Fireflies

Of all the things I’d never see, fireflies were pretty damn high on that list. My limbs were  weak, bruised, and felt sore from the fall. “Damn it” I mumbled, wincing with pain as the nurse inserted the needle into my forearm.

“It hurts, I know” the nurse said in a stern voice, likely having no sympathy from doing this a thousand times before. For her, this was an average day, but the end of mine.

“Does everyone go to heaven?” curiosity piqued me. I had never, once, believed in some omnipresent omniscient deity that watched over Earth.

She looked at me, and with all the ancient knowledge the nurse had, she responded, “I do not know” in the rather monotone voice she became accustomed to using.

“Gee, thanks” I mumbled; any sliver of life after death soon faded.

The nurse smirked. She fumbled with the intravenous sedation once again.

“It wasn’t the brightest idea to jump out of a building, with the delusion that I could fly” I joked, trying to enlighten the mood a bit.

“Your life will terminate shortly, dear. No need to waste your breath” she commented nonchalantly.

“Can I at least say one thing… before it comes?” I asked, quite calm, and a bit drowsy.

She nodded her head, “Just one thing”, she sighed.

“What does a firefly look like?” I coughed

“They’re small, brown, and have a bright abdomen? Never really thought about that before...”

The world around me soon faded, and I drifted off to sleep dreaming about fireflies.