The Shadow

The Shadow - Part 1

Imagine a man who doesn’t seem to live in any one place. No, he is not a vagrant, at least not in the conventional sense. He has resources and money but somehow he manages to exist without being pinned down in any one place. He’s a bit like Harry Lime in “The Third Man”…

The first time I noticed him it was late at night and I was leaving the pub. I followed him down the road. Followed is not quite the right word. We were walking in the same direction and I was walking about 25 yards behind him.

By choice I live in a run-down part of town. It was always cheap, but it used to be convenient for work. It’s not convenient for work anymore, because work moved away. I remain in my house from habit rather than anything else. Some people would describe the area as “rough”. Maybe it is, but nobody bothers me.

Anyway, this man was walking down the road ahead of me. I was a little surprised when he turned left in the direction of the old Wrightson factory. I was surprised because I know there are no houses down that road. There is nothing down there at all except factory buildings and they are all boarded up. I suppose I assumed that he had gone down there to relieve himself. That’s not very hygienic but people do it and it’s none of my business what they do or where they do it. I continued past the road end and glanced down there, it’s well enough lit and you can see right to the end where the gates of Wrightson’s close off the end of the cul-de-sac. There was nobody to be seen. There are no obvious exits. So there he was, gone, or maybe you would say “there he wasn’t”. I was puzzled but put it down to it being night and me having had a skin-full. Perhaps there was some way out of that road that I wasn’t aware of. I wasn’t going to hang about wondering about it so I continued on my way but  I have to admit, I really was puzzled.

(21st December 2016 – 363 words)