Butterfly, daisies and swallows flash design

The swallows came back to the ring garden again this morning, two of them, thin as pen strokes, and they went straight past the hydroponic daisies to the window vent as if they had an appointment. Mr Adeyemi swears they are the same pair we counted in the spring the log called the last spring. I have stopped arguing with him about it.

The butterfly arrived on Tuesday, folded on the outside of the observation dome, its wings gone the colour of old brass wherever the sun reaches them. Nothing in the garden could have fed it, and nothing in the ship's records says a moth like that was ever carried aboard. I opened the logbook and wrote Lepidoptera, one, origin unknown, then crossed out unknown because it seemed rude to question a visitor who had come so far.

The founders painted the ring pattern on the bulkhead beneath the dome, that dense border of knots and spokes that I used to trace with my finger as a child. When the butterfly settled on it, its wings covered the whole design, and for a moment the ring looked like a door someone had opened from the other side. I used to think the border was meant to keep things out. Watching it now, I am not so sure.

Keep the seed tins dry and leave the vent open for the swallows. If the butterfly comes back, do not chase it. Let it sit where it likes.

Yours, Maren