Chapter Text
I
The butterfly flung its wings gracefully and shot up far into the air, away from a woman’s stretched out hand. She was sitting on the grass, golden brown curls fluttering in the wind, her eyes glowing bright grey.
Soon enough another butterfly appeared in her hand. Before it could fly away however, a little boy reached for it, a genuine smile painted on his face. One of those unfeigned and untroubled smiles.
The boy's hand went right through the butterfly - it was an illusion. The insect vanished for a fraction of a second, but reappeared quickly to join its predecessor and fly up into the cloudless sky.
The boy stood falteringly with his head turned up, enthralled in the scene that was unfolding before him. His eyes glued to the butterflies, he lost his balance and stumbled into the woman’s arms.
She caught him in a tight embrace and immediately the color of her eyes went back to the hazel, that the boy knew so well. He smiled up at her, and she returned the smile, propping him up on her knee.
“Sky!” A man’s lilting voice sounded over the meadow. “Look into the camera please.”
Saul had been setting the device up a few meters away from where they had been sitting. Chuckling, he ran behind them and took a seat next to Farah. Both adults pointed to the lens, to show Sky where he was supposed to be looking.
The ten seconds of the self-timer proved to be far too long, however. Like most children, the boy wasn’t keen on focusing on the task for so long.
When the shutter went off and the familiar clicking noise sounded none of them were looking into the camera. Sky was laughing, facing the two adults. Saul and Farah were looking at each other.
The photo was later printed exactly three times. Farah kept one copy and Saul kept two - his and Sky’s. He would give it to him when the boy was a little older.