The Butterfly Room

Okay...this was weird as shit.

"Ahem." I coughed trying to get her attention. Maybe she was homeless and slept here. She kept mumbling about wings or flying. I coughed again. Still nothing. Worried, I walked close to her, sitting on my  my knees beside her.

"Miss?" I asked nervously. Her eyes snapped open, blue as shallow ocean water. She looked around sitting up. I averted my eyes. She sneezed four times in a row. I looked at her cautiously. 

"Are you okay?" I asked holding back laughter. She nodded, her eyes full of tears. I tentatively took her shoulder. Her skin felt so smooth and silky it felt...familiar, I just couldnt put my finger on it. Oh wait, I did. She looked down at it scared.

"Do you live here?" I asked her. She looked at me oddly as She shrugged my hand off curling back down into a ball. I looked around for help. Maybe there was staff somewhere...okay probably not.  

"Hold on. Stay here okay?" I said getting to my feet and running to the entrance. I went through both doors busting into the main office. But there was no one there. 

The lights were off and it looked as if no one had even been here. My chair was set back neatly where I found it, and the room that Enoch had went into now dark and closed. I looked around the darkened office confusedly. I pushed the front door open, not seeing any car but mine. 

The rain now pattered lightly on the stone path, sending mini ripples across a puddle near my shoe. I turned around stopping at the counter. There laid a cigarette and a blue blanket, no note or Enoch in sight. I carefully picked the two items up searching around.

"Christ almighty..." I whispered. I drifted back into the butterfly room.

When I came back, the girl was gone. I looked around frantically.

"Not again." I groaned searching through trees and bushes. I found her small frame crouching in a tree hollow. She sat shaking fear in her eyes. I felt bad for her.

"Hey, there. It's okay." I tried to ignore the fact that she was naked. "don't be afraid." I said softly. She closed her eyes, like she was trying to disappear. Weird ass homeless girl. Who runs around NAKED?! I thought reaching a hand in. She tentatively crawled out, avoiding my outstretched hand as if it were some kind of disease. 

I carefully tossed the blanket on her and she flinched inspecting the fabric. She rubbed the blanket in awe smiling a brilliant smile at me.

"Do you have a home?" I asked her trying to catch her gaze.

"Here." she answered, her voice as melodious as wind chimes in a breeze. I nodded, just as I thought. She was homeless. There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, but she just didn't seem...able to answer them. 

"Are you hungry? Tu faim?" I asked her in French. She nodded her head rapidly, though I didn't think she fully understood me. I led her to the entrance, and before we left I looked back one last time for the blue butterfly.
     

     One thing was for sure about this girl: She could eat like a horse. I had taken her to the nearest bakery, covering her with the blanket so that it would look as if she were just hiding a bathing suit.

 She nodded yes to every upsell and pointed to every sandwich and pastry in sight. I watched in amazement as she gulped down the food, and drank her orange juice only hiccuping when finished. She didn't talk much, but she didn't need to say anything, her face gave all her emotions away. 

While she was playing with her eyelashes, I leaned foreword talking quietly.

"Are you homeless?" I asked. She looked confused her blue eye rolling under her pulled eyelid. 

"I woke up." she said plainly. "I heard 'if only' and woke up." I scratched my head remembering my now disgusting hair. Well that didn't help. She could have heard me when I was talking to the butterfly. I ran a hand over my chin, not quite sure what to say. I had taken 2 strangers under my wing today and it only left me with more questions, and an empty fuckin' wallet. Where was Enoch and who was this girl?

"What's your name?" I asked. She looked at me blankly.

"I, I don't know." she said absently rubbing the blanket between her slender fingers. I gave her a look.

"Come on, you really don't know your own name?" she looked at me, her eyes worried.

"No, am I supposed to have one? Do you have one?" I couldn't help but smile at her plight. Maybe she had mental issues.

"My name's Jonah, like the guy in the big fish." I joked.
She looked at me seriously and opened her mouth like she wanted to say something.

"Can I have a name?" she asked, her blanket slipping off her shoulder, I lunged to pull it up.

"Sure." I played along. "What do you like? Qu'est que Tu aimes faire?" she stared hard at the table, her defined eyebrows knitting together. 

"Well, I don't know." she replied giving up.

"Okay, well for now, can I call you..." I looked around for inspiration, my eye landing on a starfish lamp. "Lumiere?" 
Her face lit up like...well, like a lamp.

"That's it! Lumiere! Tres belle." she snapped, when she snapped, I saw electric blue veins pulsing beneath her caramel colored skin. Whoa...weird.

When I had paid and led her outside, I was unsure of what to do next. I couldn't leave her there, and I definitely couldn't take her home. But she needed help. She looked around blissfully humming to herself...Yeah, help was what she needed.

