The Truant Shadow

The Truant Shadow – Short Story for Kids

Booboo was a boy of eight. He was a very good boy. His parents were quite proud of him, because everybody praised him. Waking up early, he whizzed off to school after bath and breakfast. His teachers loved him, since he put in much effort to top the class.

He loved his play hours as well. He played in the evenings with his group of friends. When he returned home he bathed, had his tea and finished his homework. After dinner his father allowed him to the watch sports channel. Once the programme was over, giving his parents a hug and a kiss Booboo was off to bed. He said his prayers and settled down with his favourite Hardy Boys Adventures. Soon Booboo was fast asleep.

His mother who came up to switch off the table lamp, stroked down his unruly hair, pecked a tiny kiss upon his ruddy cheek, pulled up the bed cover and turned off the light.

O, how proud she was of him. He had helped his father clean the garage, wash the car and prune the overgrown plants in the garden. He had helped his mother hang out the washings on the clothes line and even helped her roll ladoos in the kitchen!

He visited an invalid neighbour with oranges, apples and a bag of vegetable grown in their back yard. He ran errands for the seniors in school and so now you can see why everyone loved Booboo and thought he was a good boy, indeed!

Though this might surprise you, there was someone who did not like Booboo. In fact, it was someone who was very close to Booboo all the time. It was no other than Booboo’s shadow!

Booboo’s shadow did everything that Booboo did(as do all living shadows) but it was bored with being so good. It had often watched the naughty boy Foofoo and wished it could do all those things!

Foofoo was the boy next door. He and his shadow always did such exciting things! O how Foofoo’s shadow boasted and raved to other naughty boys about the adventures they had!

“We climb trees, scale walls and jump over fences!” bragged he.

“We skip classes, to munch puffed rice, ground nuts and kamarkats (sticky toffees) bought from the street vendors!”

“Ah, today Foofoo got thrown out of class for aiming paper pellets tucked in rubber bands at his class mates! We stood outside and enjoyed watching the sparrows!”

Foofoo’s shadow boasted about the many monkey faces they could make and didn’t seem to mind the frequent spanking they shared.

Booboo’s shadow had often watched them on their truant sprees, and thought they were having the time of their life. He turned envious and wished his life was as exciting. Soon Foofoo’s constant chatter made him wish Booboo wasn’t so good! How tedious he felt being good! If only Booboo did the things Foofoo did!

Yesterday Foofoo and his shadow had been busy throwing stones at the alley cats. Therefore they came late for class. They were soundly spanked and teacher put him next to Booboo to take down the notes he had missed.

Booboo had avoided Foofoo ever since he had pulled his hair and splashed blue ink on Booboo’s white shirt. As they sat taking down the lessons, the two shadows met.

Foofoo’s shadow stuck out his tongue, the first thing, when he met Booboo’s shadow. Booboo in returned did nothing though his shadow was greatly tempted to do the same!

“O. If only Booboo would do something!” it sighed.

Foofoo’s shadow upon hearing this dismal sigh, took courage and said,

“You must be bored with him, doing nothing wrong, ever! Ugh!”

At this, Booboo’s shadow replied,

“O, yes! But what can I do, he is so good all the time!”

Foofoo’s shadow was quite amused. He whispered,

“But you may leave him if you wish! There is a way! At the stroke of midnight, move away from Booboo. This might be hard, but try! Jump off his bed! And when you do, you are really free!”

“Really?” gasped Booboo’s shadow in disbelief.

At home when Booboo slept like an angel, the clock struck twelve. Booboo’s shadow which couldn’t sleep had lain with him crumpled in bed. He wriggled so, at the stroke of midnight and with a mighty effort jumped to the floor off the bed!
He was free at last! He climbed to the top of the ceiling, slithered through the door, slid down the balustrade and bounced off downstairs.

