RETURN OF THE SHADOW MAN

When I was young and in grade school I was afraid of the dark. My best friend who lived a block away and I used to frighten one another with our mutually observed apparition, “the shadow man.” I would walk K home “to the little hill” on the quiet swamp and pasture bordered black top road. Beyond Ks house the street went up a bigger hill with dense dark conifers on both sides. There must have been a street light because the shadows those trees cast on that hill if there was any wind, and particularly when the road was shiney with rain created a sinuous moving man. Was he coming after us? was he going the other way? It was hard to tell, much as it would have been hard to tell at that distance in the dark if a mortal was advancing or retreating. We were sure he had a cape. K really had the worst of it as when she was going on the last half block towards the safety of her big yellow house, she had to draw nearer to this mysterious figure than I did. Sometimes I would walk her all the way home then lose my nerve and she would have to walk me home again, even though I was a grade older. Sometimes we would just keep walking each other home, neither of us wanting to take ANY portion of That sinister journey without company. We always vowed to call each other when home safe and we never failed to do just that.

Well folks, last night, with the full glow of the golden smiling moon, here in the Baja I had a visitation. The shadow man had returned!