Battle of the Beetles

‘I’ve got the Sunday papers,’ Bertolt said, pushing Uncle Max’s door open with his shoulder and shuffling into the living room backwards. Newton, the copper-coloured firefly that was Bertolt’s closest friend, hovered above the boy’s cloud of white hair, his abdomen glowing gently.
Darkus and Virginia looked up. They were sitting cross-legged either side of an aqua-blue paddling pool filled with oak mulch and a mound of mugs. Darkus was wearing the Weevil Knieval T-shirt he’d bought in LA and Virginia was dressed in faded denim, old jeans and a