Shadow

“You go first.” Next door neighbors Robby and Rick did everything together and it was usually Robby that led the way—to anything and everything. Rick really didn’t know why he liked to follow Robby, except for the fact that he always knew for sure he would have fun when he decided to let Robby take the reins. This time he felt might be his only opportunity to prove something to Robby that was long overdue—that he could think of something to do that would prove that he had a creative imagination just like Robby.

“Why me” asked Rick in obvious surprise that his friend wanted him to go first, “and make it a good reason or I won’t follow you anywhere anymore.” 

“Because it was YOUR idea in the first place, even though I agreed to it!” With that said, Rick took the lead into the dark and dingy neighborhood graveyard where they were to pitch their tents. They were to spend the mischievous night together in the graveyard but would be sleeping in separate tents which was part of the deal—and if one got spooked during the night and left, the other would win a promise of errands to be carried out by his friend for one whole week after school. The thought—and visions—of having someone do whatever you told them to do for one whole week appealed to both of them. 

They gingerly proceeded into the darkness armed with small flashlights and backpacks. There were signs that someone had decided to make it look as though it was something out of the 1800’s. Halloween decorations were everywhere. Skeleton creatures, plastic crows, bats, witches, cobwebs with black spiders on them, and even a life-size mummy adorned the tops of the tombstones. It was like walking through a house of horrors that prompted Rick to say that maybe they’d get a visit from Frankenstein tonight—which frightened Robby enough to ask if they couldn’t share the same tent. “Not part of the deal” wisecracked Rick, and settled in comfortably once his tent was pitched. It would prove to be an interesting night.

Things started off somewhat normally and Robby began to think that this was going to be an easy win for him and he would retake his rightful place as the leader. He began to mentally make up a list of errands that Rick would have to run for him as he drifted off to a deep sleep—with a smile on his face.

Rick yelled out “good night; sleep tight, don’t let the monsters bite ha, ha”. 

During the night unexplained eerie sounds permeated the night air. At one point, a ghostly spine-tingling ‘boo’ was heard—but only by Rick who began to wonder if he should have let it go this far. There were also other sounds that began to make him feel both cold and hot at the same time. It was becoming a little unsettling to say the least being surrounded with death and conjuring up the notion that at any time one of the deceased might rise out of a grave—just like in some of the movies he had seen or online song videos. 

Wondering why his friend, who surely must have heard the same sounds, hadn’t popped into his tent to ask what the heck was going on, he called out to Robby but there was no response. He wondered if possible that Robby had left having heard the same sounds that he was hearing and got really scared. Slowly and cautiously creeping out of his tent with his flashlight he looked over to see if Robby’s tent was still there. It was. He had intended to go inside and stay with him the rest of the night but bumped into something. When he pointed his flashlight in its direction, he saw a coffin.  That was enough to send him scurrying back to his own tent and curl up into a ball for a few minutes. He then quickly decided, given the circumstances, to pack up and leave while his friend must be sound asleep which, he decided, made this a good time—while Robby was unaware of what was going on—to high tail it out of there! Once home and in his own bed, he felt quite pleased with himself having assumed that he would have the luxury of of telling his friend that he had been outsmarted for the very first time if he could think of something to make the deal null and void thus showing Robby how clever he had been. It was a satisfying feeling of thinking he was controlling the situation and that maybe he should consider changing the way things had always been between the both of them. After all, why shouldn’t he now take the lead in everything they planned to do since he could prove that he was very capable of it. Yes, he thought, he knew how to handle this and there really couldn’t be any rebuttal because it was his idea to begin with. He knew what to say when Robby finally got home. The next day he would confront Robby and there would be no doubt as to who was more qualified to take the lead on all future endeavors.

Morning came. Robby rubbed his eyes, yawned, looked around his tent, and thought that spending the night in the cemetery on Halloween wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be having slept rather well and without any unexpected events happening during the night. He went to see if his friend was up yet so he could boast about what a non-event the whole thing turned out to be and proved that Rick didn’t have enough imagination to come up with a plan as only a true leader could do. To his surprise, Rick’s tent—and Rick—were gone! He had been sure that if Rick had insisted on being the lead, that he was confident he would still be there.

When he got home he went next door to his friend’s house and declared himself the winner. He had toughed it out in the dark and dreary cemetery overnight. Rick said “no, you’re not!” “And why is that” asked Robby. “It was a JOKE!” was the response.