"Hellooo, I can help your son."

   He probably wasn't talking to me, which was good, because I didn't want to do anything other than make my way home after a long day. Also, it wasn't a topic I wanted to cover with a stranger.

   "Hey!" He tried again. "I can help. He's having problems and I can make 'em a lot better."

   I glanced towards the speaker and was unhappy to find him staring back at me. "Are you talking to me?"

   "Yes," he said. There was either a touch of sadness or just a lack of energy in his voice. The sun shone off a plexiglass covered map of the train system, partially silhouetting the man's features. More weirdos than ever rode Light Rail these days and he was probably just another one with poor social skills. But he tapped my gut with a thin cold finger by evoking my son. In fact I had exactly one son and no daughters. I assumed his phrasing to be a guess with a high probability of being correct. Lots of people had sons after all. All the same I looked hard into his face for some seconds before turning back to my business, which was staring out a window on the opposite side of the car.

   "I don't like trains," he said. I could feel he was still looking at me. "Too many people with toooo many shadows."

   "Maybe you should ride a bike," I offered coldly.

   "Nooo." The word rolled slowly out, as if he were contemplating the mechanics of my suggestion. "That wouldn't do. I need to talk to you."

   I continued to stare out the window. "Look. I'm not interested. I've had a hectic day and don't want to talk."

   "Ahhhh." Another syllable stretched out uncomfortably. After an equally awkward pause, he said, "I can make the nightmares not so bad."

   This snapped my head around. "Go away!"

   "I don't mean trouble. I mean what I say. You're boy has always had bad nightmares, yes?"

   Yes he had. Ever since he was a few years old and gathered concepts like that of ghosts, monsters, and of the general unknown, my son Josh woke up screaming several times each night for years on end. Brenda, my wife became traumatized and it greatly affected her sleep. To save her sanity I built a room for my son in the garage - far enough away that the piercing cries found our ears as the calls of strange, distant birds searching for comfort in the night. I would rise, go to my son and rock him back to sleep. Sometimes it took hours. My wife's bubbly spirit returned over time and with perseverance our family was saved.

    Not that my solution was without a price. Struggling to stay awake and functional at work became difficult with so little sleep and some days the bathroom mirror showed the sparkless eyes of a man waiting for his days to run out. I nearly crashed my car twice and fell asleep once behind the wheel at a traffic light. Afterwards I resolved to travel to the office by train. Most days I could grab a seat, allowing me to set the alarm on my watch and catch a quick nap.

    Brenda knew I was suffering and rewarded me often and in a variety of ways, which did much towards keeping me from falling apart. But mostly, I endured it because during the day Josh was a happy, loving little child that filled my heart. We made it work. The nightmares continued for years, yet over time we noticed they gradually began to lessen in frequency and intensity. Eventually they dissipated completely, only to be replaced by a new heart-wrenching horror.

   "Your thinking of someone else," I said sternly. My son does not have nightmares.

   "Wellll," the stranger started in his slow manner, "maybe he's not having 'em any more, but I'm sure he ain't getting along right with other kids. I can help with that, too."

    Another icy finger poked at my heart. He seemed to know things only someone close to my family could know. Were these just lucky guesses? I shuffled to the side to get a better look and brushed against a somewhat larger woman trying hard to appear as though she was not listening. She inched back to give me room without making contact with other riders. My vantage point remained bad. The bright window backlit the stranger, leaving his facial features poorly defined.

    The hum of the train changed in pitch as gentle braking replaced the accelerator. "Excuse me," I said roughly as the doors opened. The people listening around me moved, giving a wider than normal path to the exit. The stranger watched, but said nothing as I stepped onto the platform and briskly walked away. It was one shy of my usual stop and would take me an extra twenty minutes to get home, but I was relieved to be out of the uncomfortable boxcar. Rounding a corner I started down a traffic filled street lined with brick and metal warehouses.

    "Don't you want to help your boy?"

    Spinning around I came face to face with the stranger from the train. I had been under the false impression that no one exited besides myself and worked to conceal my surprise. "Leave me alone," I said in a low voice.

    "Sir, I also need your help," he stated rather earnestly.

