Something I noticed in this house in the south of France where I’m staying is that there’s a considerable number of flies. In every room, there are at least two buzzing around. I was told it’s because, not long ago, flocks of hundreds of sheep passed through the area. One thing I didn’t know about flies is that they sleep at night and wake up with the first ray of light. So, every day without fail, around 7:00 a.m., I would wake up to the buzzing of flies coming to bother me.

I started to enjoy getting up early. The mornings were cool, perfect for exercising, going for a bike ride, or simply gazing at the mountains in peace and quiet.

One afternoon, while I was showering, I saw a long-legged spider on the ceiling trying to catch a mosquito—also long-legged. It crept up slowly, but when it leapt to grab it, the mosquito reacted and managed to escape its predator just in time. I thought about how much I’d love to invite that spider into my room so it could feast every morning. Then I noticed there were some baby spiders in her web. That spider was a mom!

The next time I showered, I found the same long-legged mosquito trapped in the web, and the baby spiders a little bigger.

One day, the flies didn’t wake me. I woke up on my own, at 7:00 a.m. I waited a few minutes—nothing. Not a single dipteran in sight. I got up anyway. I realized the flies had conditioned me, like a lab rat.

The next day they were back, but they didn’t bother me anymore. In fact, sometimes I would wake up before they did. I’d go down to the kitchen to make my breakfast in total calm, since I was one of the first in the house to wake up. During those days I had no work, so I moved through the mornings without rush.

I had gotten used to living with the flies—until one fine day, they disappeared without a trace. It was one morning when I noticed it, waking up around 9. It no longer felt normal to sleep that late, but I had been dealing with insomnia the nights before, so I really needed a few extra hours of rest. I got up and went down to the well-stocked kitchen to make breakfast.

I never saw the flies again. I even started to think I missed them. My days in that house were coming to an end, and soon it would be time to set off again. I had just a couple more quiet mornings and then, like the flies, I too was gone.