How I Say Fireflies Got Their Light

Once upon a time, in a village far away, during the season when the harvest almost ready, around September- there was an annoying bug. This bug’s name was fly. Fly was always getting into other people’s business and making an irritating buzzing noise around their ears. People would try and swat them with their cloths, but Fly was really fast, and they would always miss.

One day the villagers held a meeting. They all agreed to try and make Fly change his ways. They people decided to try and talk to Fly first, but the bug wasn’t interested in what they had to say. The villagers admitted that they would have to make a trap that would teach Fly a lesson. The people had noticed that the bug liked to go towards the lights in their houses, so they found a way to turn fire on and off in a square glass container. They named this trap a lantern.

That night, as Fly was sneaking into a house to sneak some food, he saw a light. Fly felt like the light was talking to him. “Come to me,” it seemed to whisper.

Fly went towards the light, and when he got so close that he could almost touch it, he suddenly bounced backwards! The bug looked closely and realized that there was glass blocking his way. Fly started to get angry, and hit himself repeatedly into the glass, trying to break it. Then he saw that there was an opening at the top of the glass box that he could swoop into.

Little did Fly know that one of the villagers was standing just outside the fire’s light, waiting. When the man saw the bug go into the lantern, he lunged forward, sealed the opening, and turned off the fire. The man looked into the jar, and jumped back in surprise. Fly had caught fire, but the flame’s color had changed to green, and the bug was able to make the light go on and off somehow. In the morning, the man who had caught Fly told the rest of the villagers what had happened.

Fly didn’t notice that the villagers were saying anything. He didn’t even notice when the villagers roughly handed the “jail” he was being held in to each other. What Fly was paying attention to was his reflection in the glass. He had seen his reflection before, but today something seemed to be different. He looked and looked, and then he spotted it. He was glowing.

That night, the people let Fly out of the glass container, but he wasn’t Fly anymore...he was Firefly. When Firefly flew out of the lantern, he decided that he wouldn’t try to get on people’s nerves anymore-instead, he would be the quiet light whispering, “Come to me,” to whoever passed.