Now armed with success they sallied forth together, and the cheers of the snail’s butterfly friend drove him on. On each day after he aimed for the wall and he started to crawl, slowly up the cool bricks in the shade. “It’s only a matter of time, now!” he said, “that sunlight will surely be mine!” And that sad, sullen snail had a rally in his heart, for his butterfly friend had warmed up that part, she’d crackled his shell and something, he felt, would be coming out soon.
But then the winds blew, as Saint Ann’s breath chilled the air, and a morning came when the world changed in a terrible way. The little snail awoke, all filled with promise and cheer as he waited for his beautiful butterfly friend. The winds whipped around and the trees shuddered under the brutal attack. The plants in the garden all waved and were tossed side to side, back and forth and the little snail began to worry a bit.
Out of the sky came a thrashing of wings, a foreign sound to be heard from a butterfly, yet there she was. She had big tears in her eyes as she tried to come closer, but the winds buffeted and bounced her around. “Oh, snail, I’m so sorry, I want to stay close, but the winds have come and will whisk me away!” The little snail’s heart jumped and sank as his head started to swim, “No, please, I can’t do this alone! What can I do? What can I say? Something, please, anything, there must be something I can do! You’ve helped me so much, I want to help you!” And his little shell heaved as the tears overwhelmed him, those little cracks growing bigger and more.
“Oh snail, how I wish there were something, I do, but the winds are too strong for me or for you! The world is changing, it always is, and if I can ever return I promise I will!” She panted and struggled now, weary from the fight-and the little snail could see it was time for her to take flight. He made up a strong resolve in his heart, “Someday or some way, I will see you again! I’ll miss you and love you for the friend that you’ve been. My heart feels like it’s breaking, like the shell on my back. I will never forget all the lessons you’ve taught me!”
And with a bolt and a run the snail somehow leapt on a leaf so nearby, got caught in the wind and soared to the sky. He caught that sweet butterfly and hugged her so hard, “Thank you, oh thank you! I’ll miss you so hard!” Then he let go as the winds bucked right up, and he watched that sweet butterfly as she blew away high and higher up into the sky. “Goodbye!” she cried out as she was carried far off, “I’ll never forget you!”
Then a new courage blossomed inside the little snail and he saw his chance for sun and for change. “I’ll do something different, I’ll do something grand-and I’ll be stayed by neither winds or by hands!” Quickly he worked, tearing leaves from the plants, and he bounded-yes bounded!-toward the garden wall. He leapt nearly halfway up on his very first try, then furrowed his brow and charged upward with a large, fluttering leaf at each side.
But a voice from the past, a horror unrivaled, broke through the rage of the wind. “It’s that snail!” it screamed, and the little snail looked across the garden in fear as the angry boy pointed and raged. “You get down from there!” cried the boy as he started toward the wall. The little snail’s heart pounded, his fear flooded back in, but this time something different erupted within.