Tiny Infinities by J.H. Diehl

Author:J.H. Diehl [Diehl, J. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

12

I AM SURE I HEARD IT RIGHT

TWO FUZZY SYLLABLES. Soft, high-pitched. The hard B was unmistakable; the G floated between guh and uh. Fire came out fay-ah.

I knew Piper meant to say bug.

I knew she meant to say fire.

Like I knew, by now, when she was tired or about to get upset. We’d spent enough time together for that.

I knew bugfire meant firefly.

One, two, three times I replayed the moment in my head. It was no dream, not imagined, nothing supernatural—it was like “terrible joy”: an oxymoron, an impossible possible. Real magic.

Piper’s blond-white curls shone in the flashlight beam. Our eyes met; she smiled. I was sure the smile was her way to tell me she knew she’d said a word. Had she heard the word she said? Did she know she’d made sounds? That, I wasn’t sure of.

“Bugfire, bugfire, bugfire,” I repeated, and held out the fireflies in my hands as I lowered them to the ground cloth and freed them. “Your bugfire is crawling, Piper. You’re right. Fireflies are bugs that look like sparks of fire. Bugfire.”

Not even a crack appeared between her lips. She couldn’t or wouldn’t say it again, as if someone had switched her off. She shook the fireflies from her hands. I turned a flashlight on and off and waved it around like she had, in case that was part of “bugfire.” But she just lay down on my sleeping bag and appeared to be watching the ceiling.

Still, I couldn’t wait to see Joanna’s face when I told her. She’d want a moment-by-moment description. I’d have to be vague about “where.”

To be honest, I’d forgotten Timmy’s monitor. Its static had blurred into the night sounds of the neighborhood. Blood rushed to my head, as if I’d been caught. We’d been away from the Phoebes’ about twenty minutes, and the circumstances could not be explained in a way that made me look responsible.

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