“Penelope, quit pushing your brother!” I scolded, but it was to no avail as our boisterous six-year-old daughter jumped into my arms, almost knocking me to the floor.
Jackson ran up behind, gripping onto my legs. “Where’s Mommy?” Jackson called, his cute voice just slightly off key.
“I’m here, baby boy,” Elsie called as she came out through the trees. I smiled at my wife, swatting away the mosquitos from her bare legs. She looked beautiful as always dressed in her cute black jean shorts and white fitted t-shirt. Her blonde hair sat on her shoulders, and in her arms, she held a crate of four mason jars.
Jackson ran over to her and held on to her waist. I watched my blond son with blue eyes smile up at his mom, their special bond unbreakable.
When Jackson and Penelope were born, we knew there was a chance that one, or both, would have hearing problems. Penelope came out first and was in perfect health, but it was clear from early on that Jackson had no hearing in his left ear, but luckily, like his mom, he had some hearing in his right, almost one hundred percent.
It made me adore him more if possible, because like his mom, he had a slight inflection to his voice. But unlike his mom, he would never grow up thinking he should be ashamed of it or hide it. Elsie was teaching him to be proud, as the head counselor at Kind, she would ensure that our baby boy never was ashamed to be exactly who he was—without apology.
Jackson was shy and reserved like me, unlike his sister who was as loud as they came. “Papa, look at me!” Penelope demanded and I tapped the end of her button nose.
“Y’all keep shouting like that and you’ll scare them away.”
Penelope’s huge gray eyes widened to a comical size and she pressed her finger to her mouth. “Shh!” she said, just as loudly as she’d screamed, but I laughed all the same, her dark hair all frizzy around her head because of the humidity.
Elsie’s hand pressed on my back as she caught up. Leaning down I pressed a kiss on her lips. When I pulled away, it was to see Jackson pulling his tongue out at his sister behind my back. His cheeks beamed with red when he saw that he’d been caught.
He was completely my son.
“We need to go down near the creek,” I said and pointed toward the sound of the flowing water. “They tend to be near water.”
Holding the net in my hand, I put Penelope on the ground and she immediately put her hand in mine. “Ready?” I asked and they all nodded their heads.
As we walked, Penelope pulled on my hand, and said, “Tell us again. Tell us about the jar you made for mommy.”
I laughed and shook my head. “You wanna hear that story again?” Elsie asked Penelope and our daughter nodded her head.
“I like it. I like hearing about the light, and the shed and all the smiles.”
Squeezing Penelope’s hand, I said, “Okay. When I met Mommy, she didn’t really speak, but she wrote me a note that said she was afraid of the dark.”
“Like me, Mommy?” Jackson asked and Elsie nodded her head.
“Yeah, just like you, Peanut.”
“Go on, Papa,” Penelope pushed.
“Well, in Seattle we don’t get no lightning bugs, at least I’ve never seen them. But because I’m from Bama, I knew how to make lightning bug jars.”
“Because Nonna Chiara used to make them for you when you were little?”
“Yeah,” I said and pointed to the woods. “We used to come to woods just like these and catch the brightest lightning bugs we could find with my net.”
“These exact woods?” Penelope asked dramatically.
I shook my head. “Not these exact one’s, but they look the same.”
“These are Aunt Molly and Uncle Rome’s woods, Penny. Papa told you that before. You never listen!”
I inhaled through my nose when they started arguing again. Then they stopped, like nothing had even happened. Penelope turned back to look up at me and flashed me a toothy smile. “What else, Papa?”
I held in my laugh, but I caught Elsie chuckle from behind. Penelope tugged on my arm goading me to speak. So I did.
“Because we didn’t have lightning bugs, I couldn’t make the real thing, so I wanted to give Mommy a homemade one.”
“Like Aunt Lex had made for Dante?”
“Yep,” I agreed. “So I did. Mommy watched me as I emptied the glow stick into the jar, and she kept it with her every night after that, putting it in her window so I could see she was okay.”
“She does that even now!” Jackson said with excitement and I looked to my wife. She gave me her secret smile. Because that same damn jar still sat on our bedroom window back in Seattle, and Elsie had insisted that, for all of these years, she kept it lit. The jar barely gave off light anymore because it was so well used, but she wouldn’t part with it.
I wouldn’t let her anyway. It was our light that never went out.
We turned a corner and the creek came into view. I heard a quiet gasp come from Elsie when she saw the cluster of lightning bugs up ahead.
“Look,” I instructed to Penelope and Jackson as we crouched down in the long grass. “Y’all see them?”
Penelope’s hands went to her mouth as she did. Jackson’s little hand rested on my shoulder as he watched in silent fascination.
“They’re so pretty. Mommy, can you see?” Penelope said and moved to Elsie’s side, cuddling in to her arm.
“I can see, baby girl.” She looked from our daughter to our son, and asked, “Should we go get some for our jars?”
“Yes!” they both whispered in unison, and Elsie handed each one a mason jar along with the mesh lid.
“Now we have to be real quiet, okay?” I said to both of their excited faces. I couldn’t help but smile as they stood, bent forward, tiptoeing through the grass after me.
Elsie was laughing too, but I could see in her face that she was just as excited. I’d promised her this trip years ago, but my playing football for the Seahawks and her work always got in the way. It’d taken us quite a few years to fully heal and achieve our dreams, but that was fine. We’d seen the world together, and every year we’d fallen even deeper in love. We had our twins eventually, our two sweet children making our lives complete, whole, all we’d ever hoped and dreamed.
I’d retired from football this year, moving on to help Austin develop Daisy’s Smile and Kind centers nationally. We were both driven to do more, to expand on the couple of centers we had. Both the husbands of wives who the centers could have provided help for if only they’d existed before.
I came to a stop when we reached where the bugs flew, and Penelope giggled seeing them flying around. “Papa! They have lights on their butts!”
Jackson’s peeled laughter at his sister cut through the night, and we all started laughing too, until the bugs flew up higher.
“Quick, hold out your jars,” I instructed. Penelope and Jackson both did as I asked. I laughed to myself when Elsie held ours out too.
Swiping the net through the bugs, I brought it back to the jars, tipping it upside down watching as a few bugs landed in each jar. Penelope and Jackson’s eyes were huge as they watched the bugs dance in the jars in their hands.
“What now, Papa?” Jackson asked, all wide eyes. I could hear the nerves in his little voice.