Sea of Lights

Little Nicholas was on a camping trip. He and both of his best friends, Gwen and Sam, went with their families. They were all excited because they finally got the chance to do all the things that they put on their ‘King of the Campgrounds’ list. A list they made of things they wanted to do when they finally went camping and this weekend they wouldn’t waste a moment to try to do them all.

Once they arrived at their cabins, the three of them sat down their bags and started to unpack. Nicholas pulled out the rolled up list and smirked at both Gwen and Sam. The two of them fist-bumping each other in celebration.

Once they were all unpacked and set up, they stepped outside onto the porch and opened the list. Nicholas looked up at the sky before looking down at the list again and saying, “Ok. Since it’s already night time we can skip ahead to the 5th thing and catch some fireflies, Cool?”

He folds the paper back up, tucking it into his cargo shorts pocket, and holds his fist out for a group fist-bump.

The three of them perform their secret group fist-bump-handshake, ending with them each standing in a cool pose. They all laugh a bit before walking over to a small field just up ahead of them, splitting up so they can cover more ground. Each of them chooses a spot to sit down and wait in, holding jars beside them. They could see the other little insects jumping and flying around in the grass. The sounds of their chirping, trilling, and squeaking filling the air.

Gwen loudly whispered, “Guys, look!”

The three of them quickly looked over in the direction where she was pointing and saw what looked like a cloud of little green lights. Their faces lit up in amazement at the sight. They’ve seen fireflies before, but never this many at once. As the swarm came closer, it spread out and around Gwen. A few of them landing in her hair and one on her nose. She giggled in glee as she felt it’s tiny feet tickling her nose.

Once the light cloud reached Sam, he quickly took off his jacket and opened it in front of him. He scooped up a bunch of them, causing his jacket’s hood to glow somewhat brightly. After a few flashes, the fireflies began to fly out through his hood. He tried to quickly pick up his jar and scoop up some more, but he only managed to catch just a few. He pouted as Gwen and Nicholas playfully laughed at his predicament.

As the swarm reached Nicholas, it floated all around and past him. Going under his arms and over his shoulders. He slowly picked up his jar and just held it at his side gently, watching as a couple dozen fireflies gently floated straight into it. He closed the lid and poked a few holes in it with a small, sharp rock that he picked up off the ground. He held the jar up for both Gwen and Sam to see.

“I got some!”, he excitedly whispers to both of them.

Gwen cheers him on for his achievement as Sam picks his jar back up and tries to scoop up some more, only to fail once again. He groaned a bit in frustration, unable to figure out why he couldn’t catch any. Nicholas walked over to Sam and held Sam’s jar to Sam’s side, waiting patiently.

He tries to teach Sam by saying, “You gotta wait for them to fly in it. If you move too fast and try to scoop them up, they’ll fly away.” Sam then stood there and waited for a few seconds before a few of them started to move again, eventually unknowingly flying right into his Jar.

He gasps and shouts, “I did it!”

Gwen quickly puts a finger to her lips and shushes him. Reprimanding him by whispering intensely, “Quiet! You don’t want to scare them off.”

Sam abruptly closes his mouth and nods in agreement before slowly lowering his jar.

Gwen then says quietly, “Hey, at least you got them IN the jar.”

She then holds up the jar and shows the both of them that the fireflies have landed all over the outside of the jar, but haven’t gone in. Sam gets an idea and walks over to Gwen slowly before turning her jar sideways, then holding his jar against the bottom of hers.

“Maybe they’ll fly in if they think that there are more already in there?”, he asks, unsure of the answer himself.

After a few moments a few of them start to fly in. Then, not long after, more followed after them, flowing into her jar like water. She goofily dances in place a bit, celebrating her catch. Sam and Gwen both close their jars and Nicholas helps them poke holes in the tops of them with his rock from earlier.

They walk back to the cabin slowly, making sure to disturb the fireflies as little as possible. Once they arrive back at the cabin, they stand on the porch and triumphantly hold up each of their jars, filled with plenty of buzzing and flashing fireflies.

Sam takes out his phone and takes a picture of all 3 of them with each of their jars. They all decide to make funny faces in the picture and once they look it over, they all laugh together. Afterwards, they all sat down on the steps and watched on in awe as the wind blew waves across the field, almost as if it was a...