MOTH INVASION

The restaurant looked picturesque from the outside.  It was made of 1870’s hewn sandstone, a stonemason’s triumph, and had originally been the town’s railway station.  The famous Ghan railway linking the continent from Adelaide in the south to Darwin in the north (via Alice Springs) had once steamed its way along this route, picking up passengers and goods from the very place where we would be eating dinner that evening.
We checked in to our accommodation and freshened up before driving back to the Ghan Restaurant for a memorable night.  As we reached the door, we were accosted by hundreds of light-bedazzled moths.  We dodged our way past them and quickly slipped in through the door.  Inside was light and airy.  The passageway led past a gallery to the main dining area in what was once the railway platform. The bare stone walls were adorned with photos of the railway station as it used to be. 
“Good evening. This way to your table.”
The vivacious young girl led us out to the dining area, separated from the black night by a wall of glass.  Clinging desperately along the outside of the glass wall were hundreds of pale creamy moths, like voyeurs watching us inside the well-lit room.  We were seated away from the glass, close to the rough stone wall, tucked away enough to feel cosy and pampered.  The owner welcomed us and took our order. Father and daughter worked in a loose relationship tempered by short loud outbursts and voluble communication from one end of the restaurant to another.
“Have you taken their order?” he yelled
“No, they were waiting a little!” she yelled back
“Okay, I’ll take it”, he replied, with attitude.
Not sure what to think, we smiled and acquiesced.  I was really glad I didn’t have to sit next to the ogling moths while I ate my meal. 
As the diners in front of us left, one man stood talking to the elderly couple near the door … with the front door to the moth army OPEN!  It was like opening a bottle cap and the contents pouring out, only in reverse!  Moths streamed in and hundreds clustered in agitated flutterings around the lamp directly above the elderly woman near the door.  She was looking nervous. 
“Who left the door open?” yelled the girl as she swooped down.  “I told them to open and shut it quickly! Now look at them!”  She grabbed a teatowel and waved it wildly at the moths to try and scatter them to the other lights, just missing the woman seated below.
Her father interjected and decided to switch off all the lights to get the moths to move off to other rooms. They had a little disagreement and … bang, we were all left sitting in the dark.  We decided it was safer not to move, but watch out the show.
A few minutes later the girl emerged from the kitchens and switched on the lights.  The moths continued their pole dance around the electric lamp and amazingly, the elderly couple continued their meal below it. 
A loud voice rang out, “Who switched the lights back on?”  It was obviously rhetorical as there only were two people who could have done it – he and his daughter!  He strode down to where she was working behind the bar and a loud argument ensued. She stalked off to the kitchen and … the lights stayed on.
Suddenly, as if in a Faulty Towers movie, he rushed toward the mob of moths with a can of spray in his upraised hand and squirted a cloud of poison over the moths.  Spray drift sparkled in the lighting and the woman below squirmed and remonstrated as she nearly choked on her coffee.  We all watched as the moths seemed unaffected as they flapped their wings and tried to will themselves into the light. 
“It’s food grade spray”, he said as an afterthought, as he noticed shocked eyes turned on him, and slowly walked away.
In the silence which followed moth bodies could be heard thumping and bumping into one another and the lamp until all eyes were drawn through the wall of glass to the group of people dodging moths outside and walking toward the entrance to the restaurant….!