The Caterpillar King

by Noah Pearlstone

  The king looked like I’d spit on his crown. “What were you expecting? Riches? Love? Everything will be yours in time. Our power is growing. Humans do not accept you. To them, you are-”

  “A hideous, detestable creature. Yeah, I heard you the first time.”

  The king shook his head. “It’s funny,” he said.

  “I’m not laughing,” I said.

  “We think we are different but it isn’t so. There is one common goal between us: freedom. Freedom from humans. Freedom from memories. Freedom from food or life or ourselves. My dream…is to be beholden to nothing and no one.”

  “Good luck with that,” I said.

  “Exactly,” said the king. “It is the greatest modern illusion. This idea of...choice.”

  “I’m free,” I said.

  “Are you?” said the king. “Let’s test that. Come in, you two.”

  High-pitched and low and gruff waddled in. Great. Tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. Just who I wanted to see.

  “Get rid of him,” said the king.

  “How do you mean?” asked high-pitched. “Take him upstairs, or bury him?”

  “Whichever you prefer,” said the king. “But I never want to see Castor Blue’s face again.”

  20.

  I could’ve splattered both bugs in one step. Their guts would’ve lined the cracks of my shoes, their blood would’ve sunk into the Earth. But that wouldn’t have helped me. Without them, there was nowhere to go. The way I’d come in looked like a solid wall. I could’ve crushed their whole society, but I would’ve been trapped. These bugs might’ve been the end of me, but they were my only chance at getting out alive.

  We walked out of the king’s room and back into the lobby. I saw the green secretary. She looked smug.

  “Pleasant meeting, Mr. Blue?” she asked.

  “I’ve never had a pleasant meeting in my life,” I said.

  “I hope you find the preparation room more to your liking,” she said.

  “Depends,” I said. “Will you be there?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “Then I’ll like it just fine,” I said.

  Low and gruff and high-pitched led me to the door on the left.

  “This isn’t the way out, is it?” I said.

  “If you want to live, you’ll follow us,” said high-pitched.

  “And if I don’t?” I said.

  “We can take care of that here, too,” he said.

  “Win-win,” I said.

  The door was solid oak, and they crawled right through it. I tried to do the same thing, but with less success. I slammed into the door like a blind bird. Then I gathered myself and opened it like a normal door. In the background, I heard Green Goddess laughing at me. I went inside and then I didn’t have to listen to her anymore.

  ***

  The room was lovely, dark, and deep. In the center, there was a raised platform. The Little Duck sat on it. She looked bored. Then she saw me.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” she said. “You?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “You’re a real sweetheart.”

  “Can you get him out of here?” she said to the caterpillars. “He’s disturbing me.”

  The two animals pushed at my feet. They were trying to lead me off. I didn’t move. Surprise.

  “You need to come with me,” I told her.

  “Hmmm…that’s probably not gonna happen,” she said.

  I got up close to her. I stood above her. She looked up at me. “Just like old times,” I said. “You sit in the dirt and act stubborn. In the meantime, I do the work.”

  “You don’t understand,” she said. “I don’t want your help. Or need it. I came down here by my own free will. They’ve treated me with kindness. They care about me. I’m choosing not to leave.”

  They’d gotten to her. They’d really done well. I’m sure it hadn’t been hard, but I was impressed just the same. “These are not your friends. Do you have any idea who these creatures are? Or what they will do to you?”

  “Let me guess: they’ll put me in a cocoon and entomb me in a giant statue and never let me go?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Pretty much.”

  “So what?” she said. “I’m a goddess to them. They’re going to pray to me. Can you imagine that? I mean something to them.”

  “You don’t think you’re important to your Mother? To Ned? To Amanti?”

  She frowned. “Ned blackmailed me,” she said.

  “Some people have a funny way of showing they care,” I said.

  Madeline wasn’t having it, though. But I had other problems. I needed to find a way out. I circled around her, looking for an exit. There wasn’t one. I turned my attention to the two bugs.

  “Who’s wrapping her up? And when?” I asked.

  “Who do you think?” said high-pitched. “We’ll start in a matter of minutes.”

  “This is all second nature to you. No big deal. Ending this girl’s life, sucking her dry. What about you, tough guy?” I nodded to low and gruff.

  “We need food,” he said. “We eat many small meals. Today, we have one big meal. Big meal is better.”

  I looked at Madeline. She was resting peacefully in the center. “He just called you a big meal. You’re fine with this? This is what you expected out of life?”

  “They like me,” she said. “They appreciate me. Maybe it’s not what I expected…but it’s what I want.”

  The Little Duck had been brainwashed. For all I knew, the whole world had been brainwashed. And when the whole world’s against you, you’re done. I slumped down against the wall.

  “But I do not like this.” I looked up to see low and gruff speaking. “It is not right.”

  “What?” said high-pitched.

  “We suffer. But we always suffer. We do not pass that on to other living creature. I see too many girls…we can take memory. But not life. Not again.”

  That got the Little Duck’s attention.

  “Wait…” she said. “You mean I’m not the first girl?”

  Low and gruff let out a coarse laugh. “No,” he said.

