MOUNTAIN MAGIC with Ann Hite

MOUNTAIN MAGIC with Ann Hite

Lightning Bug Season

When the days stretched longer and the evenings turned warm like melting butter, the yellow lights flashed on and then off and on and off in the darkening shadows of the clutter of trees in the old neighborhood. We, my younger brother and I, were given one rule: be home before the first star twinkled in the sky, and the lightning bugs went to bed. Jeff, the said brother, always wanted to go home earlier. He found it hard to keep up with us girls on his bike and whined like a baby for us to wait. 

“If you go home, Mama will make me come in and besides you’ll miss the lightning bugs.” 

His eyes grew big and round with half fear and half excitement. That boy was afraid of silly things. If the truth was known, I wasn’t far behind him. Just a tickle of a spooky thought sent me running. 

“We got to go in the trees over there to see them good.” I pointed in the direction of a gathering of tall oaks and maples. 

“Oh good. Ann can tell one of her stories.” My cousin Paula was a year older than me and it was her gaggle of girlfriends I played with. Paula wasn’t really my cousin, but we called each other this because our mamas were best friends that went way back before we were glimmers in their eyes. There were old black and white photos of the two dressed to the nines, going out on the town. Granny clicked her tongue with disapproval when she caught me staring at them. 

I was useful to Paula because I scared the pants off her friends, who always wanted more. A couple of the girls’ mothers told Mama I was a bad influence on their daughters. Aunt Polly laughed and urged Mama to cool her heels, giving me a wink. “This ain’t nothing but kid stuff. Stay out of it. Besides Ann might be a famous writer one day the way she comes up with those tales.” 

We girls and Jeff hurried into the clutter of trees. When we were standing in the deepest part, where the dimming light couldn’t reach the ground, I stopped. “We got to wait a minute. Just keep your eyes open.” Each girl breathed in unison. Jeff was quiet. Then the first lightning bug gave a glow and Mary’s eyes grew big. She was one of the biggest scary pants. 

“See them,” I whispered. 

“This ain’t nothing but dumb old lightning bugs.” Mary fussed like she was the bravest amongst us. 

“Well, Granny says different.” 

There they stood as the light leaked from the sky staring at each other. Them old girls, even Paula, perked up and listened when they heard me say Granny. I had told them enough times about how she was a granny woman from Appalachia even if she looked like someone from New York City shopping in Sacks Fifth Avenue. 

Several more lightning bugs blinked in what looked like a rhythm, a dance. “Granny said that lightning bugs have been touched by mountain magic. Each one is a soul who died a sudden or terrible death. They come out this time of the year blinking their lights hoping their loved ones will see and know them.” 

Jeff caught one of the lightning bugs in his cupped hands. The light showed between his fingers. “This one here is Daddy.” 

“It can’t be Daddy. He is still alive.” 

Jeff let the bug crawl up his finger to freedom. “How do we know? Haven’t heard from him in a long time.” 

The whole story turned into a bad taste in my mouth and big sloppy sobs built in my chest. 

The lightning bug on Jeff’s finger flew away. The girls and Jeff took to chasing the lights. I stood rooted in place staring at a slice of sky as a star appeared. 

Granny’s voice sounded from down the street. “Ann, bring your brother and get on home.” 

Just as a side note, my daddy wasn’t dead. He’d been writing letters to me all along but Mama was hiding them. That’s a story for another day. But still I remember that a knot of worry formed in my stomach and lived there for quite some time. 

When you see the lightning bugs flicker in the bushes around your house on a hot summer night, remember that mountain magic is at work. See if you can catch one before the first star twinkles in the sky.