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Miko “Too breezy!”
Read the whole story
The story the pages were drawn from, in full — for reading aloud, or for a child who wants the words without the pictures.
Miko was a paper lantern boy with round cheeks, a blue tassel, and a tiny candle glowing inside his chest.
He loved quiet evenings.
Quiet evenings had no flapping laundry, no rattling shutters, and—best of all—no wind.
When the wind came, Miko’s paper sides went crinkle-crinkle. His tassel whipped about. His little candle flickered.
“Too breezy!” Miko would squeak, and scoot behind the biggest flowerpot on the porch.
One purple evening, Miko was polishing his glass window when—WHOOSH!
A gust sailed down the lane.
Miko dove behind the flowerpot.
Crinkle-crinkle.
Then he heard a very small sound.
“Hello?”
Miko peeked out.
A firefly bobbed near the gate. Her light blinked once.
Then twice.
Then—plip!—it went out.
“I’m Fizz,” she said. “I was flying home, but the wind blew me past the willow tree, over the pond, and into that prickly bush.” She pointed at a bush that had three twigs stuck to her wings. “Now I can’t see my way back.”
Another gust rushed along the lane.
WHOOSH!
Miko vanished behind the flowerpot.
Fizz’s tiny light blinked weakly. “Oh.”
Miko peered around the pot. “The wind is very big.”
“And I am very lost,” said Fizz.
Miko looked at the dark lane. He looked at Fizz. He looked at his warm little candle.
“I could shine,” he whispered.
WHOOSH!
Miko’s tassel flew straight up.
“Or,” he added, “I could be a flowerpot lantern.”
Fizz did not laugh. She only sat on a pebble, small and dim.
Miko took one careful step from behind the pot.
The wind shoved him sideways.
“Wobble!” cried Miko.
He bumped the porch rail.
“Bonk!”
His blue tassel wrapped around a railing post.
Fizz fluttered over. “Hold still.”
“I am trying!” said Miko.
Fizz tugged the tassel. Tug. Tug-tug.
POP!
Free at last, Miko spun in a whole circle and landed with his paper hat crooked over one eye.
Fizz gave a tiny giggle.
Miko giggled too.
The wind came again, stronger than before.
WHOOSH-WHOOSH!
Miko squeezed his eyes shut. But instead of running, he planted his little feet wide apart.
“My light is for seeing,” he said.
His candle glowed.
Soft gold spilled across the porch steps.
Fizz gasped. “Brighter, Miko!”
Miko’s cheeks warmed. He turned his glass window toward the lane.
His light stretched past the gate, past the puddle, and all the way to the willow tree.
“There!” cried Fizz. “My home is beyond the pond!”
Together they started down the lane.
When the wind pushed, Miko leaned into it.
When it puffed beneath his tassel, he held it with one hand.
When it whooshed around his paper sides, he glowed brighter.
At the pond, the wind gave one enormous puff.
WHOOSH!
Miko’s hat flew off.
His tassel flew up.
Fizz flew backward.
And Miko rolled down the grassy bank like a golden wheel.
“Roly-poly lantern!” he cried.
He stopped at the water’s edge with a splat of mud on his nose.
Fizz landed on top of his crooked hat.
For one surprised moment, they stared at each other.
Then Fizz’s light flashed bright, bright, bright.
Miko laughed so hard that his candle danced.
Across the pond, hundreds of fireflies rose from the reeds. They blinked and twinkled above the willow tree like a floating, sparkling cloud.
“Fizz!” they called.
Fizz zipped into the shining swarm, then looped back to Miko.
“You found the way,” she said.
Miko looked at the windy lane behind him. It still rustled the willow leaves. It still tugged at his tassel.
But Miko did not hide.
He stood at the pond’s edge, muddy-nosed and glowing gold, while the wind swirled around him and the fireflies made a thousand tiny lanterns in the sky.
