Saving Henry by Laurie Strongin

Author:Laurie Strongin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

The night before we left for Minneapolis, Henry and Jack became taken with fireflies. Their interest was sudden and overwhelming, and they spent a great deal of time running around our front yard, catching one firefly after another. Each catch was a victory for my sons, though not for the bugs, many of whom gave their lives in the clumsy, innocent hands of my three- and four-year-old boys.

As I was watching them that evening from the swing on our front porch, I let my mind drift to thoughts of my own childhood, of the curiosity and wonder about the world that defines a child’s dreams. When I shook myself from my reverie, I noticed that Henry had disappeared inside the house. Inside, I didn’t see him on the first floor, and so I went upstairs. I slowly opened his bedroom door.

“Mom, come in quick,” I heard in an insistent whisper. “Close the door.”

The room was dark. And then I saw them: dozens of pinpricks of warm, yellow light, flashing and floating above Henry’s head. He had carried the fireflies upstairs, one by one, cupped in his hands. Then he set them free.

“It looks like the sky,” he whispered, reaching over to take my hand. He was the picture of joy, lying on his back, watching the fireflies light up his room.

It was this image of Henry that would carry me through some of the darker moments during our time in Minneapolis.

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