A golden butterfly

Even the flutter of a butterfly's wings can cause an earthquake on the other side of the world... - An old saying Maria was sitting by the window in a buffet car wearing a white silky blouse and pearly earrings. She was drinking Earl Grey and looking at the flashing landscapes outside the window... And at that very moment, five policemen with machine guns were at her apartment doorsteps claiming she was going to kill herself and must be immediately taken to a hospital for treatment. That was what she got the word of by the phone... ‘Would you like to have something else?’, the stewardess asked. ‘No, thanks’, the girl replied and kept on enjoying her aromatic tea and looking at the train window. The two black-suits sitting in the corner looked suspicious. ‘Once she get back, we’ll bring her down’, whispered one of them. ‘Yes, the pang-wangling beauty, that is fluttering like a butterfly. Damn, how did she manage to flit from the cops?’, said the other one in a low voice. ‘But not for long, I guess’, he smirked. ‘Once the beauty’s done, I’ll install a huge “A Butterfly in formaldehyde” art installation in my villa. We’ve put a 50 grand buck’s bounty on her’, muttered the first black suite. Maria was still drinking her tea, not even flinched, as if nothing was happening and she did not hear those two mumbling. ‘That is nonsense’, she was thinking. ‘I have never written anything out-of-bounds, not in politics or economics. So, why would they come for me?’ Maria thought that a man that wanted to get rid of the Butterfly must have been very powerful and influential, a really carnivorous one. Otherwise, how’d he managed to unleash the police on her? ...The train kept on going and in a few hours she arrived to the planned destination. Once again, she manages to flutter away and get lost from the sight of the men in black suits… II Maria. Simply Maria. That's how her colleagues called her. She was a journalist. ‘Good morning, Maria!’, her colleagues usually greeted her politely. ‘Good morning’, she answered routinely. Her colleagues liked greeting her, not only at work but at the line to the cash register at the store as well. … Maria was working at in a small magazine. She often dressed in very simple manner: a casual long dark dress and a braid. Like her, Maria’s husband was an ordinary person - an ordinary office worker. They lived together in a simple apartment, doing their usual work and living their usual, unremarkable and boring life. Maria barely seen her mother-in-law and other husband’s relatives and didn’t have much interest in them, in fact, as she lived in another city. Living for themselves, Maria and her husband decided had a baby after seven years, before turning into parents. Maria, as expected, decided to go on a three years maternity leave. An ordinary family had an ordinary child with a usual name – Kate.