Prologue
A moth was hovering over the bedside lamp. She was hitting the lampshade helplessly with her wings, pulled to light a bit like a magnet. There was something hypnotic in her dance, even if she moved blindly, trying to touch the lightbulb. She looked like the dark whirligig: she was spinning in one moment, falling down and going up in another while nicking the chess knight on a nightstand. Her wings seemed to be covered with a net of gray veins, a bit like cream colored leaves.
Finally, the bug managed to get under the lampshade. The silhouette of tiny body was shadow-like on the fabric when she was trying to touch the bulb and avoid getting burned. Before the moth burned her wings, Ophelia turned off the lamp and took it outside, to the balcony. When her bare feet touched the tiles and she was hit by night, cold wind, she shivered. She wore only her pajamas, as she didn’t think about putting on the sweater when she rescued the moth. She leaned out of the balustrade to shake off the stray creature, which flew away from the lampshade with rumbling, as if angry for taking the divine light away from her. Ophelia saw her outline on the dark sky covered with stars for a long moment. As soon as the moth was gone, she walked back to her room and carefully closed the door behind her to prevent more moths from coming inside, lured by the soft light of lamp.
