THE GHOSTS IN THE SHADOWS.
A tale from the lost Legends of Lazarus.
By Andy Williams.
Little Town is the oldest part of the capital, built over 800 years ago. The streets are narrow and winding, who knows what you’ll find around each corner. Like anything that’s old and part of a time forgotten Little Town has its own unique legends and stories, some true, some not so true. But one, one in particular is the most curious and oh, I can guarantee you it’s true because I have witnessed it myself. My name is Charley and I work in the famous Black Cat Bakery of Little Town Square.
I grew up in a small village just below the misty mountains, it was cold and a difficult place to live. Living in these remote areas you become accustomed to all the strange creatures and spirits that dwell in the kingdom. It wasn’t an unusual sight to see the odd marshland spirit out on your walks or to have that pie you left cooling on the window ledge stolen by cheeky tree pixies. It was part of life. After some time I grew tired of living in such a remote place and yearned for the excitement of the capital city, so I packed my bags and made the long journey across the Kingdom. 1 year, 2 months and 3 days to be precise I eventually arrived, stepping foot for the first time into this amazing metropolis. People, Creatures everywhere! Cats that walked upright wearing suits, wizards selling their potions, Giant fish floating through the air above, swimming as though it was an ocean and the city was on the seabed below them. This place was truly magical!
I decided that the new capital city was far too busy for a simple villager like me and decided to settle in Little Town, slightly north of the main city area. I found a place to live and a place to work, the Black Cat Bakery.
I noticed something odd about Little Town, something was different. I was part of a small team of bakers, a team far too small for such a large bakery. We never struggled and never had too much work but yet the bakery seemed to produce far more cakes, breads and pastries than the small team could possibly produce.
But this wasn’t just the bakery, my post would be delivered, yet I never saw a post person. The streets would be kept clean, I never saw a trash collection person. The most odd thing of all, bread and cakes would disappear from the shelves. At first I assumed they had been stolen as I never saw the customer, but there was always the correct amount of money in the tills for stock that had been taken from the shop. Either something odd was happening or this town had a small community of stealth experts.
As always I start work early, 4:30am on the dot. Today was no different, I put several trays of bread into the large open front oven. 45 minutes later I came back to remove the bread, however they had already been taken out, left to cool on the racks. I was working alone this morning and I do not remember doing this. I decided at the risk of sounding like a crazy person I would ask about all of the oddities I had noticed over the last few months to my boss. She had lived in this town all her life and maybe, just maybe she had some answers.
Later that afternoon my boss arrived to check stock and pick up a few bits. “Hey, I was wondering… Can I ask you a question, it’s a weird one?”, “Haha, ok sure, go ahead” she replied. “So, since moving to Little Town, I’ve noticed some strange things happening that I just can’t explain”. She chuckled as I said this and responded, “well, Little Town is a strange place for sure!”. “Well”, I said “the thing is, I am noticing things happening, moving, jobs being done, stock being purchased but I’ve never seen who or what is doing these things. Either I am losing my mind or there is something else happening!”.
She began to laugh again, “oh, I know exactly what you mean! You are not a local are you? I keep forgetting, you’ve not had enough time yet to see truly what Little Town is”.
“This town is old”, she continued “So many people have walked the streets we walk during this time, this bakery alone is over 300 years old, generations have worked in this bakery and some of them decided not to leave”.
“Wait!” I interrupted“. What do you mean, decided not to leave, even if they decided not to leave, 300 years is enough time to force anyone to leave and not by choice. They would have to be dead by now”.
“Yes”, she replied. “But, also no. The kingdom is a huge vast place. The general population is spread out across thousands of miles, only here in the capital do we have such a dense concentrated population that has consistently been here for hundreds of years. You see, when we die we pass through the veil and onto the next plane but to do this we need to be guided by a spirit whose job it is to take you”.
“Yes, I know this, but what has that got to do with Little Town?”. “Well, you see…” she replied. “Imagine you had a really busy bakery, hundreds if not thousands of people waiting to buy bread and only you working in the shop, it would take you an unimaginable amount of time to serve all the customers, yes?”.
“Yes” I quietly responded slowly, starting to understand her point.
“Well this is exactly what’s happening in Little Town, Thousands of those who have passed away trapped within the vale waiting to be guided across. It seems they have a real staffing issue in the spirit world as there are simply not enough guides available, creating a huge backlog. Now what would anyone do in this situation, carry on with the life you had before until your ticket is called to pass on. We call them the Ghosts in the Shadows as they can only be seen by the naked eye when they are not in direct sunlight”.
“Wait, you can see them”, I gasped.
“Yes”, she said laughing “and you will too someday, it takes a few years living here but you will eventually be able to see them too”.
“This sounds terrifying,” I replied. “Why”, she asked, “were you afraid of the postman when he was alive? Why should you be afraid of him now he is a ghost of the shadows, he’s the same man, living the same life doing the same job he has always done. He has no desire to do anything other than to continue with his afterlife until he passes on. Ghosts are not what you hear in the fairy tales, they are not out there to spook us or cause us harm. They are just people, like me and you.”
So this was the day I learned that yes, not all is what it seems. But just because you don’t understand it yet or you can’t quite see what is happening things will usually come into focus and those scary shadows are not that scary after all. Now, whenever I see a figure in the corner of my eye, lurking in those dark shadows of the bakery I just say, hey how’s it going, I hope you’re having a great day.
A short story by Andy Williams.