  “There’ve been countless,” said high-pitched. “Always, this one will save us. This one is the last we’ll ever need. It starts off well enough. Their memories sustain us like anyone else’s. But once the memories are used up, the girls aren’t long for this world. They end up just another corpse. The king is selling fool’s gold. This time, he’s built a shrine. He says it’s our fault, that we haven’t been faithful enough, haven’t prayed hard enough. It isn’t true. You’ll end up dead just like the rest.”

  “But…the king said I was special. You told me…” said the Little Duck.

  “Lies,” said low and gruff.

  The more he talked, the more I got to like him.

  “We should not be saying such things,” said high-pitched. “We could be executed for treason.”

  “Go ahead,” said low and gruff. “What life is this, anyway? Steal to save ourselves. Better dead.” He paused. “We let them go.”

  High-pitched looked stunned. “I have a family,” he said. “If the king sees we haven’t produced anything…”

  Nobody talked for a minute. We were at a stand-still. But I saw an opening. I’m good at seeing things like that.

  “Seems like an old guy would be a lot more valuable,” I said. “More memories to consume.”

  “Actually,” said high-pitched. “We find elders’ memories lack the clarity and detail which nourishes-”

  “That is not his meaning,” said low and gruff.

  High-pitched looked from him to me. “So what are you saying?”

  “The king gave me some business lessons, and I took them to heart. How about a trade? You wrap me up, but let the girl go.”

  The Little Duck piped up. “No!” she said. “I mean…the king said he could feel my power. He’ll be able to tell the difference.”

  “He tells that to all the girls,” said high-pitched. “As long as the cocoon is big, and there’s
a heartbeat inside, we’ll be fine. But we must start immediately.”

  Madeline shook her head. “You can’t do this.”

  “You’re going to stop me?” I said.

  I sat down in the circle next to her. “Wrap me up, boys,” I said.

  “Can’t we find a dog or something? Please,” said Madeline.

  Low and gruff looked around. “I see no dog. And you?”

  High-pitched spoke up. “I don’t approve of this,” he said. “We are putting the kingdom at risk. The prophecy-”

  “It is a joke,” said low and gruff. “No truth has ever come from the prophet.”

  “But we must respect him…” said high-pitched.

  While they went back and forth, I looked at the Little Duck. She didn’t move.

  “I…” she said. She got a little teary-eyed. It was pathetic. “None of this should’ve happened. And it’s my fault. Now I’m supposed to go back up there and live with this?”

  “I need to get some sleep, anyway,” I said. “I can’t complain.”

  She smiled. “When I met you, I thought you were just another weird, creepy old guy. And…I was right,” she said. “But you’re more than that, too.”

  “This is touching,” I said. “Now get out.”

  “Tell me why you’re doing this. For someone you hardly even know.”

  I thought about that. “I don’t need to know you well. It’s always been easier to help strangers, at least for me. There’s no expectation involved, no responsibility. If your brother’s sick, well, you have to go help your brother. If your mom is broke, you have to lend her some money. But with a stranger, I can help or not. It’s my choice. It’s as close to freedom as I can get.”

  “And your “choice” is to be buried alive?”

  “I’ve always wanted someone to pray to me,” I said.

  She laughed. “One more thing. You remember this?” She pulled out a crumpled slip of paper. She unfolded it. It said “Castor Blue, Private Investigator.” My old card.

  “Take it.” She tried to hand it to me, but I stopped her.

  “It’s yours. Besides, I won’t have much use for it where I’m going.”

  “You’re wrong,” she said. She pushed it into my hands and clasped hers around mine. “It’s a memory. And maybe…I don’t know. Maybe it’ll keep you alive for a little while longer.”

  I looked at the card in my hand. “Thanks kid,” I said. “Now get going. Is there an exit?” I asked the bugs.

  “Yes,” said high-pitched. “Right through here.” He motioned to a dark spot in the wall.

  “Go,” I said.

  Madeline stood, but she hesitated. I lay down on my back and the two caterpillars crawled up onto my face. They started working their way around my forehead. Feet trampled across me. It almost tickled. But the string gripped my head like a thin, tight vice.

  Madeline looked back again.

  “Take care,” I said.

  She nodded. She turned and walked toward the wall. The caterpillars worked down to my eyes. The last thing I saw was her long legs walking away from me. It wasn’t a bad way to go.

  September 30, 2038

  In a Ditch (Again)

  21.

  I spent two more weeks at the bottom of a ditch. Including my last ditch stay, that made five weeks total. I believe that is an unhealthy amount of time to spend underground. This time, I didn’t even have the sticks and rocks, or Tika, or anything to distract me. I just had my three gold coins. It wasn’t much fun at all. But one day, when I was looking up at the sky, something appeared. It blocked out the most of the light.

  “Hello?” I called.

  I realized it was a silhouette, and it looked like it could’ve been a person’s head. The light hit the person’s hair just so, and I could see it was scruffy and gray. I was about to call out again, but then whoever it was disappeared.

  “Wait!” I said. But they were already gone.

