“The queen-size bed has a wooden frame and a dark-orange duvet cover and pillows. The bedside tables on both sides are identically stocked: three books, a lamp and a glasses case. I wonder if this allows my parents to swap sides during the night. I turn on one of the lamps, lighting the room like a sexy library.”

“Tomas turned the key and switched on the ceiling light. Teraza saw two beds pushed together, one of them flanked by a bedside table and a lamp. Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. The strains of the piano and violin rose up weakly from below.”

“I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”

“Turning the corner, she saw the dark figure of a man, John, pushed up against the side of his bed cast in the light of another stained glass lamp. She fought the simultaneous instinct to jump away and move closer. “You shouldn’t have come,” he said through gritted teeth.“I had to,” she insisted, taking a step forward. “It sounded like you were in trouble.”He laughed without humor. “Damn right I’m in trouble.”

“But at night, when the library lamps are lit, the outside world disappears and nothing but the space of books remains in existence. ”

“Just at present you only see the tree by the light of the lamp. I wonder when you would ever see the lamp by the light of the tree.”