In a hill far away from civilisation, lived a colony of bugs. It was a quaint little bug town. The bugs who lived there came in all shapes, sizes and colours. Every day, you would see the town at its peak at the morning market. And it was during one of the usual morning market where it all started.
Madame Lady Bug was one of Bug Town's oldest resident. Being one of the town's oldest resident, she was made to be one of the council members. Queen Bee was the mayor of Bug Town. There had been peace for as long as anyone could remember.
One day, a new bug moved into Bug Town. She was a millipede and her name was Milli Snow. Why Snow? Because she was an albino. And she wasn't the usual millipedes that were in Bug Town. She was shorter and bigger as she was a pill millipede. Milli Snow had a pet whose name was Ghost. Ghost was abandoned as a maggot and would have died if Milli did not rescue it. Ghost was very loyal to Milli Snow. Ghost took upon himself to be Milli's protector.
When Milli moved into Bug Town, she was amazed by the town's peace and tranquility. It was unlike any other place she had known. Her neighbours were kind and helpful too. They didn't judge her because she was an albino.
After a few weeks had passed, Milli and Ghost finally settled down. They decided it was time to visit the morning market.
As they browsed by the stalls, they were greeted by a friendly voice,
"Hello there! You must be our new resident!"
Milli turned around and saw a very beautiful ladybug. Milli smiled and replied, "Yes, I am. I'm Milli Snow and this is Ghost."
The ladybug nodded at Ghost and smiled at Milli and said, "I'm Madame Lady Bug. Welcome to Bug Town."
Milli Snow wanted to get some fruits but it was hung up too high up for her to reach. Madame Lady Bug requested the stall owner to help bring it down for Milli. The owner was busy and asked Madame Lady Bug to fly up and help get it for Milli. Madame Lady Bug was incensed at the suggestion and was about to give a piece of her mind to him. But Ghost flew up and got the fruits for Milli. Milli felt it was weird that Madame Lady Bug would be bristled by such a non-threatening suggestion. But she came to the conclusion that most likely Madame Lady Bug wasn't feeling well enough to fly. She did seem rather elderly.
The three of them started spending a lot of time together. Madame Lady Bug would always drop by Milli's place with all sorts of flowers and fruits. And she would bring them for walks around Bug Town.
Milli did ask around about Madame Lady Bug not being able to fly. No one knew the exact story. No one seemed to remember Madame Lady Bug flying about. No one had ever been to her bug hut either. Milli thought that it was strange but did not give it much thought. Maybe Madame Lady Bug had injured her wings. Maybe she preferred to visit others instead of the other way round.
As time went by, Milli felt a bit uncomfortable as Madame Lady Bug would to try to 'change' Milli. When Milli wanted to buy a particular new pair of sunglasses at the morning market, Madame Lady Bug would 'persuade' her to change it to another one. Madame Lady Bug would 'gently insist' that the other one looked better on her even though Milli did not fancy that one.
When Milli wanted to go walk in the forest next to Bug Town during the night, Madame Lady Bug refused to let her go as she had a very frightful encounter in the forest when she was younger. Milli said that she would go with Ghost as she would really like to have a look. She had heard countless stories from her neighbours that it was a beautiful place during the night. Besides, some of the neighbours were going too and a band of them bugs would be formidable to any foe. Madame Lady Bug became so agitated and fearful that she was on the verge of a fainting spell. It really looked like she was going into a full-fledged panic attack. Milli decided not to go and accompanied Madame Lady Bug instead. Madame Lady Bug was relieved. She then told Milli that she was doing it for Milli's own good. All she ever wanted to do was to protect Milli.
And then Madame Lady Bug would feel upset if Milli didn't view certain things in the same light as she did. She felt that Milli didn't 'support' her. Milli found that the group of millipedes were a cool group to hang out with even though they were from a different subspecies and that they've never encountered an albino millipede before. They accepted her as she was. But Madame Lady Bug dissuaded her from doing so because she and the group of millipedes did not see eye to eye to how certain things in Bug Town was done. She was upset that even though she got the council to approve extra budget for the maintenance of their millipede hang-out, they could not even support her by agreeing with her. Milli told her that it was ok to agree to disagree. And that each and everyone had their own point of views. And that there was nothing wrong in doing so. Madame Lady Bug threw a fit and gave Milli the silent treatment for weeks.
Milli thought maybe Madame Lady Bug was right. She was 'elderly' after all. Maybe she did know better.
Milli went and apologised to Madame Lady Bug. Things became 'normal' again.
One day, Madame Lady Bug pulled Milli aside and suggested to her that the both of them should go for a short stay at the lake which was at the end of Bug Town.
"What about Ghost?" Milli asked.
"You shouldn't have rescued him Milly," said Madame Lady Bug in an exhausted tone. "He's a pest, not a pet. For bug's sake, he's a fly! He belongs at the place where all the pests live. Not with you!"
Milli was shocked. Ghost was her companion who had served her with no complains as he was grateful to her for rescuing him.
