The Shadow & The Boy

It was a cold January night and the snow was falling silently. Mommy and Daddy had left the baby gate open for the first time.

“He’ll have to learn boundaries sometime anyway,” Daddy had said. “We’ll just watch him closely for now.”

“He’ll be walking soon,” Mommy had said. “We’ll need the gate closed more often then. Boundaries can come when he speaks full sentences.”

“We’ll be right here,” Daddy had smiled. “We won’t let him get into anything he shouldn’t.”

“But he’s so little,” Mommy had insisted. “There’s so many things he can get into that we don’t even know about.”

“Five minutes,” Daddy had compromised. “Then we’ll put the baby gate up again.”

“Five minutes,” Mommy had agreed.

And so the boy explored, always within eyesight and earshot of Mommy and Daddy. The big white square echoed when he ran his fingertips along it. A shadow fluttered in the dark depths within.

I’m so lonely, whispered the shadow. The boy crawled closer, peering into the mysterious beyond. Will you play with me?

“Oh – he’s playing with the vent!” Mommy pointed out, alarm in her voice. “His fingers could get caught!”

“He’s just finding out what sounds it makes,” Daddy replied. “My brothers did the same thing when they were that small.”

The little boy peered into the vent, into the darkness, into the faraway nothingness beyond, and smiled.

Will you play with me? pleaded the shadow once more. The boy gently placed his fingertips against the grating. The shadow reached out and touched him lovingly.

You and I are going to be such good friends…

Every day, every night, every chance the barrier was down, the little boy would visit his friend at the vent.

What do you do out there? it would ask in their private language.

Images of the little boy’s world flew between them. The floors, the car seat, the toys, the smiles from Mommy and Daddy, the tickles, the hugs, the kisses, the sky…

What is that? the shadow questioned the sky. The little boy answered by staring at the window by the door. The answer brought only more questions.

That is not a thing I can see, the shadow mourned. The little boy held out his hand and patted the vent, cooing gently.

“Oh, look,” Mommy smiled. “He’s singing.”

“A musical prodigy already,” Daddy laughed. “I think I heard this song on the radio.”

Tell me more of the sky and the beyond, the shadow pleaded. I want to know everything.

The little boy nodded once and crawled to the window to see what more he could find. He watched the outside with grave purpose.

Every day, the little boy observed the world outside his window. He watched as snow fell, collected, melted, re-froze, and changed the landscape. He would wait patiently – sometimes, impatiently – to get near the vent where the shadow waited for his return. The silent conversations between them were filled with images and discoveries. The shadow loved everything the little boy could offer.

Oh, how I wish I could see it with you! the shadow sighed despondently. The little boy patted the vent to console it. He cocked his head and wondered why the shadow could not see it all with him.

I am made of shadow and darkness and ether, the shadow explained. There are not enough shadows out there with you. I would disappear completely.

The boy looked to the window and considered the shadow’s concern.

“Darling boy,” Mommy called out from the table. “It’s time to each lunch. Are you hungry?”

The little boy looked to Mommy and saw the bites of food items she offered. He looked at the vent and thought of the shadow waiting.

“Oh, please come eat some lunch,” Mommy asked nicely. “It will help you grow big and strong!”

The little boy and the shadow smiled together as the idea grew between them.

Yes, the shadow hissed. Let us grow big and strong!

The little boy stood and hurried to the window, holding a large spoon in his hands. He held out the spoon to the window, letting the sunlight spill into the utensil.

“My darling,” Mommy cooed. “Come eat your lunch.”

The little boy brought the spoon of sunlight to the vent and placed it carefully where the vent and the shadow beyond waited. He straightened and smiled as the shadow slurped delicately from the spoon. Mommy swept up her baby boy and carried him as he giggled with glee to the table for his lunch.

Each day, the little boy would bring a spoonful of sunshine, then a cup of sunshine and sky, then a small bowl that once held cereal bites the little boy finished eating and he refilled with sunshine and sky and glittering landscape imagery to the vent. Soon, the shadow was big and strong enough to lurk beneath the couch, where the boy was able to bring bowls of sunshine and deposit the light for the shadow to slurp and savor.

And each day, the weather and sky changed outside. The clouds rolled away. The snow melted. The days grew warmer. The sunlight grew stronger.

And so did the shadow.

I want to see the sky! the shadow announced one day. The little boy looked up in surprise. He had been banging a block against the floor with determination. He stood and hurried to the vent where the shadow waited. The little boy looked at the window and saw clouds covering the sunlight, weakening the brightness of the sky. He nodded once and held out his hand.

The shadow stretched out and wrapped a tendril around the little boy’s fingertips and poured itself into the folds of his shirt. Slowly, it curled around his chest and belly and nestled itself into his neck by his ear.

Ready, it whispered. The little boy stepped meaningfully to the window. He inched his way to the corner by the window where the sunlight was softer and the puddles of dark were deep and soothing to the shadow. The little boy put his hands on the window ledge. He still held the block in his hand and he placed it on the sunniest part of the ledge to give the shadow a place to settle.

Oh! the shadow gasped. There’s so much of it!

The little boy looked out the window solemnly and petted the shadow as it folded in on itself in the dusk of the block. The comfort he offered was welcomed.

Perhaps I should have stayed where I was, the shadow murmured. Before I heard about the sky, before I grew fat on the sunshine and gleam of the world ahead of you, I was content in my solitude.

The little boy shook his head. He remembered the sorrowful way the shadow had cried out to him the first night they met. It felt so long ago, now, of course. The shadow purred at his fingers.

You are right, it sighed. I was so very lonely. But the world is so big and full of light and I am so little and I need to have the darkness nearby. What am I to do?

The little boy looked out the window at the world. He, too, felt it was so very large and scary out there. He was glad he had his Mommy and his Daddy to hold his hand and to smile at him and to carry him when the world was too big for his little legs. He laid his head on his arm as it stretched along the window ledge. He thought about the world and how big it was. He thought about the shadow and how friendly it was. He thought about how nice it was to have a friend with him in such a large and scary place like the world.

It is nice to share with you, the shadow agreed. Perhaps I can join you more often out here.

The boy smiled in agreement. He looked around at the scenery spread out before him from the window.

I can’t wait to explore the world with you, the shadow whispered.

“Oh, my darling boy,” Mommy cooed from the doorway, where she had been watching her baby look in awe at the world outside. Daddy approached and put his arm around her waist as he kissed her cheek delicately. “I can’t wait to show him the whole world.”

“Me neither,” Daddy sighed happily.