A Delightful Misunderstanding
“Perhaps you seldom saw fireflies when you were still a boy” so said opa Johan to his son who was driving in Jakarta in bright city light.
“Certainly I did, when I was very tired. My bike repeatedly jumped on the track during a mountain-bike race and I almost fell.”
What was he talking about seeing fireflies on a repeatedly jumping bicycle. Then I talked about taking video with him of crickets chirping in Monas Park . Then suddenly he laughed: “I thought you were seeing fireflies on your bike far into the country.”
“I intentionally did not mention your queer answer, as I thought that you must be a little deaf as your pa and ma are now.”
“Certainly am I not deaf. Ha, ha.”
Opa Johan was sad that fireflies will be extinct someday, so he talked about it.
But he would comfort you. “Just hit your eye(s) and you would see fireflies dancing, flying and shooting, falling stars in front of you in broad daylight. Ha, ha.”
That’s what Indonesians mean by seeing ‘kunang-kunang’ or fireflies.
February 2011
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