    "I can't help you. Go away!" I was no longer annoyed, but full on angry. I might have been scared, too, had there not been so many people driving by. His features were plainly visible now. He had small dark eyes and a bulbous nose that appeared to have been broken at least once. His cap shaded his face enough that I was unsure if he had little or no eyebrows.

    Attempting to escape the unwelcome company, I turned and stepped quickly away.

    A moan rolled out of his mouth as I increased the distance, head partially turned to be sure he didn't follow. He disappointedly watched me as I crossed the busy street and rounded another corner. I considered altering and elongating my path to make sure I wasn't followed, but was becoming more anxious to get home and check on Josh. As I contemplated the direction I would go, I heard, "I can make the ghosts go away."

     My blood ran cold. I turned to find him a few paces behind. He must have sprinted to catch up to me and if that was the case, why didn't I hear him approach? As unsettling as that was, his words were easily twice as jarring. When the nightmares subsided Josh began to see things that simply were not there. For the better part of a decade he was scared of the dark and of being alone. Again, this made it difficult for him to find friends or relate to others. Brenda and I could finally sleep through the night, but our heart broke from of our child's daily fear and isolation. We took him to doctors and psychologists and each had a different theory from overactive imagination to brain tumors. After x-rays, head scans, behavioral therapies and a mix of other experiments, the only remedy that stopped Josh from seeing and hearing things that were not there was a heavy dose of prescription drugs. However, they turned our boy into a doped up zombie, so we flushed them. Those were also very tough times and we struggled to be happy.

    Only in the last year had he found a way to wrestle his issues to a standstill. His distractions remained common, but he did not cry out or shrink away from the perceived presence. Now he simply observed and when whatever it was had passed from his attention, he returned to his life with no lasting effects. I asked him about this and he replied that he still saw "things", but simply decided not to be bothered by them any longer. Over time I noticed he was distracted to lesser degrees and now sometimes went entire weeks without run-ins with the phantoms in his head. He was connecting with other kids and recently made a few friends.

    Life was brighter than it had ever been for my family and I felt the stranger from the train was somehow a threat to our fragile new happiness. I stepped a foot back and bent my knees slightly, preparing to fight. "I don't know what you're talking about," I said through gritted teeth.

    "Yes you do," he said in a tired voice, unaffected by my newly aggressive demeanor. "Whether you believe it or don't, he's been seeing stuff fer a long time. Maybe you told yourself it was all made up by his over-active imagination, but it ain't. They're real and he can see them."

    "You get the fuck out of here right now or I'm going to punch your teeth down your throat!" I was incredibly agitated and meant every word I said. Unfortunately I was unaccustomed to fighting or any sort of conflict for that matter, and knew my choice of words was more awkward than menacing.

    He sighed loudly. "Look, you. Fighting me will do you no good. I'm not a regular person. I'm just a shadow now."

    "You're about to be a bleeding shadow! Now go!"

    "Look at me, man. Do I look right to you. I'm standing in the light of day, but I look dark, like the sun can't find me, right?"

    I was about to unleash a jumble of whatever swearwords I could muster, but stopped. He did look as though he was standing in the shade. It made no sense, so I rejected the idea. "Your hat is shading your face," I said with far less gusto than I felt only seconds before. As bad as his assertion was, it was better than mine. The brim of his old timey driving cap couldn't have shaded his tip of his nose, much less his whole face, or for that matter, his entire body.

   I gaped as the sour looking man scooped his hat off his head, revealing a wispy, balding pate that appeared to be fully in the shade.

   "This is a trick!" I yelled and thrust my hand above his head with my fingers spread. The shadow of my moving hand should have shown across him, but it wasn't there! I pulled my hand back and grimaced out of fear and anger.

    "I'll prove it to you another way," he said. He seemed like a character out of a movie's Irish ghetto scene. He had a slight accent, but it was more East Coast than European. "I ain't got no shadow following me... cuz I am a shadow. See?" He pointed at the ground by his feet.

    The ground immediately around his saggy black boots was slightly darker, as though it was a very overcast day with no hint of sun. I then glanced at my own feet, where a pronounced shadow ran from the bottoms of my shoes, across the ground and a few feet up the building next to us. Now that I saw it, the contrast slapped me hard in the face.

