The Girl and the Shadow

There once was a girl who loved a shadow. So brilliant was her love it outshone her. It nearly swallowed her whole.

She doted on the shadow, as lovers do, with whispers and promises. He folded himself around her, danced with her, shaded and sheltered her. He gently kissed her neck and fingertips. The girl could feel his caresses like a soft breeze. His smell captivated her as he would purr in her ear. The girl would trace his shape, stroke his depths, but he could not feel her touch. Despite this they were happy for a while.

The shadow tried to love the girl. He acted out the part nearly to perfection. The emotion sidestepped the shadow, and he could not requite the girl’s love. Her life would have been consummate if he had, but life is not meant to be perfect and a shadow, by nature, is unable to love anyone but himself.

Cruelty was not his aim. The shadow began to leave the girl behind. He abandoned her in the dark when she needed him most. The girl gave the shadow everything she had. In return he demanded more.

The shadow harnessed the wind and bit into her skin. He slapped her, hurled himself at her, threw sand into her eyes. When she locked the door, he pounded and screamed to be let in. When he grew tired, he sang and cajoled until she acquiesced and let him in.

For some time, he behaved for her. Playacting the role that made him content. But while the girl could forgive the sting of his burn, but she could not unfasten the memories. She had grown afraid of the shadow, scared of the ineludible day when he would once again turn cold. She grew resentful that he could not feel her, could not enter her, could not love her as completely as she did him. He could not provide for her, nor could he stand by her side when she faced the world. Standing with the shadow, the girl was lonely.

One by one, the threads that bound her to him snapped. When they could no longer hold her, the girl fell. The shadow could not catch her.

She fell into darkness; terrified and alone. She tumbled through the place where shadows are born, and where they cannot exist.

The girl fell for a longtime. She fell through years, past girlhood. She became a woman. She fell until she was not.

The bottom passed unnoticed. The girl, now a woman, did not know when the falling ceased and the ascending began.

There were times when her momentum waned. It was here she found the strength to hold on. She learned to climb despite her bruised heart and bloodied knees. She learned to fight, and she learned to win.

As she neared the surface there were times when her mind wandered and her strength dwindled. There were times when she was paralyzed by the pain of the fissures left in her heart. It was here she found the hands of her friends and held on. They did not let go, and pulled her out and to her feet. Her friends embraced her, held her and stood unwaveringly by her side until she could stand on her own. They supported her while she again learned to walk. They stood behind her as she faced her shadow.

The woman was stronger than the girl she was, as women usually are. When she was ready she turned on the light and faced the shadow. He begged for her love. As the shadow vowed to change, her love for him diminished into pity. Her heartache dulled into forgiveness. The woman gave him a tear, and she walked away.