Robert Davey

Chrysalis

Another bright afternoon when she had a migraine, so he took his small son for a walk. Wading through a field of tall grass, he pointed out moth cocoons attached to some of the grass stems, telling the boy about the life cycle of moths and butterflies. He let him take two of the grass stalks home.

The boy put them in a vase on the window sill. Nothing happened for two whole days. When he got up early on the third morning a burnet moth, black with red spots, was high on the window. One cocoon was an empty wisp. From the other, only half emerged, hung something shriveled and still.

twin sister
the umbilical cord
around her neck