- Episode 1
- Everyone perked up as the flat landscape finally gave way to gently rolling hills. It wasn’t a very long drive - about four hours - but everyone was ready to stretch their legs by the time they arrived at the cabins. Thanks to the longer days of summer, it wasn’t quite dusk. While the adults focused on the cabins, the twins were immediately drawn to the campfire area.
-
- “C’mon, Rufus. Let’s go see if this is where we roast marshmallows.”
-
- Mike arranged for everything online, so all they had to do was settle in. Looking around the cabin, Agnes saw that it was a bit more “civilized” than she had hoped for. It would do, though, since Mike wouldn’t have come if they were going to REALLY rough it. She was determined to convince Mort to tackle one or two of the more strenuous trails with her while Mike kept an eye on the twins back at the cabin, but she also worried that Mike might spend the next two days indoors, rather than joining the family on the gentler hikes.
-
- Agnes needn’t have worried. Mike realized that he was slowing down as he tore off each page of the calendar. His doctor gave him the “you could be in better health” lecture that she gave many of her past-middle-age patients, suggesting walking as a good way to start...along with better eating habits. The brisk-walking routine he started was slowly making a difference. He wanted to surprise Aggie. She would be pleased. Mort, he wasn’t so sure about. Mike could imagine what Mort might be like in twenty-five years or so down the road, and he wanted to set a good example.
-
- When they climbed the stairs to the second-floor bedrooms, Agnes noticed that Mike wasn’t huffing and puffing as she expected him to. Good clean air, she thought.
-
-
- Firefly Games
-
- “Ok. After we put away our clothes, let’s go down and catch us some fireflies! Then we can settle in for a quick supper and roast some marshmallows for dessert.” Agnes knew her children’s priorities. Fun, eating, fun eating.
- Agnes got two small glass jars out of the cabin’s kitchen and gave them to Mal and Mel.
“Whoever catches the most lightning bugs in ten minutes gets to roast the first marshmallow.”- “Don’t Mort and I get to play too, Aggie?” Mike asked.
-
- “You can if you want. Two teams. The guys hold the jars and the kids catch the bugs.”
- It was quite a spectacle. “I got one!” Mel was the first to catch a lightning bug.
- But not for long. Hearing Mel’s excited squeal, Rufus streaked over, knocking her down. And the lightning bug got its freedom.
- “I got one too!” Mal shouted, eager to out-catch his sister. But he was no match for Rufus, who apparently thought this was a great new game created especially for him. Rufus bounded over, crashing into Mal. And so another lightning bug was liberated.
- Agnes had the best view from the porch of their cabin. This was even more fun than she anticipated, as Rufus wasn’t in the picture when she thought up the game.
- “That’s not fair!” Mal yelled at no one in particular.
- “Mine got away too,” Mel responded, scrambling to her feet. “Hey, I got another one!”
- “So did I!”
- For the adults, it was like watching a rerun of the earlier scene...one or other of the twins catching a lightning bug, Rufus racing between them, their small bodies no match for 70 pounds of unleashed energy and momentum.
- Mort and Mike finally recovered from their laughter and called out “over here, over here.” Assuming they were calling him, Rufus bounded over to the two men and crashed into both of them. The twins followed, and soon there was a noisy tangle of arms, legs and fur.
- Rufus makes a great bowling ball, Agnes thought, but the loud barking and laughter might be disturbing guests in the other cabins and she didn’t want everyone to get too tired and overheated before supper.
- “Rufus! Din din,” Agnes called out as she went to retrieve his bowl and food.
- Rufus’ love of play defined the new rule of the game. When he finished eating, the game was over and the twin with the most lightning bugs would win.
- As might be expected, both jars held exactly the same number of fireflies. After congratulations all around, the bugs were released so they could continue their search for mates.
