Shadows

By bjaybrooks on January 22, 2024

I think I can slide down this little hill and need not worry about the newly formed ice. This is what I thought just before I fell like a sequoia tree and broke three ribs. So, there is some ice this morning and I am cautious about getting out for my daily Woods Walk until the temperatures rise. Ice is a cruel taskmaster. It is not a respecter of persons. It cares not who it throws in the ditch or breaks a rib or two…or three…

‘If we are going to ice skate we had better get at it,’ Billy B called out to the happy tribe.’ ’It has been below freezing for a week and the pond should be safe for our Olympic Training,’ he continued.

‘I can try out the new ice skates that I received for Christmas,’ Jane said with a happy grin. ’I wondered we would receive enough days of below-freezing weather this winter to allow us to have a New Year’s Skating Party,’ she went on to remark.

‘I remember when Old Jim skated on the Pond many years ago and has not been heard from since,’ Chet said with a worried look. ’The rescue crew found no hole in the ice but they did find a peculiar shadow on the top of the ice that looked amazingly like Old Jim,’ he said.

‘Old Jim was a loner that’s for sure,’ Neva J said. ’In church, on Sunday morning he always sat on the back pew and said little to anyone other than smile,’ she observed.

‘Over there by the tree line is the Shadow of Old Jim,’ said Chet as he skated over to it. ’Sometimes the Shadow is in a sitting position while at other times it is standing, he explained.

‘Well where there is a Shadow there must be a body…don’t you think,’ Billy B asked?

‘Ripleys Believe It Or Not took photos of the Shadow many years ago and they are on display in Gatlinburg, Tennessee at their Showroom,’ Neva J said. ’Old Jim was never much more than a Shadow during his life with his extreme quiet and rectitude…he loved that he was the town mystery and wrote a story about it,’ Neva J continued with a haunting laugh.