The Butterfly Woman’s Gift of a Child

My mother was an expert at raising butterflies, and she had a whole butterfly house. The women in the village struggled to conceive, but if their husbands spent a night in the butterfly house, their wives would be pregnant within days. After my eldest sister died, my second sister became Mother’s successor. That night, Mother fitted a pollination pouch over my sister’s mouth, turning her into a butterfly maiden who granted pregnancies. The village chief’s son was the first man my sister was chosen to impregnate. Furious that Mother favored her, I sneaked into the butterfly house, only to witness a horrifying scene.