| Google Image Firefly |
When I was a younger - about 1989, there was a firefly caught in a spider web. My Mom and I were just coming home from Gramma Wille's. It was dusk. We pulled into the driveway to park and we noticed a firefly flashing away out of the corner of our eye. Upon further inspection, we noticed that the firefly was not moving, just flashing.
That's when we realized that the firefly was caught in a spider's web by the house. I totally freaked out. I wanted to save the firefly, but was extremely terrified of spiders. We went to look at the firefly and the web and noticed that the spider was coming out of hiding and heading straight towards the firefly!
I screamed, "Mom! We have to save the firefly! Kill the spider! She tried to tell me that the spider needed to eat, that this was nature at her ugliest. I didn't care! Mom plucked the firefly out of the web and squished the spider with her shoe. We took the firefly into the house.
We found a canning jar and some grass and put the firefly into the jar. He stayed there overnight and then the next day he looked GREAT!!! I'm guessing that he was able to get all of the spider gunk off of his wings because he was moving just fine. We released him the next night.
He crawled to the lip of the canning jar and stayed put for a moment. Mom and I thought that maybe he liked us and didn't want to leave. Then we thought maybe he was scared or thought it was a trap and we were going to be mean to him. At any rate, he did leave the jar and flew off. He flashed his little light right away and I knew he'd be alright.
From then on, Mom teased me about being part firefly. We wondered every year if he came back to flash his light at us.
Well, tonight, all these years later, Rick and I were in the back gathering the damp-again-evening load of laundry. Ricky noticed the fireflies before I did. They were all over our heads, gently floating around. Some landed on my hair, one landed on my arm and shoulder. I put my hand out and under a firefly floating past me and he landed on my outstretched hand. I wasn't the right girl for him, however, and he flew off - flashing his little light at me to say goodbye.
Ricky was totally impressed and said so over and over. I replied, "Well, you know... I am the Savior of Fireflies." and then we had to run inside because the mosquitoes were starting to feed!
