly fluttered around her, knocking over rose petals on her lap, not letting her leave. “Why, that was nice of you!” she said, collecting the roses from her sundress and putting them in her pocket. “Now, if only the Gentle Man would show up,” she said. “He told me that he’d be here, and here I am.”
As the Lady grabbed her things and stood up, a wind blew through the pavilion, and she heard a voice.
“I’ve been here all along,” said the voice in the wind, as she noticed the butterfly changing into a man. The Gentle Man stood in the middle of the pavilion in a dark blue suit with a yellow, red, and green tie. “These are for you,” the Gentle Man said to the Lady, handing her a bouquet of red roses.
“Oh, why, yes, you are the Gentle Man that I’ve been waiting for,” she said. “It was you all along.” Then, the Gentle Man took the Lady’s hand and danced in the Butterfly Pavilion in the moonlight. It was their first dance of many among the butterflies, and before their last dance, they flew off together.
Copyright 2016 Jennifer Waters
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