Odette’s Night Garden

Odette and Sylvie join Dad in the garden as the sky begins to darken. Their daytime games are over. They want to see which creatures visit now. They settle quietly on a bench beside the flower bed.

A small pale shape moves near the white flowers, then disappears. Sylvie thinks it could be a falling petal. Odette thinks she saw wings, but neither girl had a clear enough view to be certain.

Odette switches on a bright torch and points it across the flowers. The beam makes the nearby leaves easy to see, although everything beyond them seems darker. The little shape does not return while she searches.

Dad suggests switching off the torch and waiting beside the low garden lamp. Their eyes slowly adjust to the softer light. They can see the pale flowers again without moving the beam from place to place.

Soon the shape appears beside the lavender, hovering for a moment before landing. From the bench, the girls can now see a small moth with folded wings, resting against a pale flower near the lamp.

Sylvie compares its still shape with the petals around it. Now she understands why she was unsure. Odette draws a quick outline in her notebook, leaving the moth undisturbed while Dad helps them notice its thin feelers.

A second moth passes above the flowers, but the first stays where it is. The girls count two visitors and whisper their discovery. They do not try to catch either one or shake the flower stems.

Before going indoors, Odette closes her notebook and looks once more at the garden. “Waiting showed us more than searching with the torch,” she says. Tomorrow she wants to compare her evening drawing with the flowers in daylight.