- During supper, the twins asked questions about lightning bugs such as why do they blink on and off (a signal for finding a mate), what makes them light up (a chemical called luciferin). Mort told them that some companies buy lightning bugs and sell them to researchers around the world who use them for studying diseases like cancer and for environmental and other tests.
- “Gee, we should have kept them,” said Mal. “There are a lot of lightning bugs out there. We could make a lot of money!”
- “Well, not exactly,” Mort explained. “They pay about one penny per firefly, so it would take you a whole lot of years (and no Rufus!) to even buy a bicycle. By that time, you would be too old to ride it.”
- Mel was fascinated that researchers could find important uses for beautiful things like fireflies. She thought that maybe some day she could find important uses for such ordinary things.
- After supper, Agnes brought out little plastic bags with four marshmallows in each of them, about 100 calories per person. A nice, sweet treat without overdoing it.
- Mike and Mort went out to start the campfire while Agnes and the twins washed, dried and put away the dishes. Strange images of light and shadows played among the trees as the campfire grew into a bonfire and then settled into the right size for toasting marshmallows.
-
-
-
- A Symphony of Cicadas
-
- When they were finished with the dishes, Mal volunteered to find long sticks for everyone to toast their marshmallows. He felt cooped up inside the cabin and couldn’t wait to find an excuse to run outside.
- As he was gathering twigs beneath the trees, Mal became aware of the different sounds that seemed to come from all around. High in the trees, lower in the bushes, moving and not, some clicking, some so shrill that it hurt his ears.
- “Those crickets are really making a racket!”
- “Those aren’t crickets, son. Most of the sound you hear is coming from cicadas. There sure are a lot of them out tonight,” said Mort.
- “What’s the difference between a cricket and a ci...whatever it is?” asked Mal.
- “I’m not entirely sure, Mal. A cricket is like a grasshopper and a cicada is, well, not a grasshopper.” Mort didn’t know that much about insects and didn’t want to “teach” his son something that wasn’t correct.
- “Let me see if I can find one so we can tell the difference,” Mal suggested.
- “That might not be so easy,” said Mike, “although I’d like to see a cicada too. There seems to be a whole lot of them around and their songs keep crashing into each other, kind of like the way Rufus was doing to us before supper.”
- Rufus, now lying quietly on the grass, looked up when he heard his name. He relaxed again when he realized it was just a passing mention.
- “I’ll find one to look at,” said Mal. “Where did we put the jar from the lightning bugs?”
- “Here’s one. Good luck,” said Mike, handing the glass jar to Mal. “Do you want a flashlight?”
- “No, that’s ok.”
- Mal listened for a moment, tilted his head sideways a bit to try locating where just one sound might be coming from, and then headed straight for a tree about 10 yards away. The sound got louder and it seemed like it was going to go straight through his ear and into his head.
- “It’s right there,” Mal said to Mort and Mike who had followed him, pointing to a spot just above his head. “Let me bring it back.”
- “Shh. It’ll fly away unless you surprise it,” Mike cautioned, barely able to see the bug against the dark bark of the tree.
- Fortunately, the cicada was too busy try to catch the attention of a potential mate and so it got caught itself.
- “You’ve got great ear-eye coordination,” Mort told his son admiringly. “And your eye-hand coordination isn’t so bad either.”
- Mal ran up and proudly held out the jar for Agnes and Mel, who were just coming down the stairs from the cabin. “It’s a ci..., ci...cicada. I just caught it. It sure doesn’t look like a grasshopper, does it?”
- “Hmm” was all that Agnes could think of to say at the moment.
- “Hmm” was the only thing that Mike could think of to say at the moment.
- “Ick. I like lightning bugs better,” Mel said, turning up her nose. “ Can we roast the marshmallows now?”
Please click HERE to continue reading.
|
SOME LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION
Mississippi Palisades
Fireflies
Cicadas
Food calories
- LINKS: BOOK 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE BIOFABLES SERIES
BioFables 1 Teaching Brief
BioFables 1 & 2: Word Counts, Reading Levels
|
