Barney felt a flurry of fluttering excitement from the colorful wings of the butterfly he had managed to capture in his hand.
"Easy does it," Barney said, as if the butterfly could understand him. The very idea! "I don't know how you got in here, but I'll see that you get back where you belong."
All his brother could do was listen in increasing hopelessness. "Let me go!" Jeff wanted to tell him. "I need my computer."
His 14-year-old brother kept his hands squeezed closed quite securely, but not with enough strength to accidentally crush the delicate butterfly. Other kids his age might not have cared about a dumb bug, but Barney had always been a little more tender-hearted than most. Fortunately, in the end, for his older sibling.
He walked into the garden where his mother raised her flowers and vegetables. He even spied some other butterflies wafting over the bright begonias in a nearby corner of the garden. The boy opened his hands and a powder of dusty scales, rubbed off the insect's wings, rained from them as he released the captive butterfly.
"You're free," Barney announced. "Go enjoy your life."
Feeling like his wings had gone wobbly, the butterfly that had been Jeff flapped awkwardly toward a stand of tall, nodding yellow and brown sunflowers.
By the time he got his bearings, he saw Barney disappear through the back door, which promptly slammed closed with a chilling finality.
Jeff knew he had to get back inside the house. The only problem was how.