Читать книгу A Window Opened - Alan Martin - Страница 17

A Shadow Moved

Standing and leaning against an office building on the corner of where my honey works, it was lunch hour, and I saw a man pass by me, and I didn’t think much about it. For it happens to get a little crowded at this time of day. People were walking up and down the street going here to there. But this particular individual seemed to have gotten my attention, for the sun was out, and it was about eleven thirty in the morning. We were in the middle of the square, just on the other side of the street from where the governor’s mansion is located.

While I was waiting to take her to lunch, he passed by me, and I noticed there were two shadow images following him! The rest of the people that passed by, they only had one. As I was glancing at one of the two shadows and observing it very closely, the one shadow turned and waved his hand at me, recognizing I was following them.

I stopped and shook my head in disbelief, and the shadow proceeded to go along with the shadow he was with! Profound by the man that the two shadows were following, I glanced at his attire, and he was wearing a gray suit, shoes, and hat, didn’t see his face as he turned around in the opposite direction. Silently he approached the street in front of me, and there was a bench you could sit on while waiting; that is where he decided to sit.

When I came a little closer, I saw the two shadows sitting beside him on the same side. He was looking at his watch and viewing the street. I guess he was waiting on somebody like I was a few moments ago.

At this time, the shadow knew I was staring at him. He turned and nodded his head back and forth, then he commenced to taking the original position. While he was sitting there, he took out part of a newspaper that he had in his jacket pocket, so when he opened it up to read, I still couldn’t see his face, but the two shadows demonstrated they had a newspaper too. But I didn’t know who was actually reading it and the one who was just going through the motion. When the man got through one page and turned the page, the shadows followed suit, so it made it harder for me to pick him out, and I think he knew it.

As I started pacing from side to side wondering, “How am I going to get this shadow moving again?” Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw him standing on the bench seat with his arms folded and the newspaper closed while the man and the other shadow were still sitting down with their paper open.

I began to think, “Oh my, he’s got guts. Doesn’t anybody else see him? Apparently not!”

That was about the time Sally yelled at me and said, “What are you doing down there?”

I waved to her to come over here. She shrugged her head and came down and asked, “What are you doing, Henry? Where are we going to eat lunch at?”

I looked back at the bench where the shadow was, and he must have sat back down and had the paper open again! Then I told Sally about the story. She looked at me like I had flipped out or was beyond myself. I pointed the shadow out, and Sally, with excitement, said, “Where? I don’t see anything.”

And I casually said, “Right there!”

And now she thought I was joking with her because she didn’t see anything peculiar, except the way I was acting!

I tried my best to assure her this was real. I ended up pleading with her, then she finally said, “Okay, whatever, but I’m still hungry, and I only have an hour for lunch, so are you coming with me?”

“Wait a minute, Sally, I’m going over there to find out what is actually happening. I’ll be right back.”

“Well, hurry then, Henry, I’m not going to waste my lunch hour on this!”

So I went over to approach this man and his shadows that were sitting on the bus bench, and this was when he got up and started walking down the street, and the shadows followed. Now one shadow turned around and put his hands on his head while looking at me!

This responsive act brought attention to me and made me think this was a dauntless move on his part! He’s deliberately insinuating that he can get away without any repercussions. Then the shadow turned back around and went in his typical format following the other shadow. The man went down the street, standing in front of a restaurant when a woman showed up. They seemed to be greeting one another before entering through the door. That was when one shadow disappeared, and the other shadow looked as though it flew up into the air and left the scene.

I stared amazed at what I just saw, well, somewhat stunned. We thought, “I guess it’s gone!” So I began to walk back where I had left Sally, and I apologized to her about my inconsideration. She glanced at me in a somewhat spiteful way. Then she reminded me, “It’s getting late, and we need to hurry. Let’s go to the pizza palace. It’s about a block down the street.”

I smiled at her and replied, “That works for me.”

And when I turned to walk toward that direction, she noticed something behind me. When I began walking, the shadow tipped his hand from his head like he was introducing himself to Sally. During this short interaction, the shadow then proceeded to follow the other shadow acting as though nothing special happened.

Now at this point, Sally immediately stopped in her tracks, wondering, “Is this for real?” Then she saw I had two shadows following me! Her voice piped up shockingly and said, “Henry, do you realize that you have two shadows following you!”

I looked back at Sally and saw her face; it turned as pale as a ghost wearing a white sheet. While she was staring behind me was when I decided to turn my head around, and I only saw one shadow. Mine! I told her, “Sweetie, I only see my shadow.” She looked dismayed as if her whole concept of reality just flew out the window. I kept playing ring-around-the-rosy turning around in slow circles, hoping to see this shadow that’s been following me.

Then I stood there thinking, “Why can Sally see him, and I can’t?” This made me wonder if that’s what happened with the last man in the gray suit; he simply didn’t see the other shadow. I was profound what next! A tingling sensation blurred out. “What if he could hear me!” I asked, “Sally, is he still behind me?”

“Yes, he’s lying on the ground with the other shadow. Of course, I couldn’t tell you one from the other.”

Perplexed about asking this, I thought, “Sally, what if this shadow can hear us?” I told her, “He can’t talk to us but how about hearing us?”

The baffled expression on her face with her eyes squinting like I said something amusing was priceless. She inquired how that could be possible!

“Let’s just say it is, then what?” Sally just stood there listening to what I was saying, thinking to herself, “Do you honestly believes the shadow can hear and understand what you’re saying?”

I told her, “I don’t know, but I’m willing to give it a try, besides I’m curious of what he is doing here and why!”

