Shadow Play

9

“Do go on, this sounds intriguing.” She sat back in her chair with wide eyes, as if I had just told her I had met the man of my dreams and eloped during lunch. “Well, it’s not all that exciting, just had this strange guy start talking to me at the museum. Then on the way home, this gorgeous man who I swear to God could have just walked off a movie set, seriously swoonworthy, starts shooting me with questions and the whole thing was disturbingly odd.” “First, a man talking to random people nearby doesn’t sound so odd, pretty sure my Gramps talks to everyone he sees,” she said, matter-of-factly. “That’s not what made it weird, it was more what he said and how he just walked away. Plus your Gramps is old, this guy was maybe forty—it was hard to tell.” “What did he say before he took off?” I described the man and recounted our discussion of the artwork and his parting words. “I swear the guy was not in the room when I first walked up to the exhibit and then just as quickly, he was gone. I have no idea how he knew my name and I can’t tell if I’m reading into his good to see you or if that’s just how people talk here.” “Hunh, and what about Mr. Gorgeous, tell me about him.” Her eyebrows shot up and down indicating she was hoping this was going to be juicy. “It’s not what you’re thinking, you hussy.” “Whatever, let me be the judge of that.” I shook my head at her good humoredly. Again, I gave her the bullet points of my conversation while she listened intently. “You sure he wasn’t hitting on you?” “Definitely not. It wasn’t so much a pickup line as it was an accusation. Like something Angry Arnold would do, but this guy wore an expensive suit and was leaning up against a fancy car so he wasn’t a crazy, homeless person or anything.” “I wonder why he was so confident that you guys knew each other,” she puzzled while sitting forward with her brows pinched together in concern. “I have absolutely no idea.” “So, did you just walk away?” “He said if I told him my name he would let me go.” “You told him?” She balked in astonishment. “Ash, what else was I supposed to do? I only gave him my first name and then I basically told him the conversation was over, and get this, as I’m walking away, he says, this is most certainly not over, and then he gets in his car and drives off. Now tell me what the hell that means?” I asked, feeling the rush of that moment all over again. “It means you need to stop talking to crazies on the street.” “No kidding, that was my thought exactly. That and I need to go buy some pepper spray.” “I can’t believe you don’t have any already.” “I haven’t had time and you know I couldn’t bring over the one I had, they don’t allow you to ship that stuff.” Ash stood up and said with a yawn, “I have got to wash off the grime of the day, you okay getting the dishes? I swear I’ll get them next time.” I playfully rolled my eyes. The kitchen was not Ash’s favorite place and it was not the first time I did the cooking and also got stuck cleaning up after. “No problem, go ahead and shower, I’ll take the next one when I’m done here,” I said as I gathered the dishes and took them to the sink, which was in a dark corner of the room now that the sun had gone down. The single light bulb in the room was not a problem during the day when the windows let in plenty of light, but evenings were another matter. I was lost in thought and up to my elbows in suds when I registered movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned toward the table where I had seen something move and I froze, hands dripping soapy water onto my bare feet. Crawling around on the table was a tiny man gathering crumbs. He was about six inches tall, if he were to stand up. He had greenish skin with brown hair and appeared similar to a doll-sized human wearing little scraps of clothing. Sensing he had an audience, the little man also froze. His already large eyes opened even farther as we held each other's stare and time seemed to stand still. The moment ended in an instant when the man vanished, like a bubble that burst, he was just gone. I sucked in a lung full of air as I frantically scanned the room for any signs of where he had gone. As panic engulfed me, I started screaming. All rational thought fled while shrieks and obscenities flew from my mouth in a constant stream. I ran about the room searching for the man under the couch, in cabinets, and behind the blinds. A dripping wet Ashley flew down the stairs wrapped in a towel and wielding a blow drier like Annie Oakley ready for a showdown. “What the hell happened?” “Ash, I saw a tiny person on the table! He was crawling around getting crumbs and he was green with big eyes but then he just disappeared. I saw him Ash, he was there!” I rambled almost incoherently as my heartrate finally began to slow down but my hands still shook uncontrollably. Ash set down the dryer and stepped closer to me with her head to the side and an expression on her face as if she was talking to a lost child. “Hey honey, it’s okay. Between jetlag and having a long day and with the wine and talk about all the weird men, I’m sure your mind was just worn out. It was probably a mouse, nothing to worry about. I’ll call the landlord in the morning and have him get an exterminator out immediately.” “Ash—” “Hush, you go up and take a hot shower and then get some rest. I was done anyway, I’ll throw on my pajamas and finish up in the kitchen.” Her hand at my back, she gently guided me to the stairs. With a resigned sigh I took one more glance around the empty room and headed upstairs to shower. Once I had cleaned up and was snuggled comfortably under the covers of my bed, I lay awake wondering what was going on with me. Was I having some kind of breakdown? Was the crazy that seemed to infect the people around here starting to infiltrate my mind? I had never even had an imaginary friend as a child, why would I start seeing things now? I normally didn’t regress to needing my mom when I was upset, but at that moment, all I could think about was how much I wished my parents were there.