There is a lantern in the woods that casts its flickering flame upon bark and bush.

Every night, I see it from afar, a small orange dot swaying as its keeper saunters from murk to shadow. The dark giving way to the growing light as it draws ever closer, bringing alongside it a loudening crunch of leaves and snapping of twigs beneath stepping feet.

When the moment comes that the darkened shape beyond the lantern is faintly visible, and the glimmer of golden buttons on the face of a coat revealed—the light goes out, and the stranger vanishes.