FLY AWAY HOME

“Dinner will be ready in five minutes!” I called out to my husband Steven and my son Alex.

I could hear muffled “Okays.” from both of them.

I was standing at the sink with a colander in one hand and a pot in the other getting ready to drain the potatoes when I looked up and saw a ladybug on our window screen.

“Well, welcome back.” I said as I put the pot down on the counter and went to the back door.

My husband had planted a big garden this year and one of the many things he’d gotten for it was hundreds of ladybugs to keep the aphid population down. I’d been so excited when we released all of them a few months back.

I went over to the screen and placed my finger by the ladybug waiting for her to crawl onto it. “It’s time to get you home, Missy!”

She climbed onto my finger then quickly scurried to the palm of my hand. “Let’s go.” I said as I walked to the garden gate and unlatched it.

I went over to the first tub where cucumbers and squash were planted and leaned my hand against a leaf. “Here’s a nice spot.” I said as I encouraged her to get on the leaf.

Instead she went further up my arm. “Okay.” I said as I moved to a pot of lavender. “Maybe you’d like to climb onto this.” I leaned my arm closer to the flowers but she went in the opposite direction.

“Okay.” I sighed. “You seem to be very particular on what you want to be on.” I walked over to the tomato plants. “What about here?” I asked as I leaned my arm against a leaf.

It was then that my son Alex came out on the back porch. “I thought you said dinner was in five minutes?”

I looked over at him. “I did but then I got distracted when I saw one of our ladybugs on the kitchen window screen!” I began moving her towards the leaf.

Alex walked down the porch steps and was headed for the garden. “Do you want me to finish getting dinner ready?” he asked as he stepped through the gate and walked over to me.

“No. We’re almost finished here.” The ladybug was walking closer to the tomato plant leaf. “See, you remember how nice it is here.” She was slowly making her way down my arm, back into the palm of my hand, headed for the leaf. “ I’m sure we have some yummy aphids for you to eat.”

She was just about to step off my hand when all of a sudden she took flight and headed out of the garden.

“Oh, come on!” I cried as I watched her leave.

Alex patted me on the shoulder as we walked out of the garden, closing the gate behind us. “Well, you tried.” He said as we walked back to the house.

Steven was coming out of the back door. “I was wondering where everyone went.” He pointed back to the kitchen. “There’s a pot of potatoes on the kitchen counter, a pot roast in the crock pot and a salad on the dining room table but everyone was gone.”

“Mom was trying to get a ladybug back in the garden.” Alex explained as we walked up the porch steps.

“I thought one of yours had come back.” I said as I walked back into the kitchen.

“Yeah, but it turns out she was at the wrong address so she flew away.” Alex said as he closed the kitchen door and took the plates off the counter to set the table.

I looked at Steven and shrugged my shoulders. “I tried.” I sighed as I picked up the pot of potatoes and began to drain them. I looked out the kitchen window and saw another ladybug crawling on the back of an Adirondack chair. “Nope, not this time little lady. You can figure out how to get to the garden all by yourself!”