In January we had a writing contest based off a scene we had set up in the library. The objective was for participants to write a short story of what they thought happened that the scene was set up like it was. Our adult contest winner was Darlene S. with her story as follows called, To Catch a Butterfly. To read the other winners’ stories head over to our Teen and Kids’ Blog pages as well. Congratulations to all our winners and enjoy the stories.

To Catch a Butterfly by Darlene S.
Identical twins Anna and Stephanie frequently attended social events with their adoring husbands. Tonight wasn’t any different as they had decided to celebrate the New Year together. Stephanie informed Adam and Charles that Anna wasn’t feeling well and took a cab home before they sat down to dinner. Stephanie reassured Anna’s husband, Adam, that she wanted him to stay and enjoy dinner and that she would see him at home. The dinner was delicious and they all were about to enjoy the enticing dessert when suddenly Adam noticed something wasn’t quite right. The rules were to take off masks before dessert. Anna excited that she was so close to executing her plan forgot about one tiny clue. Adam saw the tiny mole below Stephanie’s eye and quickly understood who was sitting next to him. Adam threw down his napkin as he finally realized that Anna actually had showed up at the table after all. It was time to end this charade – the masquerade was up! He had noticed that ‘Stephanie’ had been acting strange all night. He didn’t know if it was the alcohol or the excitement of the night but he began to feel dizzy. Charles realizing that Adam had recognized his wife demanded to know the whereabouts of Stephanie. Adam stood up, stumbled, landing on the floor. Before realizing that it was Anna sitting by him he had pulled his keys from his pocket and was deciding to skip dessert to go home. His napkin and keys landed on the floor next to him.

Charles grabbed Anna’s wrists as she struggled to pull away she grabbed his watch and loosened a cuff link. He continued to struggle with Anna grabbing the hairclip as strands of hair fell to the table along with the peacock feathers. In his hands were the hairclip and one of Anna’s earrings. He too began to feel faint and sat down dropping his wife’s beloved possessions to the floor. Anna laughed a victoriously evil laugh as she realized that she had pulled off the perfect masquerade. She had fooled them both into believing she was actually Stephanie for a time. She began to lunge for the hairclip when she felt a hand tightly grab her around the ankle. Stumbling she fell to the floor. A friend who also had attended the ball had seen Stephanie and Anna walk toward a darkened hall and when she didn’t see Anna return became suspicious and asked her detective husband to look for her. After finding Stephanie unconscious in a cleaning closet and calling for help, he approached the table just as the scuffle was happening. He put his hat on the table and was quick to help Anna off the floor and into a pair of handcuffs. He asked a nearby table to call an ambulance for the two men who were obviously suffering from too much alcohol and whatever else Anna had slipped into their drinks, hoping to confuse them.

Anna had always thought she was the favorite niece to her Aunt Priscilla. Growing up the girls would often pretend to be the other twin to confuse their aunt. Just like their husbands had found out tonight there was one distinguishing mark that would finally give them away. Anna had a tiny mole below the corner of her right eye. Sometimes Stephanie would draw a tiny mole in with her aunt’s eyeliner so it would be all the harder to tell. However tonight at the ball, the mask had covered her true identity. Before tying Stephanie up in the cleaning closet she had convinced Stephanie to switch outfits with her including the butterfly hairclip so they could really enjoy the masquerade. It was so easy, however, this time the game turned sinister. Anna wanted long term possession of that hairclip. The hairclip was an antique worn by Queen Victoria herself. It was valued to be worth over $1,000,000. Anna wanted to leave the country and begin a life free of the shadow of her twin sister. To finally have a life that she could call her own and forge a new identity. The plan had started when her aunt put in her will that Stephanie would inherit the hairclip. Anna had been the one to spend countless nights reading to her bed-ridden aunt. Anna had been the one to help around her home with chores and make sure that she had enough food and supplies during the long winter. As the detective led her away in handcuffs she looked once more at the butterfly hairclip on the floor and saw her dreams flitter away like a butterfly in the breeze. Meanwhile, the detective’s wife laid her glasses on the table as she stooped down to catch a butterfly.