Shadow Man

“I’m telling you, I saw a shadow man,” Tess said, “At the edge of the park. There was no one around but me. So, who cast that shadow?” Tess held onto Penny’s forearm for effect. “It was terrifying!”

“Come on, show me,” Penny said. Tess protested, but finally consented to take her to the spot where she saw the creature.

At the edge of the park, Tess came to a stop and pointed to a small rectangle of grass six feet away. “That’s where I saw it,” she said.

Penny slowly approached the spot when the shadow man was suddenly there! He was stocky and had on a fedora. He had two yellow dandelions for eyes and his shadow was clearly marked out on the ground, but there was no one there. “I see him.” Penny said, “See, he’s okay. What were you worried about?” Tess stared at her friend in disbelief, but it only got crazier. The shadow man slowly stood up and took Penny by the hand. Music started playing, it was “Some Enchanted Evening”, and Penny and the shadow man began to dance. Then, the shadow man started singing along with the song, but he had a high, crackly voice that didn’t match his shadowy being at all.

“Tess, honey, wake up. Your mom is here to pick you up.” A hand was gently shaking her shoulder.

Tess sat up. She blinked and oriented herself to the present time and place. She was at her grandmother’s house. She had fallen asleep on the couch. “Some Enchanted Evening” was playing on the old stereo, her grandmother must have been singing along. There was no shadow man.

“Oh, wow, Grandma, I was having a crazy dream.” Tess stood and gave her a hug good-bye.

“Come on, Tess, let’s go!” called her mother, “We have yard work to do.”

Image credit; Maksym Mazur @ Unsplash

For the visually challenged reader, this image shows a shadow of a person, wearing a hat. The shadow is cast on a bed of green grass and 2 dandelions are growing in the patch of grass where the eyes of that silhouette would be!

Written in response to Sadje’s What do you see? prompt

#WDYS

What do you see # 286- 28th April, 2025