  Feeling disappointed and a little hopeless, I started to sit back down. But then I realized somebody was behind me. With a quick spin, I came to face to face with a tall, dark man. I held my gold coins up so I could see his face. Much to my surprise, it was Old Guy.

  “Hey!” I said. I couldn’t have been happier to see him. There are times when anything that brings to mind the past can put a smile on your face. “What’re you doing here?”

  Old Guy pointed at his finger. There was a gold, glowing ring on it.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “You’ve got a ring. I’ve got coins…You want to trade?”

  Old Guy shook his head. Then he started playing charades. He pretended to be someone sitting in a chair.

  “That’s a really good invisible chair,” I said.

  Then he acted like he had long hair, which he flicked behind his ear. He batted his eyelashes a few times, too.

  “A woman?” I said.

  He nodded with excitement. For the next part, he drew his fingers around his neck into a point. At the point, he made an imaginary circle.

  “A necklace?” I said.

  He clapped and cheered.

  “The necklace…a woman…the woman with the necklace! The one I met? You know her?”

  He pointed to the ring on his finger again.

  “You’re married to her?”

  He gave a grim nod. Then, without warning, he grabbed me by the hand and led me straight into a wall. I closed my eyes right before impact. But the crash I’d expected never came. When I opened my eyes again, Old Guy was dragging me down a dark tunnel.

  “Thanks for getting me out of there,” I said. Then I heard something scream. And I thought maybe I shouldn’t be prematurely thankful.

  Old Guy took me down a rocky, uneven staircase. He didn’t seem to be in the mood for conversation. I, on the other hand, was having some very serious thoughts. If that woman had been my mother, and Old Guy was married to her….

  “By the way,” I said to Old Guy. “Are you my dad?”

  We stopped in front of a door. He looked at me and smiled. And then he pushed the door open.

  Inside, it looked like a very old person’s bedroom. Maybe it was even his room. The bed was the main attraction. It had four posts and curtains covering every side. I went up to it and drew back one of the curtains. Nobody was under the white covers. But on second glance, I noticed a pure white caterpillar lying on top of the covers.

  “Tika!” I said.

  She didn’t respond, though. I yelled her name a couple more times, but to no effect. It took me a moment to recognize the deep, calm pattern of her breathing. She was sound asleep.

  “Come on,” I said. “We’ve got to get out of here. I think…there’s a woman here who might be my mother or a witch or both, and she trapped me underground again, and somehow I managed to escape, and I swear I’m not going in the ditch a third time. So wake up.”

  Still nothing. Tika really did not pick the best times for a nap. I reached down and shook her back and forth a little, just to see if anything would happen. Her breathing didn’t change one bit. I looked back to Old Guy for help, and he started with charades again. First, he imitated a woman. Then, he picked up a stick that was on the ground. He aimed it at Tika. After he waved it around in the air, he brought it down like a whip. Then he ran around to the other side and fell on the ground, where he pretended to sleep.

  “The woman put a spell on Tika, causing her to fall into a deep sleep?” I guessed.

  Old Guy hopped to his feet and gave me the thumbs up. Sometimes, you really get on the same page as your charades partner. It’s great. But just knowing what was wrong didn’t mean I could fix it.

  If Tika was cursed, no amount of screaming and shouting would wake her. What could I do? Pour a bucket of water over her head? No, I already knew the answer. There’s only one thing that can wake a sleeping girl who’s been put under a spell: I had to give her a kiss.

  The thought wasn’t a pleasant one, but it was my last hope. I went to the bed and pulled
the curtain aside. Then I took a deep breath, leaned in, closed my eyes, and…

  “That is not going to have much of an effect.” It was a woman’s voice. I stopped about an inch from Tika and turned to look. It was the woman from my memory.

  “But don’t let me interrupt,” she said. “Please.”

  “What do you want with my friends?” I said. “I know you’re some kind of witch.”

  She looked angry at that. “Who told you?” she said.

  “A squirrel,” I said.

  She shook her head. “He can’t keep his mouth shut.”

  Then she approached me. At first, I closed my eyes and shielded myself, waiting for her to curse me. But when I opened my eyes, she was just standing in front of me, a curious expression on her face.

  “You look so young,” she said. “Almost too young.”

  “To be your son?” I said.

  She laughed at that. “No,” she said. “You aren’t my son.”

  I felt a little bit heartbroken by that. “I really thought you might be…” I said. “You were my only memory.”

  “What’re you talking about? You mean the visions?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I thought it was a memory.”

  “Didn’t you notice how it changed each time? You were seeing the present moment. You were seeing what I wanted you to see. I gave you challenges to overcome, but I helped you along the way. I had to see if you were worthy.”

  “Of what? To be the savior?”

  “No,” she said, laughing. “I brought you here to be my next husband.”

  “What?” I said. It was like getting punched in the face and then kicked in the stomach. She wasn’t my mother, I wasn’t the savior, and now she wanted to marry me. I couldn’t believe it.

  “As you can see, my current husband is aging,” she pointed to Old Guy. “I do not share that curse. Therefore, I must replace my husband every so often. I’ve been waiting for a worthy one for years now. I sent him out to search, offering him freedom once he found a replacement. But nobody could pass all the tests.”