Shadow Dive

Looking down as he stood waiting for his bus to arrive, Alan regarded his shadow, cast on the ground in front of him.

The morning sun at his back shone down all around the concrete of the sidewalk at his feet, except for the dark void of the area blocked by his body.

He knew it was because the dense material that made up his solid form did not allow the wave lengths of light coming across the expanse of space from the yellow Sun to pass through to the surface of Earth's crust he now stood upon. That was the science of it.

Yet, he could not help but wonder if the shadow on the ground was merely a dark doorway to another side; another dimension that radiated with the dark light of a black sun its own.

Where, perhaps, a shadow version of himself was looking down at the patch of light that stretched out on the ground before them. Wondering, as Alan did, if it were possible to simply drop through one's own shadow and arrive on the other side; on the opposite side of light.

Craning his neck down further, without actually bending over, as to preserve his shadow's integrity, Alan looked closer at the silhouette on the ground.

Could he... could he see into the shadow?

Or was his imagination getting the better of him?

For a moment he thought he was just tired from the events of the passed weekend, but then he could have sworn he caught a twinkle of movement within the darkness.

Like looking into a dark pool of water, he could almost make out shapes in the inky depths within.

Unconsciously, he leaned down even closer until he was almost doubled over, staring deeply into the mysteries of his own shadow. Yes, he could do it; if he just fell through he would be in another worl...

Alan came to as a crowd of people looked down at him, their distant voices becoming clearer as he came back to consciousness.

Lying on his back his focus narrowed on the woman leaning down closer to him than the others in the circle.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked Alan in a practiced voice that said she was used to this line of questioning. "I'm a nurse; can you tell me your name? Do you know where you are?"

After a moment of trying to form his thoughts clearly enough to get out of his mouth, he responded slowly, "What, what happened? Am I through?"

The question made the woman as well as the crowd look even more concerned.

"Through where?" The nurse asked. "You just fell over and hit your head on the sidewalk pretty hard. Maybe harder than it looked..."

Alan looked up passed the crowd to the sky above and saw the bright, yellow sun still on its morning ascension.

"Well, that answers that question." He said to himself aloud as he let them help him up.

As their bus pulled up and they filed on, the group of bystanders made sure to keep well away from the strange man they had just watched seemingly try to do a head first dive into the pavement.

This city is getting weirder everyday.