TWO FRIENDS, BETTER THAN NONE

 Just inches away!  The little green worm measured it, and so it was.

"Come back!  Help!  You numbskulls, don't leave me like this!!"  That's what the head said.

There was nothing else to him. 

The head was right there, in front of Inch Worm, no arms, and no legs, just a hairy head on the sand on the beach under the shade of the leafy tree under azure skies.   Hairy Head was lucky there was shade.  His friends had left him there being distracted by the bevy of bikini clad babes full of boisterous beckonings.

Little green worm inched closer.

Hairy Head breathed in, breathed out.  And when he did Inch Worm got a little bit blown away by the dirt devil his nostrils created.  When Inch Worm first discovered Hairy Head, he spun his silk thread to shimmy down from the leafy tree, as inch worms are apt to do, to avoid predators, but this was a curiousity thing, a thing to investigate, this head in the sand.

He inched closer.

Hairy Head squinted at him, "I wish you were bigger, I'd have you go get my friends to dig me out!"

Worm inched closer, "And if you were a dead head, I'd take you over for my own home."

Hairy Head warned, "Don't come any closer.  I don't particularly like bugs I can't flick off."

Inch Warm chuckled, "You can't flick!  I do see, however, that you can blink.  Ya wanna play ball?"

Hairy Head was astounded, "You want to play ball and me with no arms!  You're a nutty inch worm."

But Inch Worm had gone.  When he came back he had a raisin in his sharp pincher-like claws, all six of them.  He tossed it right into Hairy Head's eye, "Blink!  Blink fast and forceful.  It'll send the black ball back to me."  And Hairy Head did.  Toss, blink, bounce, grab, toss, blink, bounce, grab, and so they played that way for long, long minutes until the raisin got so sandy it left a particle in Hairy Head's eye.  

"Inch Worm!  I've a speck in my eye, it's making it water, and I can't possibly get it out.  I've got to quit playing."  Inch Worm gave it some thought, then inched his way up the nose and over the eyebrow and with his 4 prolegs held on tight while he swung his body down over the eyelid where he searched for the speck.  Very gently, 'cause pincher claws are very sharp, sharp enough to hold a fruit fly captive for munching, he plucked the speck out.

Inch Worm was getting tired, but still wanted to play, "Hairy, blow me a whirlwind."  And Hairy, considerate of his lightweight little friend, blew with ease.  Inch Worm tumbled and slid and giggled, "Again!  Again!"  And they played and played.

Hairy Head, thankful to have a friend, and not have a sand speck in his eye,  consented when Inch Worm said he needed a soft bed in which to nap.  Inch Worm, true legs first, prolegs second, measured himself up and over the temples into the soft hairs above the left ear and there settled in for a cozy snooze.

When Inch Worm awoke it was dusk!

Hairy Head still had his head on the sand!

Inch Worm crawled out in his bunching up way, went around the eyebrow and down to the lower lid to look Hairy Head in the eye.

Hairy Head was lamenting his state of affairs, "The boys haven't returned, Inchy.  Night's coming, and the cold air and the morning dew will be the death of me."

Inch Worm didn't like the sound of that.  "Hairy, I can spin a cocoon around you, if you'll let me.  That way when the beachcombers come out to swim in the morning, you'll still be alive to be rescued."

"But will you have enough to make your own cocoon?  I know you want to become a beautiful butterfly."

"We're friends, Hairy.  And friends take care of each other."

So Inch Worm began his spinning.  With the small spinneret on his lips, he spun a single strand of silk around and around and around, until Hairy Head was enshrouded.  They each considered the other and what the morning might bring.

One could emerge a spirit in the sky.

The other could become a soaring butterfly.

Each worried "My friend could die."

And there they stayed, Inch Worm exhausted, curled under the last threads covering Hairy's Head.