The Lightning - Part 2 of 2**

For example, take Andre's description of the "magic night" he spent with Myrina. He says they "loved wildly," but the truth is only that Andre slept next to her like a baby, and was up early, buzzing around a mimosa tree like a miniature helicopter. The “magic” and “wild loving” are pretty much just in Andre’s head. But you can’t feel completely sorry for the guy because he’s not so good at looking at things from someone else's perspective. For instance, if I were him, I'd be a little worried about having shot off my mouth about Myrina in such a flowery way. Some bugs view that as a sign of weakness and almost always take advantage of it too. But I guess that from Andre's perspective, he was just reporting good news or something. Now, I don’t know Miss Gabrielle that well, so what her take was on all this is something I can't really say. I can tell you that she has a reputation for being something like The Lightning in her relationships. But I can also say that when I told the Gardener about Andre's interest in Myrina, she smiled kind of knowingly and said, "Thank you, Simon, I think they are a good match."

 

Maybe there's another thing too. There's this rose I know who told me a very interesting story about Myrina that involves a time in her life prior to her metamorphosis. I guess what happened is that she got kidnapped by this gang of perverted centipedes who mistook her for a better-looking version of themselves. Trouble is, when these guys figured out that she wasn't one of them, they got mean with her about it and tried to make her into their slave or something. The rose called one of those dopes a fabricant de vers and said she eventually got the Gardener involved in this. The long and short of it are that the offenders got dragged off in like a thousand pairs of leg irons, and Myrina turned into a butterfly.

 

The rose also told me that all this mess has a lot to do with Myrina being the kind of high-maintenance celebrity she is today - You know, not too affectionate or trusting - Maybe demanding the upper hand too much, or wanting things to be “just so.” But here's the thing: The rose says that the Gardener has her keep a special lookout for Myrina and that the two of them are very tight. It's all super-psychological or whatever, but I'll tell you this, every time I think of those poisonous goons in leg irons, it cracks me up, big time! That's the way the Gardener is: She's like sunshine, but man, you better hope she doesn't get involved when you screw up too much like those guys did. Apparently, even the class Chilipoda eventually pay for their crimes.

But what doesn’t crack me up is how some bugs think that a temporary state of existential consciousness is equivalent to a divine go-ahead. One of those goons, Frenchie Costello, is someone I know, and guess what? He was actually a very nice bug when he was a kid. I was really floored when I heard he was involved in that stuff because Frenchie’s mom was a very devout lady, and his dad was a Ruins Hill police officer. I mean, go figure!