The Chrysalis on the Branch

A grey chrysalis hangs on a lilac branch, and Grandma says there is a butterfly inside. It does not move for an hour, then it cracks — and it looks stuck. Helping with one finger would be so easy.

A chrysalis hangs on a lilac branch — grey and hard-looking. Alice crouches down to wait. It does not move at all, and a hand reaches out by itself: touching is not allowed. By lunch a crack appears along its back and something stirs faintly inside — and the hand reaches out again. Then the crack stops growing altogether, for half an hour. It looks as if the butterfly is stuck and will not get out unhelped. Alice puts the hand behind their back, fetches a stool and sits down opposite. The crack opens a little wider and something dark and wet shows through, nothing like a butterfly at all. The hand reaches out a third time. So Alice sits down on both hands — that way they are busy and cannot help. The wet lump climbs out by itself, hangs upside down, its wings crumpled like paper. They unfold very slowly, unhelped. By evening the butterfly flies off to the apple tree, and an empty chrysalis is left on the branch.