In My Shadow- A Short Story

       I walked through my life with my head down, just trying to get through.  I finally stumbled upon a cobblestone path where I was forced to look up and observe the scenery.  I quite suddenly realized that I had not been paying attention to the people in my life, and things were somehow different than before.  I found a shaded spot beneath a willow tree and decided to stay for a while.  I had journeyed far, and had visited many places.  Some places I came to had been beautiful and lovely, leaving an imprint on my heart forever.  Other places were dark and frightening, leaving a scar in the place of the untouched map of skin that once was there.  As I sat, I pondered my journeys and allowed them to change my thoughts.  I welcomed the sorrow and the joy alike, but couldn't help but wonder why I had been so absorbed with my own journey that I had forgotten to ask you how yours had been.  You've been on a journey also, as we all are, and we both ended up back on the same cobblestone street.  You on one side, and me on the other.  I sit beneath the willow branches and absorb the suns heat from the brown dirt beneath my legs, and you lay on feathers across the way anxiously awaiting.  For what?  I don't know.  I ask you about your travels, and you seem unimpressed with them as you shrug a shoulder and try to close your eyes to the chaos in your mind.  I can see it now.  The beautiful storm that surrounds your brain swirls endlessly with needs.  The storm needs attention, and you are tired from the weight.  I rise from my dirt patch and tread closer to your bed of feathers, squinting through the wind of your storm to see if I can retrace your footprints.  I follow them back down the cobblestone street, one small foot after another, until they turn down a dark and shadowy path.  The trees here are dense and familiar.  Owls query and ravens cry with each step that I take.  I press on because I need to know where you have been; I must understand this storm that surrounds you in your beautiful bed of feathers and gold.  The forest air chills, sending goosebumps up my arms and down my spine.  I hold myself for warmth and shrug further on.  Deeper and deeper into the trees I go, and just when I am beginning to think that I may never make it through, I see rays of sunlight stretching their arms towards me.  I hasten nearer to the iridescent fingers of warmth and step out into a meadow of red dirt and  kudzu.  Catfish swim through the clouds, gulping down birds along their way to the waterfalls of vines.  Stray dogs and broken bottles litter the earth where abandoned teepees stand torn.  I hear a growl behind me that sends me into a hard run.  I push my legs to run faster and not give out as my breath comes in ragged gasps and the skin of my feet is torn by the jagged edges of hundred year old arrowheads.  I can hear the heavy fall of the beasts paws as they strike the ground directly behind my heels, the snarling teeth never letting up, spittle splashing against my hurried calves.  My sides ache and my eyes blur with fearful tears.  My toes hit something hard in the clay, causing my body to tumble forward.  As I fall, time seems to suspend itself and I can see the scenery begin to change.  The rabid dog drifts farther away, the sun lowers across the horizon, and stars pop from the fishes mustached mouths.  A giant ocean wave rises up as high as the horizon and crashes down before me, slowly creeping its way up to lick at my fingers as I hold my upper body up from the sand.  Exhausted, I let my face fall to the damp beach as I pant to catch my still gone breath.  As I begin to relax, I open my eyes and see another footprint directly beneath the spotlight of the moon.  Pulling myself up from the beach, I dust off my legs and slowly make my way to examine the etching in the shoreline.  A soft song eerily drifts up from the surf, beckoning me to try the footprint on for size.  Unsure, I lift my foot and place it directly into the outline that lay in the sand.  Tears spring to my eyes as I realize that I had been following my own footprints the whole time.  I bend over from the weight of my heart, the salt falling from my cheeks to mix with the tresses of the ocean.  The water pools inside of my footprint in an odd way, much like a tide pool within a tide pool.  I lean in and look closely to discern that there is another, smaller, footprint within my own.  Full of shock, I turn and race back up the dunes towards the red dirt.  I gulp in the thick air as I run once more from the monsters that chase me.  Past the snarling dog, dodging the broken glass, leaping from the swooping crows, and stumbling back up the cobblestone path towards your familiar form.  "Why did you follow me?" I cried breathlessly.  I had never seen our paths cross while you grew and I went out on my own journey, because you had stepped in each footprint that I had left along the way.  You look up sleepily from your golden feather bed and whisper, "You are my duality and my mirror."  Your eyes immediately flutter back to close and I can hear your rhythmic breath falling softly upon the ground.  Feeling heavy and defeated, I drag my feet across the street and sit once more beneath my willow tree.  Hot tears continue to fall, making mud beneath my legs.  All this time I thought that I had left you in a safe place while I cast shadows and fought monsters.  But you had been behind me the whole time, treading on my shadow, blindly following me and having to fight the beasts of my journey as your own.  Unsure where we will go from here, I drop my head and whisper, "I could never judge you; I know you.  But taming this storm will be the hardest thing you've ever done, and the greatest achievement of your life."
Who's walking in your footsteps?

"Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us."
- Samuel Smiles