The Story of a Larva

"That night, I directed my light towards the flowers and the blades of grass, in a location far from the highway, " said the Moon when she arrived, after saying Basmalah and Salaam. "Then I saw a group of larvae, circling a larva. Wondering what the larva was doing, so I focused my attention on him. Oh, it turned out, he was telling a bit story about the adventures of 'Alice in Wonderland.

'The great question certainly was, what?' said the Larva, went on. 'Alice looked all round her, but she could not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as herself ; and when she had looked under it, and on both sides of it, and behind it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see what was on the top of it.

She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar—the larval stage of members of the insect order comprising butterflies and moths, that eat plant material, often leave, but not all; some eat insects, and some are even cannibalistic. Some feed on other animal products—was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah—water pipes that are used to smoke specially made tobacco that comes in different flavors, such as apple, mint, cherry, chocolate, coconut, licorice, cappuccino, and watermelon—and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else. The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence : at last, the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think, I must have been changed several times since then.'

'What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. 'Explain yourself !'

'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir,' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself, you see.'

'I don't see,' said the Caterpillar. 'I'm afraid, I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'

'It isn't,' said the Caterpillar. 'Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet,' said Alice; 'but when you have to turn into a chrysalis—you will some day, you know—and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel it a little queer, won't you?'

'Not a bit,' said the Caterpillar. 'Well, perhaps your feelings, may be different,' said Alice; 'all I know is, it would feel very queer to me.'

'You!' said the Caterpillar contemptuously. 'Who are you?' Which brought them back again to the begining of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, 'I think you ought to tell me who you are, first.'

'Why?' said the Caterpillar. Here was another puzzling question; and, as Alice could not think of any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.

'Come back!' the Caterpillar called after her. 'I've something important to say!' This sounded promising, certainly : Alice turned and came back again. 'Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar.

'Is that all?' said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she could. 'No,' said the Caterpillar. Alice thought, she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps, after all, it might tell her something; worth hearing.

For some minutes, it puffed away without speaking, but at last, it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, ''So, you think you're changed, do you ?'

'I'm afraid I am, sir,' said Alice; 'I can't remember things as I used—and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together !'

'Can't remember what things?' said the Caterpillar.

'Well, I've tried to say 'How doth the little busy bee,' but it all came different !' Alice replied in a very melancholy voice. 

'Repeat ' You are old, Father William,' said the Caterpillar. Alice folded her hands, and began,

'You are old, Father William,'' the young man said, 'And your hair has hecome very white. And yet you. incessantly stand on your head—do you think, at your age, it is right ?'

'In my youth,' Father William replied to his son, 'I feared it might injure the brain; but now, that I'm perfectly sure I have none. Why, I do it again and again.'

'You are old,' said the youth, 'as I mentioned hefore. And have grown most uncommontly fat; Yet, you turned a back-somersault in at the door—pray, what is the reason of that?'

'In my youth,' said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, 'I kept all my limbs very supple, by the use of this ointment—one shilling the box—allow me to sell you a couple?'

'You are old,'' said the youth, and your jaws are too weak, for anything tougher than suet; yet, you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak. Pray, how did you manage to do it?'

'In my youth'!'' said his father, 'I took to the law. And argued each case with my wife; And the muscular strength, 'which it gave to my jaw, has lasted the rest of my life.'

'You are old,' said the youth, 'one would hardly suppose that your eye was as steady as ever; yet, you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—What wade you so awfully clever?'

'I have answered three questions, and that is enough,' said his father; 'dont give yourself airs! Do you think, I can listen all day to such stuff? Be of, or I'll kick you down stairs!'

'That is not said right,' said the Caterpillar. 'Not quite right, I'm afraid,' said Alice, timidly; 'some of the words have got altered.'

'It is wrong from beginning to end,' said the Caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes.

The Caterpillar was the first to speak. 'What size do you want to be ?' it asked. 'Oh, I'm not particular as to size,' Alice hastily replied, 'only one doesn't like changing so often, you know.'

'I dont know,' said the Caterpillar. Alice said nothing : she had never been so much contradicted in all her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper.

'Are you content now ?' said the Caterpillar.

'Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind,' said Alice, 'three inches is such a wretched height to be.'

'It is a very good height indeed!' said the Caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it spoke—it was exactly three inches high.

'But I 'm not used to it!' pleaded poor Alice in a piteous tone. And she thought to herself, 'I wish the creatures wouldn't be so easily offended.'

'You'll get used to it in time,' said the Caterpillar; and it put the hookah into its mouth and began smoking again.

This time, Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In a minute or two, the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away into the grass, merely remarking as it went, 'One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.'

'One side of what ? The other side of what?' thought Alice to herself.'

Not continuing the last sentences of the story, the Larva ended it by singing,

There's a lady that's sure, all that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed

With a word, she can get what she came for

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure

'Cause you know, sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings

Sometimes all of our thoughts, are misgiven *)

It's time to go, and before she left, the Moon made a closing statement, "Over time, the Larvae will metamorphose. The interesting thing is, what the larvae will become: a beautiful butterfly, flying among the pretty flowers, or, simply as a moth, who will die in a bonfire? And Allah knows best."

Citations & References:
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in the Wonderland, MacMillan & Co
*) "Stairway To Heaven" written by Robert Plant & James Patrick Page

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