“I’ll catch them and then let them free,” he repeated, reassuringly.
And I smiled.
I smiled at the spark in his eyes. There was an excitement that reverberated throughout his being, escaping every now and then in little wisps and blowing gently over the barren pages of my mind.
I smiled at how important he thought it was to make me understand. And then I smiled because I did understand. I knew what it felt like to long for that fleeting touch; to cherish that tiny little moment of contact even as it slipped away; to yearn for the glimpse into another’s soul and to plunge into that infinitesimally brief escape from reality, knowing very well that it wouldn't last.
I smiled because I knew that he’d fly away someday, just like the butterflies he caught and the promises he made. And I smiled some more at how that knowledge didn't make a difference to me or to his butterflies, which fluttered around in my stomach whenever he was around. Restless.
I smiled at his wide-eyed, innocent conviction pushing through the skeptical walls I had built around myself, with it’s tiny hands. I had never seen anyone catch a butterfly, after all.
I smiled at the wonder of how a pebble-picking, feather-collecting daydreamer had come to share space-time with a soul-picking, heart-collecting butterfly catcher.
I smiled at how I could listen to him for hours, not noticing the shadows growing longer, not counting the falling leaves the tree above us shed and not feeling the sting of the mosquitoes in its shadow.
I smiled at how the rest of the world melted away when I was with him. Nothing else was real, except for the light in his eyes and the world he wove around us with his words, protecting us from the harsh reality that lay outside its delicate fabric- Our world.
I smiled in the safe knowledge that the moment we shared would last forever.
I smiled at the realization that moments and forever were not bound in time. I smiled because I learnt that forever was an infinite space in my heart, whose vast emptiness had been filled all at once in that moment.
I smiled because I was happy that my forever had been stolen by the butterfly catcher.
And I smiled because in all of our forever, I never actually saw him catch a butterfly.