Summer Break and Shadow Playmates

She had her nose in her mystery book as the car came to a stop.  She lifted her head to look out the window to see the same old country house her family and only friend named Robert would come and visit every summer break. Penny did not mind if Robert was always around during the summer since it would sometimes get lonely and Robert was one of the only people Penny could stand back home and the light haired kid always made a good alibi at school when the teachers would question Robert on Penny if she was spying on them and the other kids again to find out anything interesting.  

But every summer wasn't something to write home about in fact it was usually the same: they would play all summer and find some animal in the woods near them. The house wasn't that special either in decor but it had a homey yet older feel. It was like in one of Penny’s detective books.

She thinks about this as she gets her things out of the car. Once they were done, it was dark so Penny said,” Robert I challenge you to a chess match!” and as usual Robert would agree, at this time her mom said her and her father had to go to the store nearby since they forgot some things at home.  They started their game in the living room  when Penny’s parents left and for the first time Robert was in the middle of winning until they looked up and suddenly gasped. 

“What's wrong Robert? Scared that I’ll turn the tables and win?” Penny said mockingly. 

Penny scanned Robert’s face and saw their eyes wide with fear and did not understand what was going on, so she asked again but more seriously,” Robert what's wrong?”

It took him a minute but then they fearfully responded with,” Pen there was a shadow moving over there.” They pointed to the corner of the living room eyes still wide with fear.  Penny immediately turned her face to the corner where she saw a weird looking shadow, but it was not moving.  

“What do you mean? There’s nothing moving there” Penny said. Then as if on cue in a movie the shadow ran across the room and moved to the shadow in the blue lamp in the room leaving Penny excited and shocked and Robert in fear.

The dark haired girl got up from the chess board on the floor and started to walk over to the wall where the lamp was.  Robert then said but really just yelled,” Penny don’t touch it you don’t know what that is!” Penny then kept walking as if her friend said nothing and touched the shadow.

Just then almost immediately the lamp sparked loudly and broke scaring the kids. The shadow once again ran to the kitchen in the next room just near the fridge and just like ten seconds ago Penny started to follow while Robert this time got up and grabbed a pillow from the couch as their only defense from the shadow.  Penny then instead of touching the shadow said,” Hello shadow, im Pen-” “Stop it! don’t tell it your name! What if it curses you?” Robert interrupts.

“Two things Robby, one don’t interrupt me when I talk to the supernatural and two curses absolutely do not exist.” Penny said blankly.  The shadow made a noise at this and both kids turned their heads over to it both faces reacting very differently to it. Penny with a wide smile on her face and Robert with mouth ajar and brown eyes wide. Penny quickly went to her bag and grabbed a notebook and pencil and again introduced herself and the fearful boy,” Hi im Penny and this is my friend Robert, it’s nice to meet you.  If I may ask why are you here?”

They stood in silence for a while waiting for a response until the shadow came out of the wall as a weird blob looking as if someone spilled black ink on a piece of paper and missed two circle like patches for the eyes .The short haired girl quickly drew the thing in front of her whilst Robert looked over her shoulder to not have to look at the monster like creature in the eye.  

The creature finally groaned out in a deep yet gentle voice,”Such a well mannered girl”

“Then why did you run away when Penny touched the wall?” Robert asked, still having fear in his voice,but trying to have some type of courage.  

“You children scared me and everyone else. We assumed there was no one here.”  The creature intrigued the children and both gave a confused look, but Penny replied,” What do you mean everyone else?”  Abruptly three other similar looking shadows appeared next to the original, shocking the kids. The others were only different in the way they were shaped from the original. One had horns on its head another had sad shaped eyes and the the final one was shorter than all of them 

“Excuse me you four but who are you and again why are you here?” Penny asked politely.  

The horned looking creature replied in a soft and gentle voice,” We are shadow spirits, young ones”

The shortest shadow then said in a boyish voice,” We have been hiding here since last fall”

“But why are you hiding?” Robert asked finally calming down while Penny wrote down what the shadows were saying in her note book. 

The sad looking one then spoke in a cheerless and depressing voice,” A bunch of teenage humans trashed our home in the woods near this house” 

Penny suddenly had an idea, but before she could voice her idea the shadows heard the car pull up in the driveway and instantaneously ran into separate shadows on the walls inside the house.  

The bright eyed girl then spoke to Robert saying,”I have an idea of what we should do tomorrow. I’ll tell you in a bit. ” putting away her note book while Robert quickly nodded and fixed the lampshade on the broken lamp so as to not look broken to the adults.

After Penny’s parents came inside they had dinner, washed up, and went straight to the room upstairs and got ready for bed.  While they were getting in their beds Robert asked,” What was your idea for tomorrow?”

“Were gonna help those shadows be at peace.”  Penny replied with a smile as she put her books in her bag, knowing she will not read them as much this summer.

***

The next day the two children woke up early, packed their bags with snacks,gloves,trash bags,cleaning rags,and Robert’s polaroid camera. Once they were downstairs they tried touching every wall to find one of the spirits and found the short one near the couch in the corner.  

“Can you please tell us where you live?” Penny asked. The spirit nodded as if okay and began moving between the shadows in the house while the kids lied and said they were gonna look for a deer to take a picture of. 

Once out of the house, the spirit called the others and started to lead the children through the woods until they stopped at a completely littered and trashed place. Upon the ground were soda cans,spray paint cans, and wrappers of all kinds on the floor. On the tree’s branches there were plastic bags and toilet paper.  Along with that there was a big boulder in the middle and it was covered with spray paint. It was utterly disgusting to see to the kids.

“Why did you want to see our home?” asked the sad looking spirit.

“We wanted to clean up your home and help you be at peace here” Robert replied. 

All four of the spirits then nodded and looked happier, which made both kids smile.  The children got started and when they were finally done when the sun started to set.  After stepping back and looking at their work, it looked absolutely beautiful.  The light hit the trees and bushes perfectly and looked like a home for the shadow spirits.  It looked like no one ever littered there.

When Penny and Robert had to leave the spirits reappeared from the shadows and started to talk at the same time in a peaceful voice,” Thank you, we truly appreciate this you are welcome to play here any time children.”

“No problem! We’ll see you tomorrow!” they both said waving as they ran towards the house before Penny’s parents got worried.

For the rest of that summer they played, read, and spent time with the spirits and when they had to go back home they took a picture with the spirits with Robert’s polaroid camera for Penny’s journal and before leaving they promised to come back to this forest next summer.  The children then kept their promise and every summer after that and filled Penny’s journal with multiple pictures.  Penny’s and Robert’s summers were never the same or routine ever again.