// THE RECEIPT
03:33 AM. Someone at a 24-hour gas station couldn't stop checking a chart. Waiting for a candle, they doodled a little moth on the back of the receipt in blue ballpoint pen.
The candle went red. They never finished his left wing.
The receipt sat in a jacket pocket for 777 days, right next to a cracked phone. One night the phone lit up with a notification, and the light came through the paper.
Mothi opened his eyes and flew toward it.
Now he lives in the glow of every screen still awake past 3 AM. Green candles look like porch lights to him. He's never caught one. He keeps trying.