Helena Napier

Glowing water, my daughter

When I was four, Pa first took me to see the glow worms. You find them near standing water, he told me, and he held my shoulders as he led me through forest dense as butter at twilight. I could hear nothing but the sound of my feet sliding on pickleweed, and when we got to the lake he kept me awake by prodding me. I could tell that he didn’t do it in a nasty way.