Butterfly Blunders

Butterfly Blunders

If you are fortunate enough to walk the corridor of York’s Wild Kingdom Butterfly Conservatory next summer you may well see the portrait of an innocent looking toddler smiling down upon you. Don’t be deceived by his rosy complexion, and large eyes. His picture is there for the same reason the grocery stores in town display bad checks. He broke the rules.
It was a beautiful summer day when we made the trip to York. The children enjoyed the animal shows and watching all the different species on display in the zoo. They were particularly enthralled by the new butterfly conservatory. The whole space is like a beautiful garden. Luminescent winged butterflies flit among all the flowers and soft music played in the background. One blue winged butterfly from Costa Rica made a landing in the walkway. Our youngest son was very taken by how brightly colored his wings were and he stooped down to get a better look. He was trying to be so careful, and his movements were exaggerated by his caution. I stooped down beside him, camera in hand, and snapped a precious shot of our son’s curious wonder as the Blue Morpho butterfly stretched out its’ wings. As our son went to stand up he lost his footing and tripped, stepping on the poor butterfly.
I stood there in shock. Our son stood there with his bottom lip pouting and tears welling in his eye. He was almost three, and he realized what he did. As my husband realized what happened he said, “Oh No!” Those words reverberated off the glass walls of the conservatory into everyone’s ears. The reaction of the entire visiting audience was they turned around and looked at our small son in the middle of the conservatory, woefully watching the struggling butterfly lying on the walkway.
I quickly went to get some professional help. As I scooped up my young son and left the scene I left my bewildered husband to fend off the accusing glances on his own. It didn’t help when our 4 year old son said in a loud voice, “Hey, there was a sign that said, “NO STEPPING ON BUTTERFLIES!” “ How very helpful this proclamation was!
As the zookeeper gently lifted the injured butterfly off the walkway onto a comforting leaf she tried to reassure us. “It happens all the time”, “accidents happen”, “I’m sure he’ll be fine” and my favorite, “Don’t worry, there are three more left in Costa Rica, I’m sure they won’t mind giving us one.” Okay, she didn’t really say that. But I imagined it in my head. I also conjured up an international incident that ended in environmentalists picketing at our driveway. But, luckily I reigned in my imagination before it could be expressed on my face.
As we left the conservatory there was a heavy lull in the air and the poor little butterfly was in insect ICU. As we walked down the mirrored corridor exit our little toddler was trying to absorb it all. “Mommy, I killed the butterfly” he said sadly. We tried to distract him with other exhibits. And as 3 year old children do, he recovered quickly and was on to the next adventure in no time at all.

A few weeks ago my husband and I got away for a weekend to ourselves. As part of the trip we stopped at another butterfly conservatory in Deerfleld, Massachusetts. Beautiful benches graced the walkways, arbors dripped with flowering vines, soft classical music played in the background. A thick mist rose up from the walkways and the small pools of water, filled with brightly colored fish. The whole scene was breathtakingly serene. My husband and I sat on a bench, enjoying the beautiful winged flowers flitting about us. As we took in the whole experience someone’s kids came running along the wooden path, with no caution about the delicate creatures all around them. For all they knew rugby season had opened. I looked at my husband. We were keenly aware we were on vacation this particular weekend. “Not our problem now” I said. “Nope, not this time!” We sat back and breathed an audible sigh of relief. If there were any “Oh No’s” uttered this time they did not belong to us.


Kimberly Mihelich