    "What the hell do you want?!"

    "I just wanna help your boy."

    "My son is fine! Just leave us alone." I was exasperated. What was he? I had no idea, but didn't want him anywhere near my family.

    "You can't tell me he hasn't had a lot of trouble with nightmares and seeing things, now can you?"

    "Ok, yes." My voice took on a desperate tone. "But he is better now. There are no more nightmares, he ignores the awful things he sees during the day and in fact rarely sees them at all now. There is no need to do anything. He's fine. Really!"

    The air seemed to leave him and his shoulders drooped. He closed his eyes and a long slow groan leaked out. "Yeah... ohhhh..." He was momentarily at a loss for words. "Ok, mister. I'll level with you. I was supposed to be your boy's shadow, but, er... never showed up for work, so to speak. So he hasn't had a shadow all these years."

    I pulled my chin back in disbelief. "That's ridiculous. I've seem him practically every day of his life and he has always had a shadow."

    "That's not a real shadow. It's just the absence of light."

    "What the hell is the difference?"

    "The difference is that the absence is da place where a shadow can live. Well, not live, because we're not really alive anymore. Well, not in the normal way.

    I was about to unleash a jumble of whatever swearwords I could muster, but stopped. He did look as though he was standing in the shade. It made no sense, so I rejected the idea. "Your hat is shading your face," I said with far less gusto than I felt only seconds before. As bad as his assertion was, it was better than mine. The brim of his old timey driving cap couldn't have shaded his tip of his nose, much less his whole face, or for that matter, his entire body.

   I gaped as the sour looking man scooped his hat off his head, revealing a wispy, balding pate that appeared to be fully in the shade.

   "This is a trick!" I yelled and thrust my hand above his head with my fingers spread. The shadow of my moving hand should have shown across him, but it wasn't there! I pulled my hand back and grimaced out of fear and anger.

    "I'll prove it to you another way," he said. He seemed like a character out of a movie's Irish ghetto scene. He had a slight accent, but it was more East Coast than European. "I ain't got no shadow following me... cuz I am a shadow. See?" He pointed at the ground by his feet.

    The ground immediately around his saggy black boots was slightly darker, as though it was a very overcast day with no hint of sun. I then glanced at my own feet, where a pronounced shadow ran from the bottoms of my shoes, across the ground and a few feet up the building next to us. Now that I saw it, the contrast slapped me hard in the face.

    "What the hell do you want?!"

    "I just wanna help your boy."

    "My son is fine! Just leave us alone." I was exasperated. What was he? I had no idea, but didn't want him anywhere near my family.

    "You can't tell me he hasn't had a lot of trouble with nightmares and seeing things, now can you?"

    "Ok, yes." My voice took on a desperate tone. "But he is better now. There are no more nightmares, he ignores the awful things he sees during the day and in fact rarely sees them at all now. There is no need to do anything. He's fine. Really!"

    The air seemed to leave him and his shoulders drooped. He closed his eyes and a long slow groan leaked out. "Yeah... ohhhh..." He was momentarily at a loss for words. "Ok, mister. I'll level with you. I was supposed to be your boy's shadow, but, er... never showed up for work, so to speak. So he hasn't had a shadow all these years."

    I pulled my chin back in disbelief. "That's ridiculous. I've seem him practically every day of his life and he has always had a shadow."

    "That's not a real shadow. It's just the absence of light."

    "What the hell is the difference?"

    "The difference is that the absence is da place where a shadow can live. Well, not live, because we're not really alive anymore. Well, not in the normal way."

    "Anyway, us shadows are very nice to have around. The fears of a person naturally bleed down into us, helping you deal with the dangers and unknowns of the world. Since I wasn't there, his nightmares were worse. When a kid sees a soul that's recently left it's body or sees another shadow walking the earth on it's own, da kid knows something is wrong, something dead is moving about. We help drain those fears away and soon he stops seeing them all together. That's why so few people over the age of five can see such things."

     "You're telling me you're the reason he had all those horrible dreams night after night? And the reason he's been afraid of the world ever since? You made my son's life a horrific struggle up until now!"

     "Yeahhhhhhh. I'm sorry about that. But look, I can still help him. You said he still sees the dead. I can fix that."

