Bad Shadow-Good Shadow

I was six years old when I first learned about the shadows.

Holidays were always spent a Grandpa and Grandma Wilkinson's house in the country. A big old house that was built by grandpa's father and added on to by grandpa.

At first there was no indoor plumbing but grandpa took care of that on orders from grandma. A laundry room and two bathrooms, one full size by grandma's bedroom and one smaller off the kitchen where the woodshed had been.

Trees surrounded the house and barn. Elsewhere around the house were various bushes and flower beds grandma had planted. And as a proud American grandpa had a flagpole in the middle of the front yard within the circle drive.

From the road the driveway wound through the woods to the house. Anybody passing would not even know it was there. All who visited enjoyed the quiet and solitude.

This was going to be my first holiday not sleeping in the guest room with mother and father. I would have the pullout couch in the family room. And because everyone enjoyed watching television I would get to stay up late with the adults.

Grandma and mom had vixed supper for us but kept it rather light since in two days Thanksgiving dinner would be quite a spread. To me it seemed to take forever for everyone to eat so we could gather for an evening of tv.

Jeopardy and Price Is Right had our attention the first hour of the evening. Two comedy shows followed. Then before the eleven o'clock news came a crime drama that triggered my awareness of shadows.

It was a show about a murder. Seems a man killed his wife and plastered her body behind a wall in the hallway. It seemed he had gotten away with it until a day or two later the housekeeper noticed what appeared to be a wet spot on the wall. She thought a water pipe had broken so she called a plumber. The plumber thoughtnit blood rather than water so they called the police. The police came, broke into the wall and found the woman's body. They arrested the man at his office.

That night after everyone had left for the kitchen, mom got my couch ready and tucked me in for the night. She wished me goodnight as she closed the door so the adults chatter would not keep me awake.

After a while, the night light threw a dark shadow on the wall right where a piece of wallpaper had begun to peel away. But to me that night it looked like blood soaking through the wall.

I rolled over and tried to get to sleep. But all I could think of was that blood soaking through the wall.

It would be easy to tell mom I was scared to sleep alone. But then they would think I was still too little to stay up late with them. So I decided to keep quiet but that shadow kept bugging me. Somehow I did eventually fall asleep.

The next day it seemed like everywhere I went there were shadows. And with a bright November sun one shadow kept following me around when I was outside playing.

As the sun began to set on the evening before Thanksgiving it shone brightly through the porch window.One of grandma's taller bushes cast a dancing shadow onto the floor. It was kind of fun to watch and dance with it as the wind blew it around. Yet it still made me think of that creepy shadow on the wall.

That night while the ladies prepared dishes for our Thanksgiving feast, us men went to the front room to watch some variety show specials. Grandpa had built a big fire in the fireplace that sent more dancing shadows onto the floor. I kept looking around at the walls for that bloody shadow.

Going through grandma's bedroom to use the big bathroom I found a really tall shadow. On the window ledge she had a small plant that with the last of the evening sun shining through cast a shadow that looked like a bushy haired stick figure laying on the floor. That one was kind of funny.

Thanksgiving morning grandma sent me to the basement to get a jar of her watermelon pickles. The one light at the bottom of the stairs sent dark shadows in every direction. They were pretty creepy but not like the wall looking like blood.

As everyone gathered for breakfast I noticed grandpa had a shadow that looked like Gandoff. Grandma's shadow looked like a withered, bent over witch (no offense Grandma). When mom accidently turned off the light all the shadows went away.

I had to remember that. If I had mom turn off that night light when I went to bed, maybe that creepy bloody shadow would not keep me awake.

Not long after we finished breakfast, Aunt Mary and Uncle John arrived with my cousins Donny and Deanna. I told them about all the shadows.

Donny was the oldest and came up with the idea of making our own shadows. He found a small lamp and we took it to the guest room.

It turned into a lot of fun. If we put the light on the chest of drawers the shadows appeared on the floor long and lean. If we put the light on the floor the shadows appeared toll and lanky. Deanna could make shadows with her hand and fingers that looked like animals.

However, after almost two hours of finding various objects and seeing what kind of shadow they made, Donny and Deanna seemed to get bored. They wanted to do something else.As we looked for something else to do Donny proceeded to tell me that everyone and everything had shadows except vampires. He said they could stand in front of a mirror and there would be nothing showing in the mirror. So of course the next thing we had to do was stand in front of a mirror to be sure we were not vampires.

So with all of our shadow play I learned that even though some shadows were creepy looking they were just shadows. And whether it was sunlight or room light there were shadows. Moonlight had its shadows and those tended to the the more creepy ones.

Guess now I would be looking at people to see what kind of shadow they cast. And if I ran across someone who did not have a shadow? That would be another story.