When my beloved and I are together, there are candles alight next to us every single evening. As we recline perpendicular to each other and talk, I caress her bare feet in my lap. The candles give us all the light we need. Now and then, I go for her calves and even knees. And we can go on like this for hours on end. When we are apart, though, I light the candles only when there is a power failure. This happens every once in a while, but ever more rarely. Actually, I cannot remember when it was the last time that there was no power in the evening. Anyhow, we are apart this evening among evenings, but I set the candles alight and turned off all the other lights around me. Swaying ever so gently, the tall flames are quite comforting. Their warmth reaches my hands and even my face. Looking at the flames, I can almost feel my beloved’s toes between my fingers. And so I sit and stare. My breath is getting ever more gentle while my mouth is slowly shaping into a barely audible whisper: “I love you, I love you.” The sway of the candles strikes me like a reply in kind. What else could it possibly be?