    "No way. Josh has learned to live with it. He's finally happy and doesn't need you or anything else trying to change that." I lowered my voice to try and sound menacing again. "Go away and don't ever come near me or my family."

    Without waiting for a response I turned and ran, before I could turn to see if he was following, he stepped out from behind a light pole some ten paces ahead of me. "You have to help me!" he said, sounding slightly rattled for the first time.

    "How?!"

    "Help me become your son's shadow."

    "No! And anyway, I wouldn't know how. You said he had an 'empty void' following him around. Why didn't you just move into it?"

    The dark stranger cried out, "I tried! But your son has figured out how to deal with us. I'm certain he saw me, but I couldn't slide into the void. When I tried to talk to him it was like he couldn't hear me. After a few minutes I don't think he could see me anymore neither. I need you to talk to him. Convince him to find a way to let me in!"

    "I won't." I was furious again." You had your chance and you blew it and ruined my son's childhood. You have no idea how hard it was for all of us. Why did you abandon him?"

    "You're right mister. You deserve ta know." He grabbed his cap with both hands near his waist and lowered his head as thought he was ashamed. "I used to be alive, just like you, but I did something really bad. And because of that, when I died years later, I didn't move on like everyone else. I was left sitting in the ground feeling my body rot. There is nothing so sad and lonely as that and it felt like an eternity. Really though, it was just a few months. I rose up out of the ground when a particular baby girl was born and became her shadow.

    "I knew I had to do it. It was part of my penance, see?"

    "Anyway, us shadows are very nice to have around. The fears of a person naturally bleed down into us, helping you deal with the dangers and unknowns of the world. Since I wasn't there, his nightmares were worse. When a kid sees a soul that's recently left it's body or sees another shadow walking the earth on it's own, da kid knows something is wrong, something dead is moving about. We help drain those fears away and soon he stops seeing them all together. That's why so few people over the age of five can see such things."

     "You're telling me you're the reason he had all those horrible dreams night after night? And the reason he's been afraid of the world ever since? You made my son's life a horrific struggle up until now!"

     "Yeahhhhhhh. I'm sorry about that. But look, I can still help him. You said he still sees the dead. I can fix that."

    "No way. Josh has learned to live with it. He's finally happy and doesn't need you or anything else trying to change that." I lowered my voice to try and sound menacing again. "Go away and don't ever come near me or my family."

    Without waiting for a response I turned and ran, before I could turn to see if he was following, he stepped out from behind a light pole some ten paces ahead of me. "You have to help me!" he said, sounding slightly rattled for the first time.

    "How?!"

    "Help me become your son's shadow."

    "No! And anyway, I wouldn't know how. You said he had an 'empty void' following him around. Why didn't you just move into it?"

    The dark stranger cried out, "I tried! But your son has figured out how to deal with us. I'm certain he saw me, but I couldn't slide into the void. When I tried to talk to him it was like he couldn't hear me. After a few minutes I don't think he could see me anymore neither. I need you to talk to him. Convince him to find a way to let me in!"

    "I won't." I was furious again." You had your chance and you blew it and ruined my son's childhood. You have no idea how hard it was for all of us. Why did you abandon him?"

    "You're right mister. You deserve ta know." He grabbed his cap with both hands near his waist and lowered his head as thought he was ashamed. "I used to be alive, just like you, but I did something really bad. And because of that, when I died years later, I didn't move on like everyone else. I was left sitting in the ground feeling my body rot. There is nothing so sad and lonely as that and it felt like an eternity. Really though, it was just a few months. I rose up out of the ground when a particular baby girl was born and became her shadow.

    "I knew I had to do it. It was part of my penance, see?""

    He waited for a response, so I moved my head about a quarter-inch as a nod of understanding. He continued.

    "It was awful being a shadow. As this little girl grew she had such a vivid imagination in addition to the actual ghouls she saw. All of her fears flowed through me, torturing me and disrupting every moment of peace. I knew, of course, that none of these things could physically hurt her and were not worth worrying about, but that didn't matter. Any bad dream you've ever had hit your shadow with ten times the force. Ours is an existence of misery. The only solace is that we're doing a lot of good fer a person."

