The Tale of the Great Offense

           Madison and Summer the butterfly twins were playing with Hayden the turtle in the clearing near Polliwog Pond.  Summer and Madison chased each other around the clearing while Hayden watched.

            Madison went to make a wide loop around Summer, miscalculated, and ran full out into a cattail.  This knocked her sideways and she spiraled until she landed on the ground with a thud.  Hayden began to giggle.  This made Madison puff up like a blowfish.  She shot Hayden a nasty look and flew toward the pond in a huff.  Summer looked at Hayden with an apologetic look and flew off to join her sister.

            When the twins reached Polliwog Pond, they met Audra the duck swimming by herself.  “Good morning, Summer and Madison,” called Audra.

            “Good morning, Audra,” said Summer and Madison sort of mumbled the same.

            “What’s the matter, Madison?” asked Audra.

            “Oh, nothing,” she sighed.  “It doesn’t matter now.”

            For a while the three friends talked and giggled about Audra’s birthday party from the week before.  Suddenly, while Madison was talking, she half-hiccuped in the middle of a word and made a squeaking noise.  Summer and Audra looked at each other and began to giggle.  Madison’s face turned red and she flew away to the tall grass.

            Audra stopped giggling and asked Summer, “What did we do?”

            Summer replied, “Madison hates it when anyone laughs at her.  She thinks we are making fun of her even if that is not why we are laughing.”

            “Well, that’s dumb,” said Audra plainly.  “She needs to learn to not be so sensitive about everything.”

            “I know,” said Summer, “but right now I need to go find her and apologize.  This time I laughed at her, too.”

            Summer found Madison sitting on the top of a tall stem of grass pouting.  “Madison, I wasn’t laughing at you,” she apologized.  “I was laughing because of that squeaking noise you made.  It sounded so funny.”

            Madison looked at her sister and replied, “It was embarrassing to make that noise while I was trying to talk.  I hate it when that happens.”

            “Madison, it happens to everyone sometimes,” she said gently.  “If you learn to laugh at it too, it doesn’t seem so embarrassing anymore.”

            Just then Emerson the dragonfly flew up and landed on a nearby piece of grass.  “Good morning, Summer and Madison,” he said.

            “Good morning, Emerson,” said Summer and again Madison sort of mumbled the same.

            “Are you okay, Madison?” Emerson asked.

            “Yeah, it’s nothing,” she said and tried to look at little cheerier.

            “Hey, you guys want to play chase?” he asked hopefully.

            “Sure,” said Madison as Summer waited for her sister to respond first.  Then added, “That would be fun!”

            The three friends played chase through the tall grass, which could be very tricky.  Sometimes the grass blocked their view.  Emerson was chasing both girls when they split up and headed in different directions.  Both girls decided to head back in the same direction at the same time without knowing it or being able to see each other.  Right as they came around clusters of grass they realized they were heading right straight for each other.  Summer pulled up and Madison pulled sideways at the last minute but they still clipped each other’s wings.  Summer managed to quickly land on a piece of grass, but Madison did a loop-to-loop and made a hard landing on the ground.  Emerson saw the whole thing and began to laugh hysterically.  Madison was too winded by her fall to fly away so she sat in the dirt and pouted.

            “Wow!” said Emerson as he flew down to where Madison sat.  “Did you know you did a complete loop-to-loop in the air?  That was AWESOME!!!”

            Madison looked at Emerson’s excited face and softened.  Then she began to think about how that must have looked and she started to giggle.  Once she started giggling, Summer did, too.  Soon they were all laughing hysterically and talking excitedly about Summer’s and Madison’s near collision.

            After they settled back down, they all decided to try to find Audra and Hayden and play something calm for the rest of the afternoon.  Madison decided to try a little harder to laugh at herself instead of getting upset all the time, and many times that afternoon she had a chance to practice.  She realized it did make it less embarrassing.