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IT'S ALIVE AND IT SHINES
One evening I was sitting by the sandbox in our yard, waiting for Mommy to come home. She was probably still at college, or maybe she'd gone to the store, or maybe she was having a long wait for the bus. I don't know what was keeping her. All the other parents of children who lived in our house had come home, and the children had gone off with them and were probably having tea and bread rings and cheese by now, but my Mommy wasn't home yet.
The lights were beginning to go on in the windows, and dark clouds that looked like bearded old men were clumping across the sky.
I was awfully hungry. I said to myself that if I'd known my Mommy was hungry and was waiting for me someplace far away, I'd run straight to her and wouldn't be late, and she wouldn't have to sit by the sandbox and not know what to do.
Just then Misha came out into the yard. "Hello," he said.
"Hello."
Misha sat down beside me and picked up my dumptruck. "Hey! Where'd you get it? Does it pick up a load of sand by itself? Does it? Can it dump it by itself?"
"Yes."
"What's the handle for? Does it turn? Huh? Does it? Hey! Can I borrow it?"
"No. It's a present. Daddy gave it to me before he left on his trip."
Misha pouted and moved away. It was getting darker. I was staring at the gate, because I didn't want to miss Mommy, but she wasn't anywhere in sight. She must've met Aunt Rita on the way and they were probably standing someplace and yakking and not even thinking about me. I stretched out on the sand.
Then Misha said, "Won't you lend me your dumptruck?"
"Oh, shut up."
"I'll give you three stamps for it: one Guatemala and two Barbados."
"How can you compare Barbados to a dumptruck?"
"Want my life preserver?"
"It leaks."
"You can paste the hole up."
That made me mad. "And where'll I swim? In the bathtub?"
Misha pouted again. "All right, if you're so stingy, here!" He handed me a matchbox.
"Go on, open it! You'll see."
I opened the box but didn't see a thing at first. Then I saw a tiny pale-green light. It was like a star blinking very far away."What is it?" I whispered.
"It's a glow-worm. Like it? And it's alive. It really is."
"You know what? You can have my dumptruck for keeps. I'll trade it for your light."
Misha snatched my dumptruck and ran home. I just sat there looking at my little glow-worm. It was as green as a fairy light, and even though it was right there in my hand it semed miles away. My heart was beating real fast, and I had funny, prickly feeling in my nose like I wanted to cry.
I sat there looking at it. There wasn't anybody else in the yard. I don't know how much time passed. All of a sudden I looked up and there was Mommy. I was so glad to see her. When we were upstairs and sitting at the table having tea and bread rings and cheese, Mommy said, "How's your new dumptruck?"
"I traded it." "You did? What for?"
"For a glow-worm! See? Here it is, in the matchbox. Turn off the light."
Mommy turned off the light. The room became very dark. We both stared at the pale-green star. Then Mommy turned the light back on again. "It really is like magic. But how could you've traded your new dumptruck for a little worm?"
"I was waiting for you, and waiting, and I was so sad. The glowworm's better than a dumptruck."
"In what way?"
"Can't you see? It's alive. And it shines."