What if your shadow moved on its own?
Your shadow starts doing its own thing. You stop at the corner, and it crosses the road without you.
She’s still on this side. Her shadow has already crossed.
That afternoon
At a crossing, a woman waits for the green light. Her shadow is already on the other pavement, standing where she meant to go. She doesn’t move. The shadow does.
People start filming. Most of the clips look fake, until one shows a shadow walking into a shop while its owner is still standing outside.
The next month
New manners appear quickly. You don’t let your shadow into a room you weren’t invited into. Offices ask staff to sit so their shadow falls on their own desk.
Some shadows hang around in corridors after their owners have gone home. Security cameras are full of dark shapes moving through empty buildings.
Three years on
Kids play a game where they send their shadow ahead to see who’s in the kitchen. Parents tell them to call it back, and some kids are better at that than others.
At noon, when shadows are shortest, the street feels almost normal for an hour. That’s when most people run their errands.
Who wins
- Anyone who wants to look around a cornerThe shadow can go first.
- KidsThey grew up with a dark companion that sometimes listens.
- NoonA short shadow has less room to misbehave.
Who loses
- PrivacyA shape of you can go into rooms you wouldn’t.
- People who live aloneThe flat isn’t quite empty when they leave.
- Night workersUnder a street lamp, a shadow is long and very busy.
A shadow is what you get when a body blocks the light, nothing more. One that chooses its own way across the road would need something that isn’t light at all, and nobody has ever found it.
Would you live here?
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