Fireflies

 

When I was a very young girl, maybe four or five years old, I was spending a very hot and humid night inside my mother's friend's car. Why were we sitting inside a car in front of my house with no destination in mind? We could not afford air conditioning in our house with eight brothers and sisters to feed and a mortgage to pay so we sat in the car with the air conditioner on to get cooled off. I don’t remember where my brothers and sisters were, but I always tagged along with my mother. The air conditioning felt so good!

My mother and her friend were talking on and on and the smoke from their cigarettes was irritating my throat. It seemed to get later and later. Eventually, I closed my eyes for a few seconds. When I reopened them, there, flying all around the car were the most beautiful fireflies. The amazing thing was they were all different colors, blue, pink, green, orange and yellow, and all shades of these colors in-between. I was in awe of this beautiful light show given by the fireflies. Their colors sparkled, shimmered, and shone brightly a rainbow of blinking color in the night’s hot, humid night air.

Bursting with excitement, I jumped to the front seat of the car and asked my mother, “Did you just see them? All those different colored fireflies?” She answered,” No my dear little one. I didn't see them and if I did they would only light up yellow. Fireflies don't light up in any other colors.” “You were probably dreaming,” she explained.

I didn't believe her because the “dream” if it was a dream was so real. I didn't believe I had had a dream at all. For many summers, I waited for the multicolored fireflies but only the yellow ones showed up. After a long time of growing up, I had to convince myself it must have been a dream. Yet it never ever felt like it was a dream, not even when I think about it now.

Ellen