It had been a while since they had seen a bus, let alone ride one. They were all giddy. They were all happy. They bounced as they all entered the bus. I closed the doors and headed for homes and day cares that would take them all in. Suddenly out of the blue, sparkles appeared. They all “oohed” and “aahed.” They started to call them stars. The students watched as they moved about the bus.
“There’s one on the seat,” replied one child with a sharp point of a finger.
“There’s one on the bus driver’s head,” pointed another.
They all giggled and shrieked in delight, for those stars were naughty. Those stars would not sit still for anyone, no matter how loud the students were. The stars did not listen to me either, no matter how stern I was when I pleaded. So, the children began to pretend to hunt the naughty stars that appeared on the bus. They were all having so much fun.
In the midst of that hunting moment, I asked the kids if any of them had hunted lightning bugs at night. Everyone shook their heads. So, I told them about the great lightning bug hunts I had as a kid. I told them about how I would race about the entire yard with a glass canning jar in my hand. I would try hard to catch just one green, blinking lightning bug in my jar. I told them that once I was certain that I had one blinking bug in the jar, I would go to the porch of my house and show my father. Once he my father confirmed that I had indeed captured a lightning bus, I would open the jar and let it go.
One of my students asked, “why did you let it go?”
I said, “because lightning bugs have a job to do. They must fly around and blink. When the lightning bugs get into those jars, they start to slow down their blinking, and eventually stop.”
The same child asked, “they stop?”
I thought for a moment, then replied, “yes, they do. It’s kinda like when you get grounded by your folks and sent to your room.”
All the student nodded.
“Well, it is the same for our lightning bug friends. Like I said, it is their job to fly about and blink. It is how they attract their food or a friend. When they are caught inside a jar, they can not do those sort of things. It makes them very unhappy.”
The bus went quiet for a minute to consider what I had said, then one child piped up, “So, do you chase stars at night with the school bus?”
I said, “No, the stars are too high for me to reach with the school bus.”
“But how did the stars get into the bus?” asked one little boy.
Before I could answer the question, we made a turn with the bus, and the stars disappeared.
“Are the stars unhappy?” asked a little girl, with a touch of honest concern for the stars in her voice.
I thought for a moment, and then I said, “we do not lock the doors of the school bus at night, in case a curious star gets caught. And no, our stars right now are not happy, because they can not find a way out. However, once they do, they will glow once again.”
We made another turn and stopped at our first stop. Those naughty little stars reappeared, which made everyone cheer. Then, one little girl stood up with her sparkly panda book bag.
With a smile, she walked off the bus, followed by the stars.
We all said goodbye to our little friends. I closed the school bus door. We rode a village block when one of the boys announced in a fairly loud voice that we were being followed by a school bus tornado.
“Hurry up, bus driver!”cried the boy.
So, away down the road we went.
