"This sucks," Jeff thought as he glided past a bed of bright red, orange and yellow flowers. The blooms made him practically salivate and his long, thin tube of a tongue dropped down. The flowers looked better to the butterfly than any greasy burger and salty fries had looked to the 16-year-old boy.
He dropped onto one of the yellow flowers. Almost by instinct, his tongue began sucking up nectar, guzzling hungrily at the sweet reserves contained deep in the petals.
The sugar fix seemed to instantly energize his delicate, fragile form. He felt like he could finally tackle the problem of getting his human body back. His thoughts mostly focused a growing resentment on the company that would send out a dangerous product like the Chronivac without some sort of warning labels. "I should sue them," he thought angrily.
Of course, he had sort of rushed through the user's guide in his haste to experiment with the device. Maybe he had overlooked some important details.
With perhaps unwarranted optimism, all things being considered realistically, Jeff decided getting to his computer needed to be his immediate goal.
"Sure don't want to have to be this boring butterfly any longer than I have to be," he thought.
A dark shadow passed over him, but by the time Jeff reacted the enormous bird had flown to a distant tree on the other side of the garden wall.
His tiny body shuddered as he wondered about birds. Did they eat butterflies? Was he at risk of becoming a bird's snack? The questions sapped his confidence as he got an inkling that getting back inside the house might not be his only priority. The bird remained on its perch in the distant tree, however, so Jeff resumed his meandering flight through the garden, making his way slowly but steadily toward his home.
The house looked a lot bigger to a butterfly than it had ever appeared to the teenaged boy. Jeff flew toward the front door and hovered in front of the doorbell, which could be activated by a button embedded in the wall next to the door. He fluttered against the button, trying in vain to ring the bell.
"That's not going to work," he realized as his efforts erased the energy burst from his recent nectar meal.
Then, happily, he remembered...