The Hiking Writer

When Alex Saunders was a young boy, a movie scene changed his life.

The movie was Peter Pan. It was the 20th anniversary of the Disney animated film and Alex's Mom thought he would enjoy it in the theatre. The scene in the movie showed Peter's shadow leave its connection with Peter and take on a playful life of its own, a seemingly harmless bit of whimsy and imagination.

Sitting in the dark theatre next to his Mom, Alex quietly pissed his pants shortly before beginning to scream. It was a very distressing scream for everyone in the theatre, since the sound of horror coming from the little boy in the dark was in stark contrast to the the lighthearted story being played on the screen. Once his mother grabbed his hand and pulled him into the aisle to leave the theatre, Alex stopped screaming and began sobbing pitifully. Heading toward the lobby, the screen light behind them created the shadows of his mother and he directly in front of him, hand in hand, moving through the aisle, and Alex started screaming again. The screams mixed with choked sobs as they approached the double doors and pushed through them into the evenly lit lobby.

With the shadows gone, Alex stifled his sobs while hugging his mother's waist. It was several minutes before he calmed down and his sobs became just quick hitches in his breathing.

Alex's mother inspected his clothes and decided they would go home immediately, sparing her boy from any further embarrassment. Making their way quickly through the lobby and into the parking lot, Alex, like most 7 year old kids, started to return to normal, although he was a little upset that he wet himself like a baby. The reason why he had peed himself he could hardly remember. The overcast sky helped him forget his anxiety a little too, since he saw no shadows in the puddles on the pavement. His Mom opened the trunk of their Galaxy and got out a towel so that he could sit on it and not get the car seats wet. Mom was always prepared.

The ride home was uneventful, and the traffic helped distract Alex's attention from the bad dream manifested on the screen at the movie. When they arrived home in about 15 minutes, Alex rushed into the house and changed clothes. He told his Mom he was sorry and she patted him on the head saying "Don't worry about it Alex. I'm sorry the movie scared you."

"It wasn't the movie Mom. It was his shadow that was alive. I never knew they could do that." Alex said, his eyes wide.

"That was just a story Alex." his mother said, "It wasn't real. Shadows don't have a life of their own."

"Really Mom?" Alex asked

"Yes dear, shadows never leave you. If you're not there, they disappear. They are only a trick of the light." she told him.

"Thanks Mom, I'm glad they're not alive. That scared me bad." Alex confided.

And with that, the incident was pretty much over. Alex went down stairs to see what was on TV. (Maybe Wide World of Sports would be on!) Alex's Mom began to make preparations for dinner. She worried a lot about her boy, but she tried not to show it outwardly. It was hard enough being a single mother in 1973. Her husband had died in Vietnam in the line of duty. She had the folded American flag to prove it in a safe place in her bedroom closet.

Alex never really knew his father. He was just a toddler when his father went over there to die.

"Shadows" she mumbled as her mind drifted looking in the cupboard for the bag of egg noodles she knew was in there. "Sounds like your father" she said aloud, not knowing where that stream of consciousness came from. Reaching to grab the noodles, she sighed and shook her head slightly, trying to get rid of these thoughts of her lost husband that would only depress her. "Now where is that tuna..." she said, moving into that mindless dinner-making mode that was both comforting and distracting all at once.