Page 46 of Butterfly

“I killed him while he slept.Idid that.”

“Only after you saw what he’d done to Leo, your little brother who you were so desperate to protect. The brother you sacrificed your happiness and well-being for. You’re not a monster, Ollie, and if you ask Leo, I imagine he’ll say the same. You don’t have to be his protector anymore; you don’t have to be a punchbag or a buffer. You can be hisbrothernow.”

“What if I don’t know how to do that?”

Jarvis gave him a soft smile. “You’ll learn.”

7

Pentothepaper,Ollie bit his lip, wondering what else to write to Leo. He’d told his brother how great it was to hear from him, that he was pleased he’d made friends, and that he was happy their auntie Maggie was taking good care of him.

Then his mind went blank.

A tap at the cell door interrupted him, and he glanced up to see Green.

“You up for a game?”

Ollie shot him a smile. “Give me fifteen minutes, and I’ll be there.”

Green left, and Ollie put the pen back to the page, and then he began to write. He told Leo about Green, Jack and Jonesy and how they played pool together every day. He wrote about Captain, who not only looked out for him but others on the wing too. He told Leo about the classes he’d been doing, that he loved art and was sending one of his sketches to prove he wasn’t all talk and was actually good. He even gave Leo the rundown on the meals, which were good and which should be avoided at all costs, and then he drew a blank when it came to Teddy-

It wasn’t that he had nothing to say about Teddy; it was the opposite.

He didn’t know where to begin, or where to end.

My cellmate, Teddy…

He was thirteen years older than Ollie; he’d been at the prison for over a decade after being charged when he was twenty. His verbal communication was limited to grunts, groans, growls, and sighs, but he could read, and his face was a map Ollie had learned to understand.

Everyone could tell when Teddy was angry, but Ollie knew his exact expression for stomach cramps or for when he was staring into space contemplating the universe.

It wasn’t quite a superpower, but Ollie wouldn’t have traded it for one.

Teddy loved nature; he loved even the creepiest of insects and was always there to scoop a spider up into his hand. He’d let it crawl across his palms, marvelling at the creature while Ollie gagged into a pillow at the sight of it. Ollie had awoken to one on his chest and screamed in a panic. Teddy flung himself out of bed, fists at the ready, only to laugh at Ollie hyperventilating at one end of the bed while a spider the size of a dinner plate evil-eyed him from his pillow.

He made sure to put in the letter he was not exaggerating the size of the spider. It had clearly escaped from a zoo or a personal collection of prehistoric spiders.

From that day on, Teddy inspected the cell for spiders every night before they went to sleep, and if he found one, he thumped on the cell door violently enough for an officer to check on them, and then threw it through the hatch.

More often than not, the officer screamed too.

“See?” Ollie would say with a raised eyebrow. “They’re terrifying.”

Teddy would smilethatsmile and shake his head.

Above all, Teddy loved butterflies. When Ollie had asked him why, Teddy opened up the dictionary, more than happy to share where his love came from.

It had taken all night for Teddy to point the words out, but Ollie hadn’t cared.

It had been after his operation, when he was recovering in the hospital bed, that he saw the butterflies. A purple buddleia was planted beneath the window, and he’d catch them flittering past. When he was well enough to leave his bed, he only went to the bathroom or to the garden, where he sat watching the butterflies.

It was a long recovery.

They were there every day, giving him something to focus on other than the loss of his voice, the constant droning headache, and the paralysis in his right side.

To Teddy, the butterflies were a sign of beauty, hope, and life.

Ollie drew them, and they covered the wall beside Teddy’s bed.

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