22. A man avoiding moonlight.
At night he always stayed inside, in his hut with no windows, and always burned candles. Even so, he could feel, on clear nights, the moonlight bathing his roof and walls, the feeling of it rising inside him and flooding into his eyes, making them cold, so that he had to stare into a candle to warm them.
If only, he thought, he could turn into a shadow, then he might go out into the night and enjoy it, his shadow self absorbing and digesting the moonlight, his blind shadow eyes safe from it. Yes, that’s it, he thought, I must become the night, for then I can contain the moon inside me rather than be engulfed by it.