Chapter 16: The other side of my shadow

Chapter 16: The other side of my shadow

“You can go now,” she said, making a shooing motion with her hand. I could tell she was eager to eat.

Not wanting to look a gift punishment in the mouth, I quickly spun and made my way from the room, muttering another apology on my way out.

I thought of the other kids on my way up the stairs. It was almost a certainty that they hadn’t gotten enough to eat. We never did. Risking getting into even more trouble, I did something I knew was against the rules. I snuck into the girl’s room.

Shirley, one of the younger girls screamed when she saw me. Beth was out of bed in an instant, rushing over to see what the problem was. When she saw me, she quickly did damage control.

“It’s just Oliver, Shirley,” she soothed the child. “Get back in bed. Oliver, get in my bed, quick. Under the covers!”

I did as instructed just in time to hear Elisa’s voice. Her room was right down the hall. “What on Earth is going on in here?”

“It’s nothing, Ma’am,” Beth whispered. “Shirley just had a nightmare. I took care of it.”

“Okay,” Elisa whispered back, finally lowering her voice. “Just keep it down. We don’t want to upset Miss Havasu.”

“I know,” Beth replied. “Sorry.”

I hid under the blanket for a few more minutes to make sure the coast was clear. It was strange being in a girl’s bed. It smelled like Beth, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

When I finally came up for air, the girls had the bed surrounded. Georgia poked me hard in the ribs. “What are you doing in here? Were you peeping on us?”

“I was not!” I complained. “I would never do something like that. I only came because I got food and…”

I wanted to say I knew everyone was hungry but it felt weird to accuse them of starving even though we all knew we were.

“Where?” Another small girl, Francis, asked.

I patted the bag I still had clutched to me.

“Oliver,” Beth said in the same voice she’d used to soothe Shirley. “That bag is empty.”

I blushed. None of the girls knew about magic. How could I have forgotten? Well, the ban on magic be damned. I was about to spill the beans. At least some of them.

“Okay, you guys can’t tell anyone about this,” I began. “You have to double-dog swear!”

That was the biggest swear I knew. Ironclad. One by one the girls all swore themselves to secrecy. Then I opened the bag. Soon as I thought about food, the smell hit us. Everyone started reaching for my bag and before I knew it, I was at the bottom of a pile of girls. Beth tried desperately to restore order while I struggled to breathe. It didn’t matter how many of them reached for my bag. It wasn’t giving up the goods for anyone but me.

“You guys realize you probably smushed it, right?” Beth sighed as the last of the girls disentangled herself from me.

“Don’t worry,” I replied, already taking out the first bundle. “I think they are going to be just fine.”

Again the girls fought over the bundle. I chuckled as I produced another. And another. And another.

“Where were you getting all that?” Beth asked when I handed her yet another bundle of food.

“It’s a secret,” I whispered, though nobody was paying us any attention.

She shrugged and peeled back the cloth covering her plate. “Wow, this is all very fancy. You didn’t steal this, did you?”

I shook my head. “No, she took all the money I made today.”

“How much did you make?” She asked, looking gobsmacked.

I counted on my fingers for show. “Oh, I don’t know, thirty-six copper.”

She blinked at me. “Thirty-six cents? That isn’t enough for all this. Is something wrong with it?”

“No,” I replied, trying desperately to think of an excuse. “They were leftovers. Can we leave it at that?”

Beth had raised her eyebrows in a way she only did when she knew someone was lying. I’d seen her do it to the little kids when they pulled shenanigans. They always caved.

“I suppose,” she said with a drawn-out sigh. “You’re up to something, though, and I want to know what it is. You don’t have to do everything on your own. Us older kids can help too.”

That brought tears to my eyes. Tears I desperately tried to hide from the older girl. There was no point getting emotional when I was supposed to be the hero that saved them all from a night of hunger-driven restlessness.

Again, I was mostly ignored in favor of delicious food. Miss Aires had even packed some cake which was quickly pulled from one of the packages and devoured. By the time they’d finished, some of the girls were groaning and complaining of stomach aches due to eating too much.

I took all the dirty dishes and stuffed them back into the bag. I wasn’t sure how much was left but I was pretty sure there was enough to feed the boys. Beth kissed me on the cheek before I left, causing me to have to walk it off because I was sure I was blushing.

Sam tackled me again the instant I stepped into our room. “Where the hell were you man? I looked everywhere for you when I finished those deliveries. I even tried to take the elevator back up but they wouldn’t let me in without you.”

“Sorry, Man,” I replied, trying to peel him off me. “I lost track of time. But look, I got food.”

I pulled out a bundle and he hungrily tore it open. Before I knew it, he began stuffing his face. He only managed to talk between bites. “I was so…hungry…Missed dinner…Your fault.”

By then, either the smell or Sam’s loudness attracted the rest of the room. They started to pile into the hallway before I waded through them back into the room. If we were going to get caught making noise, it might as well be in the bedroom.

