One summer evening, as the sky darkened and the moon and stars appeared, Leila and Mia sat on the edge of Leila's backyard porch. They dangled their legs over the wooden ledge and listened to the crickets and frogs sing in a glorious harmony. They'd had a busy day at the beach running in the surf and building sandcastles. As the sun had made its initial descent, they had returned to Leila's house to wash the sand off their bodies and enjoy a hearty meal.
"Can Mia spend the night?" Leila asked her mother.
"Sure. It's almost the end of summer break, after all," her mother had replied.
Now they sat, their hands still sticky from the orange popsicles they had eaten only minutes prior, listening to the nighttime soundtrack of summer. While they initially been sharing a conversation about their hopes for the school year ahead, they now both sat in a comfortable silence. Their normal bedtimes were approaching, made clear by the fact neither one of them could go more than a minute or two without yawning.
"Look," Leila said to Mia. Mia was slightly slouched over, appearing half-asleep. Quickly, she jolted from her doze at the sound of Leila's voice and gazed ahead.
Among the tall grass, fireflies had begun to light up Leila's backyard, twinkling against the darkness. Mia turned to face Leila. Though it was dark, Mia could already see a grin lighting up on Leila's face.
"Let's catch them," Leila suggested.
"Sure," Mia agreed.
Leila wouldn't call herself an expert at catching fireflies, considering she'd only been able to practice her catching skills during brief periods of time on certain summer evenings. Still, nothing could match the elation she felt on the rare circumstances she did manage to catch one between her palms and watch it light up in her hands.
With the little bit of light still remaining from the day, Leila and Mia both ventured down into the grass and began to cautiously approach the twinkling bugs. Leila leapt frequently at the bugs with her hands cupped, but each time she opened them, her palms were empty.
Meanwhile, Mia stared down at her hand where a firefly had taken refuge on her finger.
"How come you're so good at catching them?" Leila complained, crossing her arms and huffing. "You don't even try."
Mia held up the firefly to the sky and watched its light flicker before it took off.
"Don't run at them," Mia suggested. "You scare them away. Watch me," she said.
She knelt and crept closely to a bunch of fireflies gathered in the grass. Mia approached stealthily until she was nearly touching the insect. Then, she cupped her hands around it an instant, and when she opened them, the firefly was in her palms.
"Hold out your hand," Mia told Leila.
Leila held out her palms, and Mia slowly moved her hands closer to Leila, allowing the firefly to crawl from Mia's hand onto Leila's. In the flickers of light that the firefly cast out, Mia could see Leila's face light up in joy.
"It tickles," Leila said, laughing slightly as it crawled along her hand. She extended her finger and watched as the firefly took off, fading into the night sky once more.
With some practice and help from Mia, Leila began to catch them quite easily. For several minutes they played around in the backyard, catching fireflies and sharing laughs together.
The glow of the fireflies was beginning to fade. Mia stared down at the firefly on her finger and watched its light flicker on and off. Eventually, the lightning bug grew dark and flew into the darkness.
"They're starting to go away," Leila said sadly.
It was only natural. The neighbors had begun turning on their porch lights as the sky darkened, driving the fireflies deeper into the woods.
"It was fun while at lasted, at least," Mia said.
"School starts in a few days," Leila murmured. "We're going to be fifth graders. It's our last year before we go to middle school."
"I'm sure it'll be okay," Mia said.
"What if we're not in the same class together in middle school?" Leila wondered.
"That's still another year away," Mia said.
"I don't want summer to end," Leila complained.
"Me either. I don't want to do homework again," Mia said, crossing her arms together in annoyance.
"I feel like something's going to change this year," Leila said after a pause.
"Duh. Our teacher."
"No."
"Then what?" Mia asked.
"I don't know," Leila said.
They both turned and watched the last bit of fireflies flicker away into the darkness. For a few moments, they stood in the darkness, mourning the loss of the colorful insects.
"I'm tired," Mia said at last.
"Let's go in then. Maybe we can watch a movie until we fall asleep," Leila suggested.
Mia agreed and ascended with Leila back up the porch steps. As the steps creaked beneath her feet, she turned and stared back where the fireflies had been moments before. The backyard, once glittering with glowing insects, was now trapped in an inky darkness. The moon was evidently absent tonight.
While neither of them verbally expressed it as they stepped inside, both wished the fireflies had stayed around longer.