The parable begins with a seventy year old man, Stanley, waiting at Dulles International Airport for his wife of forty-five years and his cousin, Gayle. After a reasonable period of time the two women failed to exit the security gate. Stanley’s investigation showed the two never reported for their flight. He began a systemic process including his own flight to the Ukraine that yielded the identification of both his wife and cousin’s dead bodies in a Ukraine morgue. The airline flight back to Virginia with two lifeless family members in the cargo hold was excruciating.
After the funeral and a few months of heavy drinking, Stanley contacted an old high school girlfriend and their dinner meeting did not end well. He then arrived at an enlightened decision to leave the family behind and relocate to Key West, Florida.
An ideal apartment is rented with two great assets: the first is a porch facing the sunsets, and the second is a bar and restaurant located at ground level. Stanley finds that The Butterfly Lounge is an appealing place to make daily visits and he makes four new friends, the bartender and three prostitutes. Daily the group begins meeting after closing time for a private wind-down drink and conversation.
Stanley’s family disapproves of his drinking and his new life style, and then arranged for his old high school girlfriend to spend one full week with all expenses paid at Key West. Karen, the old girlfriend chooses to stay with Stanley at the apartment. Parts of the visit are worse than others but the two worked at getting along. After Stanley’s mind processed, (What do you do with a Women Who Doesn’t Drink Alcohol in Key West?), he encouraged a three day trip to Miami where the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing a professional football game against the Miami Dolphins. But here again the trip is not a great experience for either of them even with Karen loving the Pittsburgh team’s victory. Her return home was a mutually good thing.
Upon Stanley’s relaying his Miami adventure to his four new friends, one of the ladies, Claire, stated that she would love to spend a long weekend in Miami. He looked directly into her eyes and he seemed to be hearing the daughter he never had calling out to him. His natural answer was, “I would be proud to take you to Miami for three days. You let me know when.” Stanley, then, offered the other two women individual Miami trips after his travel with Claire.
The after-hours wind-down time seemed to become more than a sharing about clients, current events and Key West. Glimpses of personal events especially among the three ladies seemed to surface as a result of Stanley’s being completely open and honest with them. A metamorphous began slowly in the three women as a result of the late night conversations with Stanley and the bartender, Jerry. Beginning with the first trip to Miami by Claire, the weaving of the metamorphous cocoon began to drastically speed up.
On each Miami trip the women shared deeply with Stanley the events that turned their life to prostitution. The two of them also did fun things together that were completely different for each woman. For Claire, her visit to the Sunday morning church service at Dade County Community Church seemed the highlight of her visit. For Samantha it was a late evening restaurant and bar stop complete with a reggae band. That was exactly her element. For Jane, their first night was used by visiting an amusement park and enjoying numerous rides together but with her going solo on the wilder and circle types. Occasionally Jane would run from a completed ride and jump into the arms of Stanley, while proclaiming how awesome it was. During each stop on the trip each woman was treated as Stanley’s friend or sometimes referred to as his wife and it was as if they were on a get-a-way weekend as a couple. They were not viewed as prostitutes. Each admitted that this weekend was the first time in a long, long time that the ladies could share dreams and hopes of themselves as people and not doing prostitution.

The cocoons were now fully in place.

Quite quickly events changed in each woman’s life. The newly formed butterflies quit their jobs at The Butterfly Lounge for a changed life. Claire agreed to a proposal of marriage. Sam accepted a job on a former client’s fishing vessel as chief cook, entertainment director, and his steady girlfriend. Jane revisited her estranged husband who invited her to return to living with him.
It was lonely at the late night meetings with Stanley and Jerry. Then, one night Jerry commented “That was a very kind thing you did to change those three girls into real butterflies.” Stanley stated that those women did all the hard work, but it took all five of us caring for each other that produced the opportunity.
Jerry followed up with a comment, “I am going to have to find three new caterpillars.” Stanley admitted that he might never meet the new caterpillars as his work was now done in Key West. Then he proposed one last toast with his beer glass, and stated that this drink would be his last taste of alcohol during his lifetime, and that tonight would be his last visit to The Butterfly Lounge. He hugged Jerry and walked out toward his new life.
Stanley packed-up his Key West apartment and sent his things to Virginia. He decided to drive first to his home town of Pittsburgh, and visit his old high school girlfriend.