 I motioned for her to get in the car with me. She followed like an eager puppy sliding in. 

"Where are we going Jonah?" she asked putting her feet up on the dashboard. Concerned that people might see more than they wanted to today, I lowered her legs, she flinched away again. She didn't seem to trust people touching her.

"We're going back to the Butterfly Farm." I mumbled starting the car. Her eyes lit up. 

"Home!" she cried. I turned up the radio to drown out her incessant humming. It was playing some Usher song. 

"ah, they always play this song in France." I said wearily turning the channel. We hit a classical station. A familiar tune wafted throughout the car. I relaxed. Lumiere leaned foreword in her chair fingering the buttons on the stereo.

"No no, don't turn it." I said nudging her hand away. 

"What is this music?" she asked in wonder. I smiled.

"Madama Butterfly." 
     
     When I was 7 my mother took me to the opera. I had whined and begged the whole ride to go home and she said nothing, her jaw set and hands gripping the steering wheel. She wore a floor length dress and I, a childs tuxedo. 

When we finally parked in front of the opera house, my mum turned off the car shifting her body to me abruptly. Her look scared me so much, my sobbing ceased.

"Jone. You will go into this opera house and you WILL act like the perfect little gentleman you normally are." I looked into her hazel eyes quite afraid. She led me out of the car and into the house. 

Light from chandeliers bathed everything in champagne light. Glittering diamonds dripped from every young lady's dress. The men dashing in their day coats and pant stripes. As a child, I thought these people were royalty. But now, I realized that they were merely the commonfolk of Paris, playing dressup after 8. My mother dug her tickets from her clutch letting my hand go.

 I looked up at a poster promotion for 'Le Fantôme de l'Opéra'. It was HUGE and black and white and had a rose. Maybe my mother was taking me here! I remembered thinking excitedly. She pulled me into the brightly lit theatre searching for our seats. We were in the middle row, fairly close to the stage. Soon after the lights dimmed and music rang from every crevice of the large room. 

I sat at the edge of my chair waiting for the phantom to burst from the curtains. Or maybe he would fly down, like god? Instead, the curtains opened revealing a woman. Her song began slow, terrible and heart-wrenching. Even as a child I knew this was sad. 

Instead of complaining about not seeing the ghost opera, I watched in awe as the colourful sets changed along with the white faced prima Donnas outfits. Finally, with a long tear jerking note, the opera was fini. And I cried. Because the woman had died. The butterfly died. 
     Lumiere poked my side shyly, bringing me back to reality.

"Jonah, I think you passed it." she said looking behind her. I cursed under my breath backing up. 

"Shit." she parrotted as I parked. The way she pronounced it made it sound more like 'sheet.'

"That's not a nice word. I didn't mean to say that." I said guessing she didn't know any better. She leapt from the car tossing the blanket on the ground. By this time, the sun had come out and lit her hair aflame with colour. I slammed my door running after her and grabbing the blanket.

"Hey! Don't do that! Wait!" I hollered. She disappeared into the building. Oh no... I thought, people could be in there, CHILDREN could be in there. I ran in relieved to see there was no one there. The place was still empty. 

Lumiere was gone, the entrance to the habitat wide open. I rubbed my temples, extremely tired. When I opened my eyes I instantly looked at a plaque on the wall. It had the blue butterfly painted on it with neat stencil writing underneath. 

"That's who she reminds me of." I said running a hand over the dusted writing and starting to read:
'Blue Morphos lay many eggs in a year, but only live for 2 weeks. So PLEASE be careful with them, they would like to live a full life.'
I dropped a hand, staring hard at the picture of the butterfly. 

It looked JUST like Lumiere. I heard a door open behind me. A thin, reedy man with dreads walked in looking at me strangely.

"Eh, hello?" he said examining me. "you come for the Blue Morpho exhibit? Tours start at 3 and it's only 12 man." I ran a hand through my hair nervously.

"Enoch. Do you have a man that works here named Enoch?" the guy looked aghast.

"No man. Enoch not with us anymore." I sighed relieved. Okay, so he DID work here at one point. "Enoch died brother." he said.

 My heart nearly stopped.

"H-he what?" I stammered. "that's Impossible! I just gave him a ride here." the man looked at me skeptically setting his laptop bag on the counter. 

"Enoch was killed in a storm just like the one we had now hear? Happened almost a year ago." my head spun. Was Enoch a ghost? I felt in my pocket for the cigarette, it was still there. I swallowed.

"And a girl! A girl she, she..." I listened to myself sounding extremely stupid. And then I remembered what Enoch said. What he said about unexplainable things happening. I looked back at the picture of the Blue Morpho, putting two and two together.
Was Lumiere a...butterfly?