Great Escape Story - Mara F. - 08/08/17

Contest: Winners

Great Escape Story

Submitted by: Mara F., age 12, Sidney, OH

One Million Fireflies

“I caught it!” cried Hazel, cupping her hands around the glowing firefly and putting it into the jar I was holding.

I smiled at her. Ever since we had moved from our old home in Minnesota all the way to Tennessee, my little ten-year-old sister had become really sad. She talked a lot about how much she missed her friends, and the snow, and her old school. I missed it, too and I wanted to make her happy.

“Eight!” she said. “I’ve caught eight fireflies!”

“Awesome!” I laughed. “You can look at them for a little while, but then we have to let them go.”

She looked up at me, clearly disappointed. “Do we have to?” she asked. The smile on her face had disappeared way too quickly. “They’re so pretty.” She turned her attention back to the jar of twinkling fireflies.

I had to fix this. Then, an idea winked on like a firefly inside my brain.

“I know!” I said happily. “Hazel, I want you to gather as many fireflies as you can and put them in this jar, okay?” She looked at me curiously. “Just do it. This’ll be great. I promise.”

She shrugged and started chasing down fireflies. I helped her. Some of them escaped, but after half an hour and a lot of running, we had a jar packed tight with fireflies.

“Okay, now watch this, Hazel,” I said.

The sun had gone down, and the stars were out. I hoped this would make her smile again. I unscrewed the lid and held the jar up. All at once the fireflies came rushing out. Blinking, glowing, shining like the stars behind them. They were stars themselves. The night was lit up with thousands of pinpricks of light. Stars and fireflies. The fireflies flew everywhere.

My sister gasped, then smiled, then laughed. And when she laughed, she flew away. Back to Minnesota, back to her friends, back to the times when she was happy. But she was happy now, and to me, that was more beautiful than a million fireflies.


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