Chosen
Julian’s parents were arguing again. It felt to him like they were arguing every day now, but in truth it might ‘only’ be a few times a week. The arguments never seemed to be about anything important, but his mum and dad would shout at each other like their lives depended on them winning every argument.
Julian had learnt to give them a wide berth when they were arguing. In the past he had been shouted at, sent to his bedroom without dinner, grounded and worse, just for trying to say a few words (to one of them of both together). This particular shouting match was taking place at 2pm on a Sunday. It was mid-May and the weather was not exactly hot, but the sun was out at least. So Julian went out to his back garden to sit on a bench until the shouting subsided.
He was reading a new video game review on his phone when it happened. A ladybird landed on the back of his right hand. Julian was left-handed so his right was just resting on the bench, so he paid it no mind at first. But then the ladybird started to walk towards his wrist – which tickled ever so slightly – so he absent-mindedly shook his right hand to send it away. It worked, but the ladybird did a sort of loop-the-loop and landed back on his hand. That struck Julian as slightly odd, so he put his phone down. He had no desire to harm a ladybird of course, but he was in no mood to be crawled on by one either. He shook his right hand again. Again the ladybird flew off and came straight back to that same hand. Starting to feel a little irritated, Julian shook his right hand for a third time, but this time whilst the ladybird was in the air he put his right hand behind his back. The ladybird just casually landed on his left hand.
Julian was really starting to find this odd, but thought rationally that maybe the ladybird was just too tired to fly anywhere else. He stood up and walked over to the small fish pond they had in the centre of their garden. He put his left hand on the ground right next to the water. The ladybird showed no interest. At that moment Julian noticed something – the ladybird was facing towards him, almost like it was looking at his face. Testing a theory, he turned his hand ninety degrees right. The second he stopped moving his hand, the ladybird turned ninety degrees left so that it was once again facing him. It was only then that the thought occurred to Julian that perhaps this ladybird had not landed on him randomly. Perhaps it had chosen to come to him and now did not want to leave him. But why? What could a ladybird want with a twelve year old boy who was only sitting in his garden because he was hiding from his parents? He lifted the ladybird up to about eight inches in front of his face. The ladybird fluttered off his hand and began to hover directly in from of his face, all the while keeping eye contact with him. Julian was astonished, but realised that he needed to accept what was happening here: this little ladybird was trying to communicate with him. But how could it? And if it could, why would it?
How intelligent is this ladybird?
How will Julian and the ladybird manage to communicate if the ladybird can’t speak?
What does the ladybird want? And why has it chosen Julian?