Episode Details

On a warm Tuesday night in 1971, Tamera put on her best Sunday clothes and climbed out of her bedroom window. Her foster brother Jax was asleep peacefully in his bed on the other side of the room, his glasses neatly placed on his bedside table, his dark hair messy from tossing and turning. As Tamera's pretty dress shoes hit the dirt below their shared bedroom window she heard the soft sound of a rock shifting beneath her weight, and she held her breath for a long moment. When nothing happened, she drew her hands away from the windowsill and crept away from the small white house she lived in near the edge of Rougeweb, Texas.
The moment she stepped off of the grass and her shoe hit the gravel street, a firefly buzzed before her nose. It whizzed in a circle around her head, buzzing by her ear, and she struggled to keep her eyes on it. She lifted her hands to catch it, but before her fingers could clasp around the insect, its light zoomed away down the street. Without so much as a second thought, Tamera ran after it as fast as she could, grinning and stifling her giggles. 
Down the street she went, the gravel melting into asphalt, the houses getting closer together, and the distant giggles of other children reminding her of her goal. To find the festival.
The golden light of the firefly turned left, and so did Tammy. Her face was flushed, her breath heavy and her legs tired, but she desperately wanted to follow the light. She kept her pace, her eyes on her prize, her arms stretching out towards it. She leaped over rocks and fences, nearly tripping once but forcing herself back up with a grunt and a huff. 
Finally, when she entered a field of corn, she was sure she was gaining on it. At first, she wondered if it was just her hoping too hard, but no, as she dodged around cornstalks she could tell she was getting closer. She forced herself to run faster than she thought she could, her arms out and fingers spread wide to finally capture the little glowing bug she had chased so far for so long. Just when she was sure she could close her hands around it, it completely disappeared, and she ground to a halt, nearly slipping in the dirt and ruining her Sunday clothes. She stood still in the dark of the night, the stalks of corn surrounding her forever on all sides. Her breathing was loud and heavy and she felt sticky and sweaty. She swallowed her spit and looked around herself, but saw nothing but the dark silhouettes of the corn disappearing into the distance. Though the moon shone bright and it was a clear night, she felt that not enough light was penetrating the leaves over her head. She felt her chest tighten and her eyes begin to sting, and she lifted her hand to bite down hard on her knuckle as she spun around a few times, desperate to get her bearings.
Then she heard it. At first, she wasn't sure what it was, but after a few seconds, she realized it was a tune. Music was playing somewhere, the sound getting closer and closer though Tamera stayed still. Her face stained with tears, she moved towards the noise, pushing at the stalks around her in an attempt to see where it came from. As she went, she slowly began to see fireflies again, but there were many of them, and none of them seemed keen on leading her anywhere. She kept following the joyful sound as it began to blend with children's laughter, the smell of fresh popcorn, the clapping of hands in time to the rhythm. When she finally broke through the thick wall of corn stalks, she looked up to see a large, freshly painted red barn in front of her, decorated to glow golden with fairy lights and streamers. Children were running in and out, laughing and playing and dancing, some holding popcorn and candy, and others holding balloons. By the door stood a teenage girl, dressed in a white button-down shirt and a red vest, black slacks and dress shoes, bowtie, top hat, and cane to tie it all together, grinning joyfully at everyone who ran past. Inevitably, that