Sally with her sensibility thought, “How you are going to manage any form of communication with a shadow?”

And of course, I with my vivid imagination thought I would play some form of Sam Spade a private-eye detective in which made Sally laugh with hysteria. She giggled and thought, “Okay, Dick Tracy, what’s the game plan?”

I asked, “Sally, quit laughing. This is serious business.”

She said, “I can’t help myself seeing Sam Spade in the flesh.” But evidently when she glanced back down on the ground, she noticed the one shadow with his hands behind his head in a relaxed position while they were lying on the ground. At that time, she looked at me with an uncanny expression saying, “He seems to hear what we’re saying!”

She nervously asked me, “What are we going to do?”

I put my index finger to my lips and motioned to Sally. “Come here, and I’ll whisper it in your ear. Let me think about this for a minute or two.”

While we were both studying on the situation, Sally came up with an idea. She whispered to me, “Why couldn’t we use hand signals to try to communicate with the shadow?”

Then Sally perked up and said, “Why do we need to whisper?” Sally caught me off guard, and I pondered from Sally’s remark. Looking rather confused, I muttered, “I’m not for sure anymore.”

“Well, I’m thinking if you want to talk with the shadow, he needs to know himself, doesn’t he?”

I was starting to realize Sally was making more sense than I was! Excited about the idea of talking with a shadow, I thought and inquired to Sally, “How are we going to understand what he’s trying to say and what he’s trying to tell us?”

She said with a smile, “You will need to be a little more diplomatic,” as she was smirking about the very idea of me being diplomatic. In fact, Sally was starting to laugh about the very idea of me playing a congressman. She thought, “Oh yeah, Mr. inspirational diplomacy with a feather stuck in his hat. I can see it now, Mr. President. Welcome home in bringing peace and tranquility.” And she must have laughed for what seem like an eternity.

I with a grin on my face told Sally, “I think you are having way too much fun about this whole thing while I’m trying to bring some seriousness to this circumstance.” That made Sally’s laugh even louder!

The whole episode had the shadow lying there with his hands on his hips as if he was waiting for the next motion from me. “Let’s go back to the suggestion of hand signals, in which I thought was a pretty good idea,” I replied.

Sally quit her giggling and implied, “Well, you will need to ask questions and get some form of answer. How do we propose to do this?”

I gingerly quoted to Sally, “We’ll need to think about this because I don’t know!”

Sally seemed to understand the burden I must be in and took my hand and held it firmly. She comforted my indecisiveness and murmured, “We’ll figure something out.”

I asked Sally, “How do we get the shadow to respond to a question that we can all understand, and we know he uses hand signals? So, so how about we say a yes question that you put your hands on your head and the no answers you fold your arms together! Because it seems like every time I see him do something, he’s moving his hands, arms, or head.”

Evidently Sally noticed me talking to myself. I said, “When I glanced at him, he was standing on the bench with his arms folded, and he has nodded his head at me. So why not? What do you think, Sally?”

Sally gazed at me and told me, “I don’t have a clue of what you’re rambling about. You lost me. He anxiously blurred out that he can move on his own accord, and there is something weird about what he can do!”

I looked at Sally, then at the shadow, and suggested, “Let’s test it out.”

Something else crossed my mind, so I asked the shadow, “I’m going to give you a series of questions, and you will answer them yes or no!”

I told him, “If it is a yes answer, you put both hands on your head. Well, shadow, do you understand the yes-and-no answers?” And he used one hand and put it on his head; Sally saw it and got so excited and told me, “It seems to work.” But I reminded her it was one hand not both, but her rebuttal was, “He listens better than some people that I know.”

Then I told both of them, “If it is a no answer, then you fold your arms together, do we all understand?” The shadow went ahead and put his hand on his head.

Then Sally had the confidence of stating, “You can start with your first question now!”

I looked at her and thought, “Just calm down a little.”

After a few minutes passed by, I finally said, “Okay, did you leave the last man in the gray suit because he was going into the restaurant?”

The shadow folded his arms together. Sally told me, “He said no.”

I saw it and thought it would be yes for sure! Now that answer really baffled me. I was privately thinking to myself, “Is he playing with me, for he does seem to have a sense of humor?” So I asked him, “Did you want to follow me?”

He used one hand to put on his head, which meant yes. So I paused on that answer and wished I could ask him why!

Sally pondered, “Why you?”

With a concern look on my face, I said “that’s what I’m searching for”.

My third question I thought about for a few minutes, then I gazed at the shadow and said, “Were you forced to follow me because you lost the last shadow?”

He put one hand on his head. Now Sally heard and saw what happened with curiosity. She asked, “How did you know?”

And my reply was, “I didn’t! But I remember what occurred at the restaurant. You see, Sally, the gray-suit man’s shadow disappeared. Now he went up into the air and vanished out of sight. I guess looking for another shadow to follow, and I was the lucky guy because I saw it.”

She said, “Now what are you going to do?”

I grimly looked back and answered, “Nothing because if I’m looking at this right, and I lose my shadow, then he’ll have to leave to find another shadow to follow.” And here I thought, I was somewhat frightened about him, but he must be going through a process he has to in order to survive if that’s what you want to call it. But I think he is in some unknown channel caught within an unusual dilemma or is it inside another dimension? I don’t know! Just thinking about it, he might have been someone else’s shadow at one time, and somehow they got separated. Now he doesn’t know where to go and who he belongs to.”

“When you put it that way, Henry, I kind of feel sorry for him, like he’s lost and can’t find his way home.”

I looked at Sally and said, “I’m sorry too.”

And she said, “What for?”

“Well, we missed lunch, and you’re late.”