Lonely Milli
CHERYL RAO
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Milli was happy in her home with all her friends and family. And then one day Manoj carried her away to a new place.
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There was once a large family of millipedes. They were always together, moving around in a wriggling heap of legs and more legs, eating rotting leaves and bark as they came upon them on the ground. No one could tell where one millipede ended and the other began.
One day, one of the millipedes turned away to look at the feet that were passing by on the driveway where they lived. When at last she realised that there was no one touching her any more, she turned back and began to hurry in the direction her family had taken. There was something something smooth on the road and she slid across it, her many legs slipping and making her long body go from side to side.
Suddenly, she found herself up in the air. She clung to the ‘florr’ and peeped over the edge. She felt a bit dizzy when she realised that she was on a piece of paper high above the ground. Manoj, a small boy who lived in the house at the end of the driveway, had put the paper on the road to make her crawl onto it.
New home
Manoj took Mili home and put her in a large shoe box. There were leaves spread out on the bottom, some damp and some dry. Milli began to eat. She was hungry. After she finished her meal she looked around the box. There was a rolled up cocoon in one corner. She went up to it and tried to get it to move and talk to her, but it wouldn’t. Milli was bored and lonely and she wanted to escape.
A short while later, the cocoon began to open and a lovely yellow and black butterfly flew out. Manoj clapped his hands with delight as the butterfly flew out of the window. “I must try to do that,” thought Milli. “Then I can get away from here.”
Milli moved around the shoe box, turning and twisting, hoping to become a cocoon, but nothing happened. At last, tired and hopeless, she curled herself into a circle and lay still.
“It’s dead!” cried Manoj.
Manoj’s mother looked into the box. Milli wasn’t moving. “You can’t keep a millipede inside the house!” she said.
“I want it to turn into a red butterfly, then I’ll let it go,” said Manoj.
“Millipedes aren’t caterpillars. They don’t change into butterflies. They stay millipedes,” said Manoj’s mother.
Manoj was disappointed. He put a twig into the box and lifted Milli out. Then he took it out into the garden and tossed it away. The twig landed near the bricks lining the flower bed and Milli slipped off. Nearby were a heap of red millipedes just like Milli. Some of them touched her as they moved closer.
Milli stirred. There was movement all around her. “I’m home!” she cried, strength returning to her many, many legs. She wriggled in between the group. In a little while she was a part of them, feeling their bodies against her, bumping into their legs, getting entangled, slipping, sliding, happy.
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