Just down the stairs from where Tom sat conversing with his paintings was a simple bookcase, old and lovingly carved. At least I’ve learned to let it pass.” It was a lie, of course. Shaking his head to disperse his dark thoughts, Tom whispered, “At least it passes quickly now. I wonder what would it be like if I did?” “The three days a year when You insist on reminding me.” No matter how often he might pray that the world would just pass over these days, or stop altogether, time moved relentlessly forward. Why must your shadow fall here? Three days every year.” Tom chuckled dryly. Walking right up to the line of its darkness and setting his feet in place, Tom watched the shadow swirl with the phantom memories of smoke and flame. Looking up, he saw it: a lone cottonwood tree set high on a hill, silhouetted by the setting sun. There, barring his way to the door, lay the long shadow of the tree. Frozen like his spirit so many years ago.Īpproaching the back porch of the farmhouse, Tom stopped. Tears fell, freezing like rivers of ice intothe cracked lines of a wizened face. This was fitting-that he should feel in his skin and his bones what he felt in the darkness of his soul. Shivering, he closed his eyes, inviting the cold to engulf him while the muscles in his face strained with the intensity of his thoughts. On this day, her birthday, an icy November wind cut through his worn and faded flannel shirt, chilling him to the core. Once again, he has returned to the place where she fell. Around him, the charred remains of a roofless barn stood grim and silent. Breathing in the darkness, a solitary man knelt in the dust. Thick and black, as if the earth had banished the moon forever. One autumn day, he discovers another presence in his home that forces him to face the secrets of his past. In this short ghost story with a twist ending, a man, haunted by dark memories, spends forty years living alone on an isolated farm.
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