Evan

Evan and Jose sat silently under the bridge staring out over the water.

“Did you see that?” Evan punched his friend, Jose on the arm.

“See what?”

“That” he pointed to the concrete retaining wall a few yards from the bridge. “there was a shadow, a duck or something”

“Okay, there is nothing there now”

“No, I don’t see it now.”

“Hey guys, Have you started your book for the book report yet?” Roger pushed his glasses up on his nose as he walked up to them.

“No,” Jose replied. “Which book did you draw?”

“I got ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’; like I want to read a girl’s diary.”

“I got ‘Island of the blue Dolphins’, yuck.” Frank walked up with a group.

“I got “Roll of Thunder’ Joe got ‘The Outsiders’”

“I don’t know why we can’t all just do the same book, like we did last year.” Evan added.

“Because we need to ‘broaden our world’” the group of children laughed at Roger’s imitation of Mrs. Broderick.

“Yes, there will be an ‘open minded discussion’ of the reports.” Carrie chimed in.

“Hey, there it is again. Did you see that shadow? some one is over there.”

“I don’t see anything.” Jose turned, shoved his hand into his pocket, and winked at Rae and Joe. Carrie opened her mouth to protest but Frank shushed her.

“Let’s go ride our bikes across the bridge” Frank said.

“I don’t have a bike, but I have a soccer ball, and the goals we set up last week are still there” Evan Pointed up the river to a wide sand bank where they had played a form of soccer the week before.

“Sounds good to me. How about boys against girls?”

“Really, Jose you are something else, there’s two of us and five of you” Carrie stood with her hands on her hips glaring at him.

“All right then you can have Joe, he doesn’t want to play against Rae anyway.” Jose grinned, Roger and I will take turns sitting out to make the numbers even.

Several times during the game Evan was distracted by shadows on the pier, the retaining wall, and the bridge, but no one else seemed to see them in the end the girls and Joe won the game.

After the game the group began to disperse

“Maybe you and Roger should have stayed in the game the whole time,” Carrie said winking at Jose. Carrie walked with Jose and Evan as far as dairy Queen then she turned to go down her own street. Evan turned to Jose, “you seriously didn’t see those shadows? it looked like somebody was sneaking around.”

“Are you sure you saw something, I mean you are under a lot of stress with this book report thing” Jose laughed.

“I like book reports. I’m just not sure about my book and I think the reason we have to all have different books is so we won’t all write the same report.”

“You may like book reports, but this one is going to be an oral report you don’t like standing up in front of the class and talking”

“I forgot about that part, I’ll worry about that later.”

“I know you Evan you’ll worry about that now, tomorrow next week clear up to the day you have to stand up there and stare at all our little faces staring back at you. You are likely to see all kinds of things by then.”

“Wow Jose, with friends like you who needs enemies.”

“All you worrying generally is unnecessary, you always get good grades.”

“Uncle Paul says it’s never too early to prepare for the college you want.”

The two friends paused at the corner “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t run into any shadows between now and then.” Jose grinned, then turned and ran the half block to his house.

Evan walked slowly home and opened the door to the smell of his favorite chicken casserole, he smiled. Mom had a rule that 2 days a week after school school he was not allowed to play video games. He had to go outside; and she had even gotten other moms and dads in on it; but it wasn’t so bad when she actually cooked instead of popping in a frozen pizza. Evan liked frozen pizza once in a while, it was a fun food but somehow the frozen pizza or frozen dinners weren’t enough after an afternoon of outdoors.

“Hi mom, something smells good”

“Just pulling it out of the oven. Go get cleaned up, we’ll eat in a few minutes.”

Evan looked down at his mud splattered jeans, one leg was soaked with river mud up to his knee. He left his shoes at the door and hurried to his room to put on clean clean pants. He thought briefly about showering, but his growling stomach made him wash his hands and face quickly. He slid into his chair at the table just as his mom was sitting a glass of lemon water by his plate.

‘How your afternoon with the guys?”

“We had fun but it isn’t just guys. Joe doesn’t go anywhere without his twin Rae and Carrie hangs out with us too.”

“A good mix is a healthy group. You look a little pensive can you tell me what’s going on.” Evans mom sat in the chair across from him and picked up her fork. She took a bite and chewed thoughtfully, “not perfect but good”.

“Mom you know anything you cook is going to be good and you know what you tell me about perfection.”

“You’re right, you’re a good son. So tell me what’s what’s bothering you.”

“Nothing’s bothering me. I’m fine. This is really good. Did you put spicy Doritos in it this time?”

“I didn’t have enough spicy Doritos so I used what I had and added plain Doritos; and I’ve known you for 12 years don’t tell me nothing’s wrong.” She paused and studied him till he started to squirm under her gaze. “If you don’t want to talk to me about it now; I won’t push you. I will listen when you’re ready.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes then Evan laid his fork down and looked over at his mom, “since Monday, I’ve been seeing shadows here and there and no one else seems to see them I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“I’m sure you’re not crazy, when do you see these shadows?”

“Off and on different times of the day. I saw shadows that looked like a duck on the retaining wall no office. I saw other shadows that looked like a person sneaking around at different times while we were playing soccer; but no one else saw them.”

His mom looked at him carefully thinking, “It is not totally unusual for people to see shadows out of the corner of their eye, particularly when they’re under stress. But then they are usually just a shadow not the shadow of a duck or something specific. Do you ever see these shadows at home?”

