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Yesterday was sunny and warm here in Lewes, UK. I would have felt great too if I hadn’t been on my last day of taking some particularly disagreeable antibiotics for my gum abscess. I would have felt worse though it had been cold and rainy.
In fact I had a skip; in my step when I returned from the dentist’s with the good, if cautiously scientific news ringing in my ears. My gum was looking better and, in the dentist’s opinion, it will either get better or worse over the next couple of weeks and you can’t fault that for logic.
I was cheerful enough knowing that I was nearing the end of the antibiotic course so optimism reigned. I decided to take a diversion on my way home so I turned off the High Street and walked down a lane by a park and some allotments. Very pleasant, I thought, in spite of the headache, giddiness and general oral misery, Spring was at its most beguiling.
If I was the kind of person who looked for symbols, and I’m not saying that I’m not, I would have read something into the moment that a large Red admiral butterfly flew up to me and landed on my head. What did it take me for, I wondered. A walking flower, maybe a bush or just someone who needed cheering up. It was the first butterfly of the year.
It didn’t find much nectar in my hair and it soon flew off in front but seemed to be keeping pace with me. Then it changed its mind and returned, landing once more on my head and tickling me with its fluttering wings. I carried on walking and it continued to follow me. Off we went, up the lane, onto the main road and along to my house. I left it outside and went home. OK, I admit it, that butterfly had succeeded – it has cheered me up.
I’m off the drugs today, i’m cheerfulness reborn and I’m now off to London to see one of my short stories performed at a show called Are You Sitting Comfortably? by the White Rabbit Theatre Company (See Links) – I wonder if my butterfly wants to come too. I think I shall name him Horatio, after Admiral Nelson.