The Girl With The Strange Shadow

It was Sophie who noticed her first, whilst in amongst the concourses of people, there was something tugging her line of vision. Her eyes were drawn to a girl who was in the crowd. There was nothing that different about her, she looked 16, had a red woolly hat with a large pom-pom on top. Her coat was a normal trendy looking super-dry coat and she wore fur lined boots, yet despite the girl’s warm smile, Sophie kept looking at her feeling something was not quite right. It was her shadow.

At first she noticed the shadow flickering like a faulty light-bulb. Sophie looked at the streetlight which looked fine. She looked back at the shadow and saw to her amazement that the shadow was facing a different way to the girl. The shadow seemed to be alive as the shadow’s hand lifted and waved in an open gesture. Sophie tugged hard on the coat of Elizabeth and whispered sharply “Liz.... look!” It was important to know if this was just her imagination running away with herself (of which she had loads) or something else. Liz looked to where she was pointing and her mouth dropped open as she watched the shadow jump around the puddles on the market floor. The shadow’s splashes appeared in the market place as if someone was really there. At first the splash surrounded where the shadow landed with a jolly splash, and then as the shadow kicked and played, the water sprayed up, splashing the nearest man who looked round sharply to see who splashed. The shadow put its hand up to her mouth and bent over laughing at the man’s reaction.  This made Liz and Sophie giggle as the shadow continued to dance and skip around. 

There was a cheeky side to the shadow who seemed to love tormenting and teasing those nearby. Both Sophie and Liz actually laughed out loud when the shadow pinched the bottom of the large lady serving at the deli stall. Her eyes looked like they would pop out of her head in surprise as she yelped in pain and she looked in all directions to spot who was near enough to do it.

The mischievous shadow then cart-wheeled over to  both Liz and Sophie, long grey arms extended and then drilled into the sides of the girls, causing them to double over laughing and giggling until it ached so hard that tears came to their eyes.

Mother gave the girls a look that read... “and what is so funny?” The girls straightened their faces to hide their amusement at seeing the shadow behind their mother, fingers in its ears and tongue waggling in mock. Sadly it was time to go and as mother started to lead them away, both girls looked back puzzled to see everything normal. There was no magical animated displays, only a twinkle in the eye and a smile from the girl with the strange shadow.