Short Story - FIREFLIES - Grant Eagar

On Neighbors 

Prompt: TheLittle Girl at the Door  By Joe Mackall   Partial quote: The doorbell rings, and I know before I answer it who will be standing on our misnamed welcome mat. It will be the intruder. A threat to my family. A domestic terrorist. . .         
The Fireflies                                 
            When our children were little we had nightmares of all that could go wrong in their lives. Our job was to love and protect them from the horrors of this world.             Fast forward twenty years - they have all been bitten and infected by the demons of our day; alcoholism, drug abuse, divorce, mental illness, and autism. We try to suck the venom from their seeping wounds and love them the best we are able. Occasionally we roar and yell at them, but that doesn’t make the plagues go away. We avoid the ‘I told you so’ and stick to safe topics of conversion while a small part of us dies as our dreams for them fade into the distance.            We are all broken - when we were young we were concerned with those who failed us, but as we get older we are more concerned with those whom we have failed. The price we must pay for our own selfishness.
            The grand kids come and we hug them, play ball with them, play ring around the roses with them, tell them stories, and hold them.  For a moment we are young again with surrounded by our little ones and we experience the joy once again of raising children. We remember when the kids were little and the times we would go on long Sunday walks. The kids would run about chasing fire flies and we felt like we were surrounded by angels. Then we smile.