Chapter 11: afterward

The influx of fireflies lasted about three weeks, until the nights got colder and their numbers dwindled to nothing.

During that time, I would go out to the back pasture to see Malchius and his expanded dominion and marveled.  He ruled with the same kindness and wisdom that the prince had ruled.  It is like he never left.

Looking back, I knew there was always something up in the back meadow.  Why did my children, Dorothy and Emily seem to like to romp around the meadow in the growing darkness?  Did they know?

Dorothy and her family came out to visit the following summer to visit.  Johnathan, age five and Catherine, age eight both seemed enchanted by the goings on of the glen and both tried to catch fireflies in a bottle.  They caught a few, but leaving them in a bottle didn’t workout too well.  They quickly died.

I read this story to them over several nights.  They seemed enchanted.  After the first night, they told me clearly that, “Yes we saw them, just like you said.”

When they told their parents and other adults, they said, “Of course you did dear.”

Magic isn’t kept of captured.  It is lived.  I think the glen is always available to us.  We just have to be able to see.