   I glanced nervously at the wall next to me and was relieved to see my shadow was still there, looking in no way unusual.

    "Finally, she grew into an adult. Her imagination was tempered and she could no longer see spirits of the dead and the ghouls. My torture became discomfort. It was bearable." The stranger delivered the last two sentences in his original calm manner. The respite did not last. He nearly shouted, "and then that damn girl up and died on me! She was only 43. I should have had at least another 30 or 40 years with her. Instead I was to start over with a newborn again. I saw his birth and refused the draw into that tiny void.

    "Now I have seen the errors of my ways and am here to make amends. You must help me do that."

    This was incredible, but I believed it. "What did you do that was so bad?"

    "I killed a guy. Never met a shadow that wasn't a murderer."

    "I'm sorry," I said, "but No. You should just go away again. We don't need you. Josh doesn't need you. So you're free. Get lost."

    He started in a growl and ended in a roar. "I'm not free! This is hell on earth. If you can't help me get back where I belong I'm gonna be stuck here forever!"

    "Too bad!" I shouted back. "You did this to yourself and you'll just have to find someone else to help. I would never risk letting you ruin what Josh had worked so hard to fix."

    The stranger's charcoal face came alive in rage. "Then we'll both go through hell," he spat. "You think dealing with me today was hard? I'll be on you every day..." He seemed to think of more in mid sentence. "...and I will make your wife's life hell, too! She will never have a private moment without me whispering evil nasty stuff in her ear. I don't sleep. I don't eat. I'll be there day in and day out!" He paused again and the horror of his words sunk into the pit of my stomach. "Your boy may not have trouble with me... but if he ever has children, their nightmares will be ten times worse than his ever were. I'll haunt and scare the little bastards until they wind up in the loony bin!" A triumphant grin spread across his angry face.

    He waited for a response, so I moved my head about a quarter-inch as a nod of understanding. He continued.

    "It was awful being a shadow. As this little girl grew she had such a vivid imagination in addition to the actual ghouls she saw. All of her fears flowed through me, torturing me and disrupting every moment of peace. I knew, of course, that none of these things could physically hurt her and were not worth worrying about, but that didn't matter. Any bad dream you've ever had hit your shadow with ten times the force. Ours is an existence of misery. The only solace is that we're doing a lot of good fer a person."

   I glanced nervously at the wall next to me and was relieved to see my shadow was still there, looking in no way unusual.

    "Finally, she grew into an adult. Her imagination was tempered and she could no longer see spirits of the dead and the ghouls. My torture became discomfort. It was bearable." The stranger delivered the last two sentences in his original calm manner. The respite did not last. He nearly shouted, "and then that damn girl up and died on me! She was only 43. I should have had at least another 30 or 40 years with her. Instead I was to start over with a newborn again. I saw his birth and refused the draw into that tiny void.

    "Now I have seen the errors of my ways and am here to make amends. You must help me do that."

    This was incredible, but I believed it. "What did you do that was so bad?"

    "I killed a guy. Never met a shadow that wasn't a murderer."

    "I'm sorry," I said, "but No. You should just go away again. We don't need you. Josh doesn't need you. So you're free. Get lost."

    He started in a growl and ended in a roar. "I'm not free! This is hell on earth. If you can't help me get back where I belong I'm gonna be stuck here forever!"

    "Too bad!" I shouted back. "You did this to yourself and you'll just have to find someone else to help. I would never risk letting you ruin what Josh had worked so hard to fix."

    The stranger's charcoal face came alive in rage. "Then we'll both go through hell," he spat. "You think dealing with me today was hard? I'll be on you every day..." He seemed to think of more in mid sentence. "...and I will make your wife's life hell, too! She will never have a private moment without me whispering evil nasty stuff in her ear. I don't sleep. I don't eat. I'll be there day in and day out!" He paused again and the horror of his words sunk into the pit of my stomach. "Your boy may not have trouble with me... but if he ever has children, their nightmares will be ten times worse than his ever were. I'll haunt and scare the little bastards until they wind up in the loony bin!" A triumphant grin spread across his angry face."

