The days passed by slower than Jenny could have ever imagined. She had decorated the cage for the occasion. She picked lots of different wildflowers, sticks, and leaves, so instead of that white floor, Frankenbug could wake up to lovely shades of pink, yellow, purple, and green. She even managed to stand an especially large branch straight up so that it looked like a tiny tree in there.

It was beautiful.

She hoped Frankenbug would appreciate it, since she worked so hard on everything. She wanted to surprise him and if she were a bug, she would love it inside of there now.

Today was day five with no Frankenbug. Jenny repeatedher same routine of staring at the cage and waiting. Today she had a good feeling and had been waiting for hours just staring…

waiting…

Jenny refused to look away. She wasn’t going to miss Frankenbug coming out of his Chrysalis no matter how bored she was while waiting.

…

Jenny’s eyes opened and she picked her head up. She must have dozed off while waiting for Frankenbug to come out. She looked inside the cage and there he was!

He looked completely different from last time. His caterpillar skin had a harder, shinier look to it. He had fewer legs than last time and his back legs were much larger. He was huge! Frankenbug was bigger than Jenny’s hand now. He almost doubled in size!

She watched him explore his new surroundings with the pride of a loving mother. This was so much better than playing with dolls. She clapped her hands and hopped on her toes.

“Good morning Frankenbug, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. I was worried that you wouldn’t come out and I wouldn’t get to see you today and I couldn’t wait to surprise you with the flowers and and and I’m glad you like them,”

Jenny paused for air. There was so much she wanted to tell him. “And guess what… Today at school Tommy peed his pants and started crying so he went home early and it was really funny, did you have a good day? Does it get hot in there? Do you like flowers? I hope you do! I brought you a water dish cuz pets need those. Sorry it’s just a cereal bowl, I can’t let Mommy know you’re here. I wanna get your name on a bowl, but I’m not supposed to have a pet, so we have to keep you a secret from Mommy.”

Frankenbug climbed the net in response to Jenny. She liked to think he understood everything. He was a much better listener than Mommy. She wished he could talk, but that was okay.

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Over the next few weeks, Jenny was a good Mommy to Frankenbug. She talked to him every day even if he was in a new chrysalis. He continued to grow larger but less growth happened every time.

Frankkenbug would look slightly different depending on what she fed to him, but the changes were also becoming less Noticeable. He started spending more and more time outside of the Chrysalis until it would be days between when he would hide back in his chrysalis. Amazingly enough, no matter how big Frankenbug got, his Chrysalis was the same tiny size. He would somehow bubble and shrink down into it every time.

Whether in a chrysalis or out of it, Jenny talked to Frankenbug a lot. She enjoyed spending time with him and he was slowly becoming her best friend. It was nice to have someone to talk to since Daddy still hadn’t come back from his job.

When Frankenbug was hungry, he would climb on the net to tell Jenny. That made Jenny happy, but it was getting harder to feed him just bugs. She had started bringing him things from the fridge to eat, but h would only eat meat and bones. As long as it came from an animal or bug, Frankenbug happily ate every bit. Jenny Brought him leftovers and whatever bones she could sneak into her room.

…

It happened one afternoon when Jenny was having her after school conversation with Frankenbug telling him about her day. Frankenbug was a good listener as usual.

“Hi Frankenbug, Guess what! We had a spelling bee today and I got third place and..”

“Down,” A croaky, strained voice said.

Jenny thought she must have been imagining things.

“What?” She said.

“Down,” Frankenbug said in a strained voice, louder this time while climbing onto the net.

This time, it was unmistakable, Frankenbug just spoke.

Jenny was stunned into silence. She just stood there, blinking wide eyes in wonder.

“Y-you can talk?” She said, still trying to understand how that was possible.

“Down!” Frankenbug said it louder while moving down from the net and onto the floor of his cage. All the while looking at her expectantly.

“You can talk!” Jenny shrieked in excitement. It was like one of her magical stories.

“Down!”

“Oh,” Jenny realized why he must be saying that. “Are you hungry?”

…

Down!”

Jenny checked her alarm clock, 4:30 AM Saturday. She liked to get up early for Saturday morning cartoons, but this was ridiculous. There were times this week that she wished Frankenbug would go into his chrysalis already, but no. Instead, he insisted on waking her up whenever he felt hungry.

Jenny silently apologized to God for every time she had woken her Mom up when she had a nightmare or needed her to check under the bed for monsters.

Frankenbug was so loud, that she had to close the closet door he was in and stuff clothes under it so Mommy wouldn’t hear him. Why was he so insistent on keeping her awake?

“Go back to sleep.” Jenny Grumbled.

“No.” This week, Frankenbug had learned a new word and it was the wrost new word in history. That made for an impressively frustrating vocabulary of: ‘No’ and ‘Down’.

“Fine!” Jenny said, hopping off her bed with a dramatic thud. She scowled. It was his fault that her feet were cold right now. “If I feed you, will you be quiet?!”

“Down!” The word came out with a touch of agreement.

Jenny didn’t trust it, but she was desperate to get him to shut up. She would just grab something from the fridge and call it a night.