{"id":1862,"date":"2025-03-11T18:36:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T18:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/?p=1862"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:17:22","slug":"the-wayward-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/the-wayward-shadow\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wayward Shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\">The alarm buzzed, shattering my sleep. 6 a.m. already? I groaned, rolled out of bed, and headed to the bathroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-2 wp-block-paragraph\">Something caught my eye. I saw my shadow dart away from me and head for the open bedroom door. I rubbed my eyes. Nah, no way. But when I looked again, sure enough, there it was, my wayward shadow halfway out the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-3 wp-block-paragraph\">I screamed. He paused, looked at me, then continued on his way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-4 wp-block-paragraph\">He slipped out the door, and I followed him down the hallway a few steps behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-5 wp-block-paragraph\">The shadow entered the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. Is he hungry?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-6 wp-block-paragraph\">Another shadow stepped out of the fridge and reached for my shadow\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-7 wp-block-paragraph\">What the&#8230;! I pinched my arm to be sure I wasn&#8217;t dreaming. Ouch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-8 wp-block-paragraph\">Shadows don\u2019t live in refrigerators. Shadows don\u2019t detach from their physical bodies. But there they were. Two distinct shadows, with no bodies, holding hands like lovers do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-9 wp-block-paragraph\">My shadow leaned towards the fridge shadow, and they kissed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-10 wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShadow, come here!\u201d I shouted, but he didn&#8217;t hear me. Or he ignored me. Either way, both shadows scurried into the living room and dissolved right through the closed front door. Like they were going out on a date or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-11 wp-block-paragraph\">Crazy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-12 wp-block-paragraph\">I looked down at my bare feet, where my shadow should be attached. My faithful friend, always at my side, perfectly mimicking my every move without question or complaint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-13 wp-block-paragraph\">But there was no shadow now. Only me, standing alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-14 wp-block-paragraph\">I hoped I hadn&#8217;t done something to scare him off or make him mad. What am I saying? It\u2019s a shadow, not a person. He can\u2019t have feelings or emotions. He can\u2019t get mad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-15 wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe I\u2019m the one who is mad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-16 wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m calling in sick to work and going back to bed. When I wake up, I know my shadow had better be back where he&#8217;s supposed to be. At my side, like always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-17 wp-block-paragraph\">If not, then surely I am going mad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-18 wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The alarm buzzed, shattering my sleep. 6 a.m. already? I groaned, rolled out of bed, and headed to the bathroom. Something caught my eye. I saw my shadow dart away from me and head for the open bedroom door. I rubbed my eyes. Nah, no way. But when I looked again, sure enough, there it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,20],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasy","category-humor","tag-flash-fiction"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/The-Wayward-Shadow.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3855,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1862\/revisions\/3855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}