    The incredible injustice and misery would be intolerable. We had barely survived Josh's childhood as a functioning family. Brenda could never withstand even prolonged verbal torture by this dark horror. And the thought of my poor unborn grandchildren going through something even worse than Josh's nightmarish existence was an evil beyond compare.

    "Please!" All anger flitted out of my voice and left barely a squeak. The power I attempted to project was now obviously nothing more than a parlor trick. "I still won't let you back at my boy, but maybe there's another option."

    The stranger stared angrily at me. "You don't get it, buddy," he said with plenty of ice on the last word. "There are no substitutes."

    "Well, w-w-wait. What if you become my shadow."

    "You've already got a shadow!" He was yelling again.

    "Wh-well, uh, can you both be my shadow?"

    Without letting go of his anger, his face shifted. It looked to me like he had never considered the idea and didn't know if anything like that could work. I continued. "You shadows probably don't take up much room right? I mean, you could both fit, certainly."

    "Er.. it's not really a question of fitting. I, uh-"

    Before he could fully contemplate my proposal, movement to my side caught my attention. As soon as I turned to face the disturbance a new, more immediate fear raked my body, sending chills through my chest and down my limbs. My skin became gooseflesh and my lungs filled in a single, sharp inhalation. My shadow was moving out of sync with my own frightened movements. Although still flat against the building near me, it appeared to twist and jerk erratically. Then its legs, proportionally long because they stretched some distance from the building, along the sidewalk to myself, pulled up off the pavement and away from my planted feet. The points where those legs met the intersection of wall and sidewalk swung awkwardly up into open space like very pointy knees. The rest of the shadow body likewise pivoted away from the wall.

    It was a gangly legged, squat bodied, pure black entity. I meant to step back from it, but found my limbs to shocked to move. My shadow bent it's strange knees further into a crouch before quickly extending them as it sprung onto the stranger. I managed to turn my head in time to register his expression before contact between the two. His mouth hung open as though he were as dumbfounded as I, but did have the presence of mind to raise his hands in a defensive posture, which did him absolutely no good at all from what I could tell.

    My shadow took them both to the ground where they became a silent tangle of activity. The shapeshifting black mass against the ground bubbled up a few inches here and there, but otherwise remained fairly two-dimensional. It looked incredibly violent, although I couldn't guess as to how they could harm each other, or even where one ended and the other began.

    Without warning, they lurched up and away from each other into upright positions. Both were slightly crouched, ready to continue the brawl. My shadow no longer held the shape of my outline and I was surprised to see the form of a young woman. Like the stranger from the train, she appeared to be in complete shade. Her long dress and hair swayed in a non-existent breeze.

    Eyes wide, she rounded her lips with vigor for some seconds. Although I heard nothing I had the feeling a loud, vibrant whilstle filled the air in a pitch too high for my ears to capture. Moments later another dark shape flashed past me and slapped harshly up against the stranger, closely followed by the female form of my shadow. The three became a single, rapidly flailing entity. This time it remained a three-dimentional object with dozens of inky appendages forming and snapping back.

   I watched, mesmerized. The scene before me was surreal, as though I was a bit player in a dream. A portion of the amorphous thing began to stretch away while the rest of it became even wilder in movement. Then with an all too human cry of utter despair, the piece attempting to escape broke free. It flattened down onto the pavement in the street, thrashing spider like and moving quickly along the ground, over a parked car, up the side of a three story building and out of sight.

   My jaw hanging, I stared after. The remaining darkness divided into two. Half taking the feminine shape of my shadow while the other - remaining ill defined - slid rapidly, but much more gracefully away. My shadow turned and faced me. Her wide, dark eyes fixed on mine and it was easy to think of her as a killer. I moved my lips to make words and on my second attempt asked, "Is he gone?"

    "Yes," she replied while staring hard into me. Her voice was high and could have been sweet under different circumstances.

    "What was that other shadow? ... The one that helped."

    "That was your wife's shadow."

    "Oh." She moved towards me and I took a step back. "Wait! What if he- I mean what if the one you fought comes back?"

    She paused. "Then we shall drive him off again. Everyone carries one's own burden." Before I could speak again she stepped up next to me and her form elongated, then folded along the sidewalk and up against the wall. The woman was gone and my dark silhouette remained - just a shadow again.