As I thought, there was still enough for everyone to get some. The girls got the lion’s share but nobody went to bed hungry. Even Gordon only took his share and let the smaller kids eat. Once Sam was done, I led him to a quiet corner of the room and took out the smaller packages from the delivery quests. He dropped a handful of copper coins into my hand and said, “There it is, fifteen of those strange coins. Are you sure you can spend this?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I spent the rest buying all this food.”

“Are you going to buy more?” He asked.

I grinned and shook my head. “No! I made a deal today and food shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

“Really?” He asked, looking at me like I’d grown a second head.

“Yeah. We can use the money we get from now on for other stuff,” I said, getting a little excited at the prospect.

“Like what?” He asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Um,” I stammered, not really sure myself. “I don’t know.”

The feast was interrupted when we heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Plates got stashed under beds real quick and we all dove into bed. I didn’t get a chance to even take off my shoes but it didn’t matter. They were so comfortable, it felt like I wasn’t wearing them.

Miss Havasu poked her head in the door and looked around. It was quieter than normal and I imagined every one of us was holding our breaths.

Finally, she let out a sigh. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you boys tonight, but go to bed.”

I was restless. I don’t know if it was my full stomach or thoughts of what I wanted to do the next day but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t sleep.

My shadow was no help, moving about under the covers. It was almost as if it was trying to get my attention. Finally, I pulled the covers down and looked at it. It had pooled itself in a big circle. Almost like a…

I crawled over to it and looked inside. The depths of the shadow looked similar to the inside of my magic bag. I could just make out something in there. The shadow was just big enough for me to fit inside. If I really wanted to go, that was.

I shrugged. It wasn’t like I was going to fall asleep anytime soon. What was the worst that could happen if I crawled into my own shadow? Flashes of the book Through the Looking Glass came to my mind. The only thing that stuck was that it had ended up being an adventure for Alice.

It was almost immediately apparent that something was wrong. I stuck my head through the shadow and ran right into a soft cloth blanket. Then I was falling. Falling up. Then the screaming started.

“Grace?” I asked, confused about why I was hearing her voice.

“Oliver?” She stopped screaming to reply. “How did you get in here?”

I was in bed with my sister. But that was impossible. She lived miles from the orphanage.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

She blinked at me. “What are you talking about? You’re in my bed.”

Footsteps thundered through the hall outside and I knew I was in trouble.

“Quick, get under the bed,” Grace squealed, shoving me to the floor.

I did as instructed just as my stepmother burst into the room.

“Sweetheart, I heard you scream. What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Nothing,” Grace squeaked. “I just had a bad dream is all.”

“You’re going to be the death of me, Child,” my stepmother groaned back. “Will a glass of warm milk help you sleep?”

“No thanks,” Grace replied. “I think I’m okay now.”

“Okay,” my stepmother answered. “Good night.”

We waited a long time after she left, neither of us daring to say a word. I spent that time trying to work out how I’d traveled to my old house. Did my shadow have something to do with it? That was the last thing I remembered doing at the orphanage. It had to be connected.

Finally, Grace spoke. “You can come out now.”

I crawled out and climbed into bed next to her. “I missed you, Squirt.”

That was my nickname for her. I don’t know when I started but it stuck. She sniffled and started to quietly cry, pressing herself into my chest.

“I missed you so much,” she whimpered. “Why can’t you live here anymore? Mom says you went to boarding school.”

So what’s what she told her? No wonder she never replies to my mail. She never got it. Oh well, no sense in making her worry.

“Yeah,” I replied, stroking her hair softly. “My studies are really hard. I’m sorry I can’t come home to visit you.”

“But you’re here now,” she replied. “That’s all that matters.”

I hugged her close. “But I can’t stay.”

She sighed. “I know. Mom hates you. Even I can tell that much.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “But I’m not her son, so I suppose it’s expected.”

“But you’re my brother,” she cried, hugging me tighter.

“I love you, Squirt,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut so I wouldn’t tear up.

“I love you too, Big Brother,” she replied.

We stayed like that for half the night, telling each other about our adventures while we were apart. Grace had grown a lot in the four years I’d been away. Her brilliant red hair had darkened and could almost pass for a light shade of brown in the moonlight. I still loved the freckles that frosted her nose and her piercing green eyes.

She was eleven now, practically a lady. I told her about my recent adventures, leaving out the magic parts. She wasn’t ready for that yet. I regretted not having any food left, not that she looked hungry.

It wasn’t until the sun started to rise that I realized I had a problem. My shadow didn’t want to cooperate. I had to feed it another copper to even get it to form a circle big enough to climb into. Not that it did me any good.

“Close your eyes, Squirt,” I said as I prepared to enter the shadow.

“Why?’ She asked, looking confused up in her bed.

“Never you mind,” I replied. “It’s a magic vanishing act.”

She squealed again when I climbed into my shadow and came up between her legs. It turned out that our shadows were connected…somehow.