403. to fly and to fall

she flew everywhere, laughing as she loop-de-looped, soaring as high as the moon. but one day, she landed on the roof of a courthouse.

a guard saw her, and he shouted, “you! get off the roof!”

lovebug did not.

so the guard climbed up onto the roof and he snatched her and he was about to crush her between his fingers when a thought occurred to him: stomping lovebug would be wrong. he should do the least harm he could to solve the problem.

so instead of stomping her, he pulled off her wings.

and he tossed her to the ground.

in pain and fear, she crawled away. her legs were weak, having rarely been used, and she cried as she crawled through the grass, the same grass she had once looked down on from the sky, but which now towered above her, giant stalks of green.