The Leaf Insect

There is a twig with dark leaves on it and one pink flower. One of the leaves is paler than the rest. It has a midrib, with veins coming off it in pairs. The right edge has a bite out of it, and low on the blade there is a dry brown patch a quarter inch across.

You follow the midrib down to the narrow end. It stops at a small green head with an eye on each side. Under the head two legs are folded, each with a flat lobe on it, scalloped at the edge. Four more legs hold the twig. A pin with a brass head goes through the thorax.

Beside it a second leaf is cut free of the paper and hinged at the stem. You lift it with one finger. Under it there is a smaller insect, pale, with stripes across its back. It has no pin.

Leaf insects rock from side to side as they walk, the man with the brush says. Behind you the brush goes on over the paper.