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Butterflies

By Viola Vrtis, age 13 | Winter 2025-26

Maxine, a small eight-year-old girl with black hair in two braids flying behind her, ran through the sprinkler in her yard, chasing a monarch butterfly. She giggled, tumbling through the tall grasses, racing to catch the fluttering bug before it had a chance to fly away, or worse, her mom could call her in without Maxine seeing where the butterfly flew off to. She ran and ran, unaware that she had crossed the invisible border into her neighbor Mr. Clay’s yard. 

“Get out of my yard, you little rascal!” yelled a loud, gravelly voice from the porch. Maxine stopped short, nearly falling straight into the carefully organized flower beds. She glanced up and saw Mr. Clay standing and leaning on his cane, wrinkled face scowling. 

“S-sorry!” She squeaked out before she ran back into her yard. She could see he was still out on his porch, so she decided to go back inside. Dinner would be ready soon anyways. Maxine sat on a tall honey-colored stool in the window of her kitchen while her dad finished cooking fried rice for dinner. She sat up straight and leaned close to the glass when she saw the butterfly fluttering by her window. Maxine knew it was the same one because of the swirl mark on its lower wings. She watched it fly away, becoming a little orange dot flitting across the yard, until it flew behind a large flowering bush near the edge of Mr. Clay’s yard, and she couldn’t see it anymore.  

The next morning, Maxine’s mother held a tray full of her signature chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. “These are for Mr. Clay. Go run them over to him, okay?” 

“Okay,” she said. I hope he’s not still mad. She thought. 

She walked over to his house, hoping in secret that he wasn’t home. Unfortunately, he was out in his front garden, planting milkweed. 

“Mr. Clay,” Maxine started.

“What do you want?” he growled. 

“Um, these a-are for you,” she said. “What are you planting?” 

“Milkweed. For the–” 

“Butterflies!” she exclaimed. 

“Why, yes!” he said, taken aback. “I love to watch them fly around.” 

“Me too!” 

“Shhhh. Here comes one now!” he whispered. 

Maxine watched the butterfly drinking from the milkweed flowers. She recognized the swirl-winged monarch from yesterday. 

The two sat and talked, watching the butterflies and eating cookies together. It became their Sunday morning tradition which they continued and celebrated for years to come. 

Viola Vrtis


Viola Vrtis is a 13-year-old 7th grader at DMS. She enjoys reading, writing, drawing, playing violin, piano, and ukulele, and spending time with family and friends. 


    We created Future Focused, a new Inspire(d) column written by pre-teens and teens, to help give the next generation an opportunity to share their voices. Partnering with Dana Hogan, the Extended Learning Program teacher at Decorah Middle School, we offered prompts around the question, “What do we have in common?” Students submitted some really great work, and four were chosen for this Inspire(d). You can read all the Future Focused pieces published so far at iloveinspired.com/category/future-focused. Here’s to Listening to the Next Generation! – Aryn

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