Leo didn't love bedtime. Not because he was scared of the dark, but because his mom always asked him to count something before she’d tuck him in. “Count the sheep, Leo,” she’d say. “It helps you fall asleep.” But Leo thought sheep were boring, and counting was…well, just numbers. Numbers felt cold and hard, not cozy like his blanket.
Tonight, as Leo reluctantly started to count, he noticed a tiny blinking light outside his window. It wasn’t a star. It was a firefly! But this firefly wasn’t blinking happily; it was blinking sadly, and very slowly. Leo opened the window and gently coaxed the firefly inside.
“What’s wrong?” Leo whispered. The firefly blinked three times, then once, then two. Leo realized it was trying to *tell* him something. “Are you trying to tell me how many of your family are missing?” he asked. The firefly blinked three times again, very brightly. “Three fireflies are lost!”
Leo knew he had to help. “Okay,” he said, “We need to find them. But how will we know how many we’ve found?” He remembered his mom and the sheep. “We’ll count!” He grabbed his favorite box of colorful building blocks. “Each block will represent a firefly we rescue.”
They flew out into the garden. The first firefly they found was hiding under a big sunflower. Leo carefully placed one red block in his box. “One firefly found!” he announced. The lost firefly blinked happily. They continued their search. They found a second firefly tangled in a rose bush. Leo gently freed it, adding a blue block to his box. “Two fireflies found!”
Finding the third firefly was harder. They searched behind the shed, under the birdbath, and even inside a watering can! Leo started to feel frustrated. “This is taking a long time,” he grumbled. The lost firefly blinked slowly, as if to say, ‘Be patient.’ Leo took a deep breath and kept looking. Finally, he spotted a tiny glow near the vegetable garden. There it was! He added a yellow block to his box. “Three fireflies found!”
The lost firefly zipped around Leo’s head, blinking excitedly. Then, it led Leo to a patch of clover where the rest of its family was waiting. There were five fireflies in total! Leo quickly counted them: one, two, three, four, five. He realized numbers weren’t so cold and hard after all. They helped him solve a problem and reunite a family.
The fireflies blinked a thank-you message to Leo, a beautiful, sparkling pattern. Leo smiled. He felt warm and fuzzy inside, much cozier than he’d felt before. He went back to his room, his box of blocks clutched in his hand. His mom was waiting.
“Did you count the sheep, Leo?” she asked. Leo grinned. “I counted fireflies! And I learned that numbers can help you find friends.” He showed her the blocks. “One, two, three…we rescued three fireflies!” His mom tucked him in. “That’s wonderful, Leo. Numbers are everywhere, helping us in so many ways.”
Leo closed his eyes, thinking about the blinking fireflies. He wasn’t counting sheep anymore. He was counting happy memories. And as he drifted off to sleep, he realized that even numbers could be cozy, especially when they helped you make a friend.