"How can you say that?! He's a living bug too!"
"You know nothing Milli Snow!" retorted Madame Lady Bug.
As they were arguing, the ground suddenly trembled.
As they both ran out of Milli's little cottage, bugs who could fly started flying away. Others crawled away as fast as they could. Ghost who was in the garden flew to Milli and hooked his legs around her to carry her up in the air.
Bugs started shouting that they saw tractors and bulldozers excavating right next to their town and that they were heading towards them. Soon their whole town would be in ruins.
As Ghost struggled to lift Milli up in the air, she screamed to Madame Lady Bug to fly.
"Fly Madame! FLY!!"
Two of Milli's neigbour flew towards them to help Ghost lift Milli as he struggled with lifting her up higher. As they lifted up, the ground shook even more.
Madame Lady Bug was knocked off her feet and her wings fluttered on automatic response. To Milli's horror, hundreds of tiny little crates flew out from under Madame Lady Bug’s wings and scattered in all directions. Madame Lady Bug frantically tried to collect them and stuff them back under her wings. And then they dropped out again as she flew around in a panic frenzy. And as she tried to collect them, the ground shook and opened up. It swallowed Madame Lady Bug alive.
The residents who made it out alive from Bug Town congregated at the Forest.
Queen Bee said that the whole area was being torn down. Soon the Forest would be next. They could not take refuge in the Forest for long. Queen Bee said that scouts were sent out to locate a safe place to move to. And they would be back with word soon. And they would all move out at the break of dawn.
Milli spoke up and said, “I need to go back to check on whether there are others who had made it out alive. They would need our help.”
The bugs voiced their disapproval. It was too dangerous and risky. Milli said that she would be back before dawn. She would hide in the darkness of the night and be alert. She needed to do this. She then left with Ghost.
When they got back to Bug Town, there was nothing that resembled it anymore. It looked like a major hurricane had ripped through their town. Milli and Ghost went to the spot where they saw Madame Lady Bug got swallowed alive. And they began to dig. As they dug, they came across the miniature crates that had flew out from under Madame Lady Bug’s wings. They set them aside. After they had dug for half an hour, they finally found Madame Lady Bug. But she was already gone. Even when faced with death, she would not let go off those miniature crates. Milli then opened them, one by one. Milli gasped when she saw what was inside them. Inside every single crate, were pictures of different bugs with a big red X crossed over their faces! And every picture had a date written on it and what they had done to her.
“Mr. Centipede spread vicious lies about me saying that I had said horrible things about him,” written on Mr. Centipede’s picture.
“They laughed at me and called me ugly because I had mud splattered all over me,” written on the picture of The Butterfly Sisters.
“She IGNORED me,” written on another picture.
“He wouldn’t follow MY way,” said another picture.
“She disagreed with me,” written on Milli’s picture.
Every picture was the same. The pictures were crossed by a big red X, the offence and the date it happened.
Milli cried as Ghost hugged her. Madame Lady Bug chose a life of keeping all these crates filled with hurt, resentment, bitterness and anger under her wings than to live a life with the freedom to fly. She chose death over life. Milli had never felt so sad in her entire millipede life.
Suddenly, Milli noticed a crate which was still stuck under Madame Lady Bug’s wing. She and Ghost tried to remove it but they realised that it had been under her wings for such a long time that it was fused as one with her tiny body. Milli and Ghost pulled the crate with such force that it broke and out fell many faded pictures. One of the pictures was a picture of two adult lady bugs hugging many mini lady bugs. Everyone was in the group hug except for one mini lady bug in the background. That bug was crying.
Written in red bold letters across the picture, “THEY CHOSE THEM OVER ME!”
On other pictures were written:
“THEY BLAMED ME FOR EVERYTHING.”
“THEY TOLD ME TO GO KILL MYSELF FOR I WAS NOT WORTH IT.”
“SHE SLAPPED ME BECAUSE SHE HAD A BAD DAY.”
“HE KICKED ME AND CRACKED MY SHELL.”
They buried Madame Lady Bug and all her miniature crates. Milli had one last thing she had to do before they went back to the Forest. She told Ghost to bring her to a place.
The little hut was in ruins but they both somehow managed to enter. What appeared before them was even more shocking. Thousands upon thousands of broken miniature crates were strewn all over the place with even more pictures marked with big red Xs. This was why no one was ever invited to Madame Lady Bug’s hut. Milli went around digging and searching. She then finally found what she knew would be there.
In the midst of the rubble, stood a jewelled crate. As she opened it, there was another very old, faded and torn picture of the same ladybug family.
Not only was the picture marked repeatedly with huge, red Xs, it was pierced over and over again with something sharp.
“I HATE THEM!!!!!!!!!” was written in bold letters.
And in very bright, red ink, this was written at the back of the picture, “THEY ABANDONED ME! THEY SAID THEY DID NOT LOVE ME!”
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“Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving someone’s offense or betrayal. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim – letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor.” ― C.R. Strahan
