螢火蟲之一 Firefly 1

有多少年沒有見過螢火蟲了？
小時候我們住在學校的教職員宿舍裏，宿舍後面是學校大操場，旁邊有一大片竹林，竹林再過去就是農田，所以夏天的夜裏常常可以看到螢火蟲出沒。但是因為我們家父母管得嚴，晚上是不准出門的，所以我們往往只能由窗戶往外看鄰居的小朋友們快樂地在草地上追逐螢火蟲的景象。
記得有一次不知怎麼的，有一隻螢火蟲飛到家裏來了，我非常地興奮，好想去抓它。但是很無奈，它竟然飛到哥哥的房裏去了，那時老爸正在他的房間裏訓話。由於我不想成為爸的下一個目標，所以我只能偷偷地往裏頭窺探，希望它趕快飛出來，或是爸儘快結束他的精神講話。過了好一會兒老爸總算離開了，我馬上跑過去問哥有沒有看到那隻螢火蟲。他的手往牆上一指，原來因為他的眼睛老是跟著它轉，所以它已經被爸打扁在牆上了。。。就這樣，唯一“囊螢夜讀”的希望也泡湯了。在那之後，也許由於環境的改變，我對螢火蟲的記憶就幾乎沒有了。
聽説美國中南部夏天有許多螢火蟲，真該找時間帶Vivian去看看。

When was the last time I saw a firefly?
We lived in one of the staff housing apartment unit of the middle school where my parents taught when I was young. The sports field was right behind us and a huge fan of bamboo was on the right blocking us from the rice fields. We used to be able to see fireflies in the evenings during the summer months. Our parents were stricter than others and we were not allowed to go out in the evenings, so we could only watch other kids chasing the fireflies through our window.
There was one night that one firefly came into our home. I was so excited and ready to catch it. However, it flew into my brother's room and at that time my father was lecturing him. Fearing that I could become the next victim, I didn’t dare to go in and only peeked into the room, hoping that it would fly out quickly. Finally my father walked out of the room and I rushed to my brother and asked if he had seen the firefly. He pointed at the wall and there it was, a smashed corpus of the poor bug; my father hit it with his flip-flop because my brother's eyes were following it during his speech. Thus, my hope of catching a firefly was destroyed.
I think it was because of the environmental change, I don't remember of seeing much of these cute little ones after that. I heard there are many fireflies in the southern states. I should find a time and bring Vivian to visit them.