Stories From Summer; Stranger Tales From The Summer of '85

19. Catching Fireflies

19. Catching Fireflies

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Over the short amount of time that El has been allowed outdoors, she's never seen (or even heard of) fireflies, and when Max brought it up one of the times she came alone to the cabin (once a week, for what Max called 'girl time').

"I use to catch fireflies all the time back in California, I reckon there might be more given that Hawkins is in the middle of nowhere," Max says, putting another tape in El's pastel pink/peach cassette/tape player.

"Fire-flies?" She tilts her head, a confused expression coming over her face - one that the boys have told her about (that El needed something explaining to her, which was becoming few and far between each).

"They're these beetles, Lucas told me they have some kind of chemical inside them - that makes them glow from their lower abdomen glow, they can be yellow, or green, or even a pale red! I'll have to bring you some pictures of them next time I'm over," Max smiles, having come out of her shell a lot more in the recent months since the November El came home than what she was like back in California.

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A week later, Max was back at the cabin (El spending the majority of the week begging Hopper to let her go outside and catch fireflies, Hopper wanting to put it on hold for a short while - thinking it will be Mike Wheeler catching fireflies with her, but after finding out that it would the other girl in the self-claimed 'Party', Hopper quickly allowed it), with a bunch of Mason jars in a backpack that she brought.

Doing the knock that Hopper taught them, the door was rather quickly unlocked, and El came bouncing, dressed in a floral top she got from the mall with Max, under dungarees (what Max was coming to know as El's usual look). However, there was something that El wore that wasn't her usual look (a pastel pink dress that reminds El of the dress she wore when she first met the boys) and far amount of clothing that had been handed down from Nancy, given to her by Hopper, and stolen from her boyfriend Mike.

El wrapped Max up in a hug, which was also becoming the norm for the smaller girl, greeting everyone she held near and dear to her this way (apart from Karen Wheeler, she still didn't feel as close to her as she was to Joyce Byers). After their very short tiff when El came home, they've smoothed it over and couldn't be closer.

"I want you back inside when I call for you, understand me, kid?" Hopper said in his tough 'police chief' voice, looking down at Max (who really isn't scared of the man, having heard stories from El explaining that Hopper really is just a big teddy bear and treated her like his actual daughter, like Sara).

"Yes, sir," Max saluted him with her left hand, and Hopper looked down at her over the newspaper he was carrying.

"Wrong hand," he stated, walking to El's side, "See you when I call for you, kiddo," he pressed a kiss to the top of her head, as he wrapped her in a side hug. Which El turned into a proper hug.

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The girls were within distance from the cabin where they could hear Hopper shout for El when it came. Max put her backpack on the floor and dug out two Mason jars. Unscrewing the lids, she handed on to El.

With the jar in one hand and the lid in the other, Max stands at El's side, as the fireflies come to life. "What you want to do, is catch the firefly in the jar and close the lid," Max demonstrates, by catching a firefly of her own. "But, don't worry, we'll let them go later tonight, I promise," Max says when a look of horror comes over El's face at the thought of trapping the glowing bugs.

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About 5 minutes before Hopper called for El to come back inside, there were the sounds of wheels going through puddles, El hid behind Max (with it still being slightly unsafe, as it will be for the rest of her life), and they see Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Will coming around a bunch of trees and into the girls line of view.

"It's ok, El, it's just the boys," Max explains, allowing the smaller girl to allow the girl to come into Mike's view. The boys then dumped their bikes and Mike ran over to where El stands and wrapped her up in a tight and warm hug.

Mike ran a hand through El's hair, and when he loosened his grip and saw the firefly she had caught in the jar. "You've been catching fireflies?" Mike smiles, as El holds up the jar with an extremely proud smile on her face, allowing Mike to properly look at the firefly she had managed to catch. Knowing that she had named the little glowing bug, he asked, "What's this little guys name?"

"Molly!" She smiles happily, as she went to see The Breakfast Club with Max a couple of weeks ago. Named after the actress Molly Ringwald.

Mike smiles at the jar and then smiles at his girlfriend. "Shall we catch another one, or let this one go?" Mike asks, and when she asks to let this one go, Mike stands behind her and helps her get the lid off and they let the captured firefly go.