"LITTLE LADYBIRD WANTS TO GROW UP" "Once upon a time in a land that seems far far away, but is actually just behind grandma's house, our story begins." "Come on brother, have you really never seen a grown-up ladybird before?" "No." "Never." "But they have to be somewhere!" "Why do you keep on bothering me with this?" "There aren't any grown-up ladybirds." "None at all." "Full stop." "But what about mummy?" "Mum never spoke about grown-up ladybirds." "But she must have." "When she gave birth to us, she was still only a child." "Yes but what then?" "I don't remember her." "She left us here at this boarding school." "Aw, but I really, really want to grow up!" "Little Ladybird looked thoughtfully at the sky and saw a cloud in the shape of an elephant." "Little Ladybird was very clever and knew almost all of the letters." "She could count all the dandelion flowers in the meadow, only the dandelion seeds were still a bit too complicated." "Also when kissing, she didn't giggle so much anymore." "Little ladybird has seven black spots on her back which doesn't mean she's seven years old, as people are often mistaken." "And now with all these clever things she knows she wants to grow up." "Yes!" "I'm going to run away and find some grown-up ladybirds!" "So off she went and flew across familiar meadows all the way to the fence where the world ends." "Yes, she had learnt about that at school." "The professors there were mostly bees, and moths of course." "Shhh!" "Silence!" "While flying such a long way Little Ladybird got distracted by counting dandelion flowers, which is a habit of all ladybirds." "So she had already forgotten her plan." "But when she looked back at her home, she remembered and like in a romantic movie she shed a tear." "Suddenly she noticed that she was over the fence and on the other side of the world." "Wow!" "It really is different here!" "Where are all the flowers?" "Look at this!" "These must be the grown-up ladybirds dancing in lines." "Yes of course, grown-ups like order and discipline!" "Hello!" "Hello!" "Shhh!" "Hello!" "Shhh!" "Be quiet before you bring us bad luck." "Okay, okay." "Wow I can't believe I finally found you, you are a grown-up, right?" "Yes of course." "Whoohoo!" " Shhh!" "But what are you doing here?" "We eat potatoes." "All day long only potatoes, and when we don't eat enough of it, the guards sprinkle us and the next day there's only half of us left!" "Huh!" "But why?" "Don't know." "It's always been like this, this is our punishment." "What does punishment mean?" "We must have done something wrong that we are paying for, but we don't really remember what it was anymore." "It must have happened long ago." "And that is why we have to stay here and eat the potatoes." "Wow!" "I had no idea that grown-up ladybirds had to do that!" "Ladybirds?" "We are Colorado beetles!" "Yeah!" "No no ladybirds." "Oh no!" "But, but.." "I really thought�" "Hey!" "What?" "What is it she thought?" "Feeling disappointed Little Ladybird continued to fly onwards, until she crossed the last row in the potato patch." "Here she came across a place with amazingly high grass." "Go away!" "Who are you?" " Go away!" "You're standing in my view!" "Go away or else I'll bite you!" "Aw." "You're so teeny tiny!" "You must still be a baby!" "A baby, how dare you!" "If you don't fly away right now, I'll drink your blood!" "Only years later did Little Ladybird find out that ticks don't drink the blood of other bugs of course, no matter how hungry they are." "Oh, how horrible these grown-ups are!" "They eat everything they see and they do things that they hate to do, without even knowing why." "Oh no." "And now I am all alone." "Aah!" "Monster!" "Run for your life!" "Wait, little one wait!" "Wait!" "Who are you?" "I'm a may beetle!" "I don't believe you, and it's June now anyway!" "Ha ha!" "May Beetle is just what I'm called." "How silly that is!" "Why don't they call you June beetle, if you creep around being scary in June?" "Well, um, I don't know." "And anyway wait!" "I'm not scary!" "Ah!" "Are you a grown-up?" "Yes yes, a grown-up, grown-up." "So then how come you don't know the answers?" "I nearly know it all!" "For example I know how to do a flip, and how to do card tricks, and.. um.. and.." "What are you even doing out here?" "I want�" "Oh really?" "Grow, grow up?" "Aaah!" "Aliens!" "Ha ha!" "Little one!" "Those are just fireflies!" "They're just fireflies?" "Yes, yes, fireflies." "They stay up all night making sure the flowers are closed at night and haven't stayed open by accident." "And that's why they light up?" "Um, well, I guess so." "But why?" " But why what?" "What why?" "Why, why, why." "Well why what why why?" "Yeah why what why?" "Tell me why are they checking the flowers?" "Why?" "I don't know!" "The flowers need to be closed at night." "That's just how it is." "That's how it is, that's how it is." "Oh what a pointless job they have got." "The fireflies could use their light to cast beautiful shadows on leaves instead, and using their hands they could make a deer, a dog or a flying bird!" "I really don't understand grown-ups, you see everything wrong and explain everything in such a serious way and..." "The next morning Little Ladybird woke up as the sun tickled her face." "Wow look!" "That rock is moving all by itself!" "Please get down!" "Oh!" "I'm sorry!" "Ah, it's okay." "You know, I've never seen anything like this in my life!" "You must be awfully wise and well-read, because you're so old." "At school they told me that you're so old, that some of you are older than the whole world!" "Yes." "So then can you tell me, how do I grow up?" "Grow up?" "You, grow up?" "You mustn't grow up, because you bring luck and true happiness is found only in children." "Really?" "Then are you saying you're never happy?" "Ah, not very often, but sometimes when I feel childish then what can I say, yes, well then perhaps." "Little ladybird smiled to herself smugly, filled with pride." "Little Ladybird no longer wanted to grow up, and to this very day she believes that a real rock spoke to her and revealed the secret of happiness." "But you and I know that the rock's voice was actually the voice of a dung beetle rolling his food back home." "And perhaps there are a couple of other things we understand a bit better too." "Yahoo!" "Wow!" "Where have you been?" "Welcome back home!"