have faith - bill & tom k

4

tom should have known that by agreeing to aide bill in this stupid project, he would end up somewhere bizarre, however, standing in the middle of a field was nowhere near his expectations. he stood around grumpily, thinking of all the different, more productive places he could be right now, as he watched bill, a few feet away, ferret around in the dirt, getting smudges on his red striped shirt and holed jeans.

tom sighed audibly, stating his displeasure. “tell me again why we’re here?”

“i thought we could do it on the evolution of the caterpillar”, bill quipped, looking up from where he had been digging, a smear of mud along one cheek. he grinned toothily, and tom noticed his very pointy canines. they made him look even dumber then he already was.

“man, that’s such a pre-school kid idea,” tom grumbled, rolling his eyes and stuffing his fists in his pockets. he fingered his cell phone, wondering if he could give dereck a text to see what he was up to.

bill hadn’t heard him and was already back to burrowing in the grass, in search of furry little insects.

“hey, tom, look! it’s the polystoichotidae! the giant lacewing! those are really rare...”

tom ignored this comment and drew out his cell, running his fingers over dereck’s number, deciding on whether he should call. then he’d have to explain what he was doing and he didn’t think his reputation could withstand the blow of hanging around a dirty field with bug-boy billy.

“here i found one!” bill called, waving his arms and flinging mud everywhere. tom winced and sauntered just close enough to see the tiny bug crawling on his bill’s forefinger but still far enough away to avoid having to actually touch the same air molecules.

“it’s ugly” he replied flatly and disinterestedly, watching the brown thing climb its slow way up to the tip of the finger.

bill looked up, his forehead creasing.

“you can’t say that, you don’t even know him.”

tom stared, outraged.

“its a caterpillar, bill, how the hell am i supposed to get to know a fucking caterpillar?”

“just because he’s smaller and quieter doesn’t make him any less important. and he’s not ugly.”

“dude, it looks like cat shit. seriously, and with those little legs? mutated fucking cat shit with legs. it’s disgusting, and it’s ugly.”

“he isn’t ugly. he just is. it’s everyone else that calls him ugly and puts him down for being born this way just because they’ve seen nicer things in life. you can’t even be different anymore without people judging you. did you ever think that maybe he’s not ugly, you’re just narrow-minded?”

bill narrowed his eyes in a glare.

tom was tempted to ask if they were still talking about the caterpillar but he was too busy being hit with an epiphany. he had realized that after everything he had watched bill endure, this was the first time he had ever seen him anything but cheerful or scared. it took him a second to recognize the anger. bill was angry. it was a shock in itself to discover bill was even capable of anger. tom saw a flicker of the human that lay inside the punching bag before it disappeared and bill returned to his bubbly self, caressing the caterpillar.

“i like caterpillars” he said soothingly, stroking the smooth brown membrane.

“why?” tom asked, slightly curious despite himself.

“because everyone always underestimates them but in the end, they show everyone that even cat shit can turn into a butterfly.”

tom laughed despite himself and stopped immediately, trying to hide it behind a cough. but bill had noticed, and smiled quietly to himself as he pulled a glass jar out of his pocket. he scooped the tiny bug into the jar and started looking around for pieces of the surrounding natural environment that he could add to the caterpillar’s new abode.