The truant shadow couldn’t believe what had happened to him! He slowly crept out of the window and landed on a jasmine bush, fragrant with its open blossoms. In the cool night air he pranced like a mad thing for o, how happy he was to be free!

He zigzagged through the traffic, bringing late night motorists to a screeching halt. Women and children returning from a cinema screamed at the sight of him, in fear. They couldn’t imagine what that black little thing racing around was! Some were horrified thinking he might be an alien gone crazy. They began scanning the sky for a UFO.

The truant shadow soon reached a children’s park where he played on a swing, setting off loud creaking sounds in the stillness of the dark night. Folks that week were full of talk about a little black thing that ran helter-skelter all over town! Some had seen the truant shadow splashing in the pond filled with pink water lilies. Someone crossing the bridge that led into town one night screamed like the man in ‘The Scream’ painting by Edvard Munch!

Often the shadow sneaked into wayside night eateries, and guzzled iced sherbet and parattas. He invaded idli shops where he terrified the waiters or cooks who hid beneath greasy tables!

Meanwhile Booboo woke to find his shadow was missing! He called to his mother, who was too perplexed she could only wring her hands and say,

“Aiyo! Where on earth is your shadow, Booboo? How did you lose it?”

She was agitated as she told Booboo’s father. They searched for a long time until Booboo had a hurried breakfast and raced off to school feeling very incomplete without his shadow.

In school, every child had his own happy shadow following him. They played, fought, laughed, studied, lunched, danced and sang with their own shadows faithfully following their every movement.

The children thought it very queer that Booboo had lost his and walked away from him proudly, each with his own shadow following him, like a devoted little puppy. O, how unhappy and lonely Booboo felt!

The truant shadow, now quite fatigued by a whole week’s mad frolic and silly adventures sat at length upon a park bench to watch the children at play. Every child had his own shadow. He began feeling lonely not having Booboo to follow.

He said to himself, “I will join them, and play with them instead of with Booboo!”

But the children only screamed at the sight of the truant shadow or the bolder ones just snorted and said,

“These crazy shadows should stick to their owners!” and walked away in a huff.

The truant shadow slowly slid back to its bench feeling very miserable indeed! O how he missed Booboo! Sweet, kind, good Booboo! He remembered jumping out of bed before him, racing down the stairs with him, ran ahead of him in the morning sun, crept under his feet at the peak of noon, and run behind him in the evenings! He longed to eat, play, run errands with Booboo!

The truant shadow became more and more heart broken as he remembered Booboo. Soon he began to cry bitter tears. He cried hopeless tears of pain until the children had all left and it grew dark. The stars sparkled above and the moon sailed through a sky of black velvet.

The shadow watched the night watchman walk by. He was a bulky man and had a bulky shadow that grunted at the truant shadow as they walked past.

Then at that instant, the truant shadow resolved to get back with Booboo. He leapt and flipped over the heavily wrought park gate. He sped down the road. He leapt over hedges and barbed wire fences. He took every short cut he knew, after trampling on flower beds in gardens, somersaulting on large green patches of lawn.

At last he had reached Booboo’s house. He was tired, but oh, so happy! Panting with joy he cautiously peeped through the window. He could slip quite easily under the door.

Booboo’s father had locked up for the night. His mother and father sat watching the late news on NDTV, when the truant shadow tip toed behind them to quickly race up the stairs!

Booboo’s father who had happened to glance that way spotted a black image creeping up and cried, quite startled out of his wits,

“What, what was that!”

And they both scooted up to see what it was.

The truant shadow had, with the quickness of lightning dived into Booboo’s bed. O, how warm and soft it was! He snuggled up to Booboo and hugged him like he would never let him go!

Through the streaming moon light which flowed through the window, father and mother saw Booboo safe and snug in bed. And a happy surprise awaited them! Next to Booboo lay his own shadow!

“Booboo, look, your shadow is back!” cried his mother in happiness, waking Booboo from sleep.

And sure enough, so it was!
__END__

By J.Jayashree