NATURE'S FIREWORKS

“Oh, come here little guy, you're never going to find your soul-mate inside.” I scooped the lightning bug off the dining room wall and headed to the kitchen door.

“Who are you talking to?” My husband, Steven asked as I passed him in the kitchen.

“This little guy.” I held out my cupped hands, letting him see the glowing light shining between my fingers. “Can you get the door for me?”

Steven opened the back door and we both stepped out on the deck. “Fly away little guy! She's out there somewhere!” I opened my hands and the beetle slowly crawled to the edge of my fingers then flew away to join all the other lighting bugs in our yard.

“Wow! There's a lot of them this year!” Steven said as he sat down to watch.

I sat down next to him. “They say we get more when we have a wet Spring.” I shook my head. “We sure had one of those!”

“Wet and cold!” Steven added.

“It felt like we never really had a Spring.” I got up and went inside to turn on the ceiling fan we have for the deck. Even though it was early evening it was still in the high 80's. “We just went right into Summer.” I added as I came back outside and sat back down.

“Well, the lightning bugs are certainly loving it!” Steven leaned back in his chair.

“Look at all those guys frantically flying around searching for a date!” I laughed as our yard was dotted with several dozen flickering lights.

Steven looked at me confused. “How do you know that all of those are males?”

“Because it's usually the males you see flying around looking for a mate. The girls just hang out passively waiting for one of the guys to impress her enough before she flashes back that she's interested.”

Steven just shook his head. “Some things never change, no matter what species you are.”

“What's that suppose to mean?” I cried.

“Oh, come on. How many times did I try and get you to ask me out to lunch?” Steven laughed.

“How many times did I have to tell you I wasn't going to be the one asking you out.” I leaned back in my rocking chair and looked over at him. “You'd had to ask me!”

Our son Alex came out on the deck. “What are you guys arguing about?”

“We're not arguing!” I said. “We're discussing. It's different.”

Alex sat down in a chair across from us. “Okay, what were you discussing, in a raised voice?”

“You're Mom's the one raising her voice. I'm just stating facts.” Steven explained.

“I'm not raising my voice!” I cried.

Alex and Steven looked over at me.

“Okay, maybe a little.” I looked over at Alex. “When we first met, your Dad tried to get me to ask him out instead of just asking me out!”

“You could have just asked me out.” Steven shrugged his shoulders.

Alex looked at the both of us. “Are you kidding me?” He laughed. “You two have been married for over 30 years!”

“32 to be exact.” Steven looked over at me and smiled.

“It'll be 33 in November.” I added.

“So what got you talking about who asked who out?” Alex asked.

“Lightning bugs.” Steven and I said in unison.

Alex just shook his head and got up from his chair. “Nope. Don't even want to know the rest of this one.” he said as he headed back into the house.

“Too bad for you!” I called after him. “It's a good story!”