Happy Fourth of July

Fire Flies
( I wrote this story a few years ago - prompted by 4th of July fireworks)

Ellouise Schoettler (copyright 2005)

Fireworks are legal in PA.

Ever since we bought our get-away place in PA several years ago our daughter Karen waits impatiently for the Fourth so she can buy fireworks and set them off. July 3 she bought a bag full of the legal ones, sparklers and grounded spritzers. No air-borne rockets. When it was finally dark enough we all went outside to set them off and make a show.

Most of the group went into the side yard to set off the sparklers but I sat on the deck above them - a ring side seat. That's when I noticed them - the fire flies.

Fire flies were darting all around the yard. They were blinking on and off as they flew across the deck where I was sitting. The air was alive with their lights. I looked out over the yard to the meadows beyond - tiny blinking points of light flitting across the fields. It was a splendid magical show - Nature's fireworks.

I remembered other summer evenings in North Carolina - at my grandmother's - when I raced around the yard catching fireflies and holding the captives in a mason jar - until I had enough that the jar seemed alive. Granny made me let them go - "so they will come back tomorrow night." And here they were -