Winter Fireflies
What's that? You don't know what a
"Winter Firefly" is? Well then, let me quickly educate you. "Winter
Fireflies" aren't bugs, but are in truth ice particles. The term
"Winter Fireflies" is one I came up with to describe these particles,
and it seems like a very fitting name. Whenever light shines on these
particles, they reflect it, but in such a way that only a fraction of the light
is reflected back into our own eyes. For a short moment, thousands of particles
reflect light, creating a display much like one you would expect to see some
warm summer night. This is the reason I named them "Winter
Fireflies". These ice particles appear much like snow flurries. They are
similar in appearance to these wisps of white, and come with snow storms. I do
not know if there’s a scientific name for them, and plan on looking into it
further when I have more time.
Now that I have explained these ice-formed
creatures, let me tell you a short story about them.
One night, returning from work, I came across
a storm of these fireflies. The first indication I had of ice was the fact that
lights from nearby houses were becoming fogged, the rays being interrupted by
the flurries of ice. As I drove into this fog, I found myself watching a show
of lights I hadn't seen for quite some time. All around me, the night lit up with
the reflection of my headlights.
As I
began to ascend a hill, I found myself looking at something so dazzling that I
was speechless for a moment. My headlights, now pointed upward into the heart
of the storm, lit up millions of these fireflies. As these sparkling lights
shone, they lit of the air around them, creating a display of reflections like
a chandelier suspended indefinitely across the sky. As I crested the hill, the
twisting road ahead of me was lined with these fireflies, the blacktop a
perfect backdrop for their shine. Unfortunately, this appeared to be the end of
flock of fireflies formed from our late snowstorm. I exited the cloud of ice,
and was greeted with the same dull blackness that appears every night.
Hello
everyone, Christopher again. Sorry for the wordiness of the above story, I’m
still finding my “spot” in writing, and how I want to write my stories. Even
with the wordiness, I hope you enjoy this short story, and realize how special
something small can be when you look at it differently. The time it took me to
go through the ice was only thirty seconds or so, yet when I look back at it, I
realize just how wonderful it all was. The ice brightened up my dark night, and
in those thirty seconds I found myself thankful for such small things as ice, even
if it caused my car to slide multiple times that night.
Now, I
must be going. Thank you for reading this, and keep your eyes out for those “Winter
Fireflies.”
-Christopher
Albirdyn
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