Evan sat in his chair and thought over the events of the last few days, he went through carefully in his mind when he saw the shadows and where he was, “no only at school mostly between classes and when we’re by the river but never at or at home or the store or anywhere else.”

“The next question would be; is there any person who is with you every time you see the shadows?”

Evan thought for several minutes and finally said” “I’m with Jose most of the time but a couple of times I’ve seen them without him there.”

“Well my guess is that someone is playing tricks on you pay attention to who you’re with and who in your friend group is not present, when you see these shadows. That should help you figure out who’s behind it.”

The next day at school Evan didn’t notice any shadows until lunch time, then he noticed an arrow on the back of the gym teacher waiting for his lunch, just for a second then it went away. And decided not to say anything he thought that whoever was doing it would quit if they if he didn’t react then he saw what looked like a mouse running across the the floor he jumped and a couple of other kids did too “Now I know other people saw that”

“Saw what? I didn’t see anything.” Jose said his tray down next to Evan’s and and pulled out the chair.

“I saw something that looked like a mouse on the floor and I know those girls over there saw it too because they jumped.”

“I saw two girls jabbing each other with their elbows I don’t know what you saw.” Jose sat down and and and waved at Roger who was just getting in line for his for his food. Roger stuffed something into his pocket and waved back.

“You never did say which book you drew” Frank sat down on the other side of Evan and shoved a tater tot in his mouth.

“I Drew the lion the witch and the wardrobe.”

“That’s not fair you’ve read that one before” Jose pushed the chair across from him out with his foot and Carrie sat sat down.

“Well technically my mom read it to me and I’ve never written a report on it”

“Isn’t that still cheating?”

“Not technically. I promised Mrs. B that I would read it for myself, but she said she was would expect a better report because I was familiar with it to begin with.”

The group finished their lunch discussing their book reports and other classes. Evan took note that there were no shadows while they were all at the table. He had a feeling that Jose knew more than what he was saying. Jose couldn’t be making the shadows, at least he couldn’t have made the shadow of the mouse because he was right there and what were they making the shadows with anyway? Evan kept an eye out for more shadows as the group scattered to their lockers. Carrie leaned against the locker between hers and Evan’s.

“Hey Evan, I think I know what’s going on. Roger has this flashlight with screens he’s putting in front of it.”

“I was wondering how they were doing that for a day or so I thought I was going crazy but it only happens at school or by the River never at home or when I’m shopping with my mom.”

“They are trying to keep you off guard you should try to think of something to prank them back.” the bell rang and the two friends parted.

Evan barely paid attention in history that day he kept doodling in his notebook trying to figure out what to do he thought about putting glitter in their locker but they were so far away from his he wasn’t sure he could do it without getting caught. He thought about putting an alarm clock in Jose’s backpack set to go off in the middle of class but then that would be disruptive and what about Roger, he had less access to Roger’s backpack and he wanted to get them both, preferably at the same time.

“Evan please pay attention I ask you a question, and I won’t repeat it.”

Evan startled and set up straight in his chair trying to think “um um Benjamin Franklin.”

The classroom disrupted in giggles, Evan’s face flushed red as he remembered they were studying the Civil War.

“Benjamin Franklin may have been a founding father but he was never a president and certainly not the president of the succeeded southern states. Who would like to answer the question?” Mrs. Broderick looked around the class and sighed. It was late afternoon the last class of the day and most of the children were tired of paying attention. “Frank do you know?”

“Jefferson Davis” Frank turned the pages in his history books trying to hide the fact he had looked it up while Evan was suffering his embarrassment.

“Very Good, don’t forget to copy your assignment from the board. We’ll call it a class, there’s 15 minutes left before the closing bell you guys can talk quietly, or work on your homework whatever you want to do just don’t get too loud and crazy.”

The next few minutes the room was full of the sounds of quiet chatter, books being closed and backpacks being zipped. Evan looked around and saw Carrie in the next row he leaned over and whispered “would you like to help me out with some snacks?”

The next day was Friday there were only three instances of shadows and Evan made sure that Jose and Robert knew that he saw them, and showed distress when everyone else pretended that they didn’t see them. Jose and Robert were grinning all day. After school the group gathered down by the river. After playing a game of soccer and a game of dodge ball the group sat down on the ground with their backpacks and bottles of water. Carrie and Evan each pulled a package of Oreos out of their backpacks.

“We just want to thank you for being our friends. They sat next to Roger and Jose and opened up the edge of the packages. We’ll start with you two; take a couple of cookies then pass pass them around Roger and Jose each took three cookies from the first row of their package and then handed the packages to other people. Soon everyone was enjoying their Oreos. Roger and Jose started making faces and Roger actually spit his cookie out into his hand

“What is wrong with this cookie?”

“Nothing’s wrong with my cookie, what about yours Frank?” Evan grinned and glanced between Frank and Carrie.

“These are the best Oreos I’ve ever had, What about you Rae? Joe? Aren’t these about the best Oreos you’ve ever eaten?” Carrie winked at Joe and grinned.

“Yes, the best.”

“I’ve never had better.”

“Are you guys nuts, this is nasty and tastes like, like, like toothpaste.” Jose spit his cookie on the ground and opened the other one to inspect it closer he sniffed it and wrinkled his nose. “This is toothpaste, you guys!”

The entire group busted up laughing “cookies for shadows anytime Jose”

Jose looked at Roger and laughed “ what are friends for.”

“Exactly” Roger stated and stuffed his other toothpaste Oreo in his mouth chewed twice and swallowed.