Without a Shadow by Julie Steimle (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

My mother did not call for me to wake up the next morning. I awoke just in time to hear my brother, Will, ask if I was sick. My mother’s voice responded just below a whisper, but his response was loud enough to hear.

“All day? Mom, what really is going on?”

I sat up and rubbed my head. Slipping out of my covers, I glanced at my vanity to see if my reflection had returned. In the mirror, my empty blanket covers moved by themselves, as if there were a ghost in my bed and not me. Shaking my head, I looked away from the mirror, contemplating getting rid of the thing since I could no longer use it.

“Sleep in again?” Dawn stood in the doorway. She was in her angel costume already, a sparkling halo of tinsel on top of her curly hair. I glanced mildly at the cleavage she somehow had gotten away with showing off.

“Dad is taking me in to the office today,” I replied, walking over to my bathrobe. “And he said I didn’t need to bother going to school.”

Dawn snorted and stepped into the room, closing the door with one peek behind her. I paused, finding it unusual that she decided to linger instead of go. “I heard you snuck out last night—through your window.”

My face felt hot. I looked to my window to see if it was still shut. The curtains hung down straight. No draft.

She laughed triumphantly. “Eve, Eve…who would have thought you would become so naughty?”

I lifted my chin and decided to get dressed. “Who saw me? Mom?”

Shaking her head, Dawn continued to smile. “No, Mr. McDillan called last night, asking Mom and Dad if they knew where you were. Dad went to look for you, but he says that you were in the kitchen. Mom thinks he was covering for you.”

I blinked at her, blushing more. My admiration for my father grew, realizing that he really was trying to cover for me.

“Is that all Mr. McDillan said to them?” I asked, casually picking my pants from my drawer. I placed them on my bed, then reached for a shirt.

But Dawn did not answer me. She gasped. “What happened to your back?”

I froze. Closing my eyes, I remembered that my nightshirt had been shredded. I reached back and felt where my birthmark should be and glanced at it, craning my neck. I felt utterly stupid doing this. So I gave up, glanced at my sister, and then took hold of her arm.

“Hold on a minute,” I said. I stepped towards my mirror, watching my reflection return. When it did, I angled back to see how my shirt looked. Two large tears divided the back of my nightshirt as if it punctured and slit. A scrap rag dangled down the back lonely in the middle of a large hole. My birthmark was still there, just between my shoulder blades.

Dawn jerked out of my hold and pulled away from me. “What is wrong with you?”

I stepped away from the mirror and hurried to my drawers to finish dressing.

“Nothing.” I waved her towards the door. “I need to get dressed.”

She slipped out, making a face at me, but did so hastily.

Everyone grabbed breakfast quickly that morning. My mother said nothing about Mr. McDillan’s call or even about my late appearance during breakfast. I had toast like usual. And when everyone finished, running out the door, she smiled at me as if to say she was glad I stayed home.

My father and I departed for his dentist’s office as soon as he had finished choosing a sensible tie. The drive was peaceful, and I couldn’t help thinking that things were going ok in spite of the day before. I was an accepted part of the family, and my parents were doing their best to keep me safe. All the weirdness and stress was to be forgotten—or I wish it could have been anyway. As we drove into the parking lot, I looked out my window at people who stood and stared, as they always did. I couldn’t help but wonder what they were thinking. I even glanced to see what awful things those imps would be telling my father, but as I looked I realized something. They weren’t there.

For a moment my heart jumped in the hopes that they were gone. I happily hopped out the car, glancing at the people around and down the street. My hopes dropped away. Their imps were still there, shouting rude things to do and say. They just had not come into focus for me yet. My father joined me, locking the car and stepping towards the curb to take me indoors for my appointment; and out of nowhere, a tall man stepped forward and stuck out his foot.

Tripping, staggering, and catching himself, my father burst into laughter and turned to me. “Good thing I didn’t fall on my face.”

“That man tripped you!” I turned indignantly to get a better look at the stranger that almost hurt my father.

“What man?” my father asked, looking at me curiously.

The stranger turned his head towards me, lowering his sunglasses and winking at me with an orange-eyed smirk. In the second it took me to blink, he vanished in a wisp of air, fluttering away like a speedy imp. My mouth went dry.

I turned and pulled on my father’s arm to rush him indoors before any other large imps decided to attack him.

The appointment went as usual. I sat in the chair, my father gave me Novocain, and I had to sit with my mouth propped open as he filed down my canines. He only had done this a few times in my life. Up till now I never thought the habit was strange. Up until now I hadn’t realized that no one else’s teeth continued to grow longer. I had always considered it as routine as a haircut. When we were done, I sat in an empty room, waiting for the numb sensation to wear off.

His dental assistant walked by. Her imp shouted at her, “Go on. Kiss him on the cheek. His wife won’t know.”

I sat up. The hygienist glanced into my room with a sweet, innocent smile. Her imp peeked at me once and grinned wider. It shouted, “You can go into the other room where it is dark. She won’t see you there.”

Her shy smile was joined by a pleasant blush. She headed past the door to the empty room. I could still hear the imp shouting things at her. “Now pretend to bump into him. He is coming.”

I got off the chair and marched into the hall. Hearing the imp’s voice, I turned into the room where she was waiting, stepped inside and closed the door.

“Dr. McAllister?” her expectant voice asked in the dark.

“No,” I said coldly. “Eve McAllister.”

The imp shrieked for her to get out of there, but I stood between the door and her.

“I know what you are planning,” I said with an even darker tone. “Leave my father alone.”

“What?”

“There is no point in hiding in the dark for him,” I said.

“Eve?” My father pushed the door open and flipped on the switch. Blinking at me, he shook his head. “What are you doing in here? Oh. Miss Adams, are you in here also? What are you two doing in the dark?” His eyes went from me to her in a mystified stare, but his gaze then stopped on me and he froze. “Eve! Come here now!”

I obeyed, but I cast Miss Adams one more glare before going.

“Your teeth!” My father gasped, shaking his head at me while pulling me aside. “They’re long again. And what were you doing in the dark with her?”

A shiver zipped down my back. My father’s imps had returned, calling for him to check out Miss Adams’ boobs. I could see him close his eyes and draw in a breath, keeping his focus on me. He drew me back to his office to check out my teeth.

“We have to file them down again,” he said.

I moaned, but leaned back in the chair. The old Novocain had not even worn off yet.

I took lunch at the corner store once the numbness wore off the second time. My father had one root canal to do and a crown to set. He said I should keep out of Miss Adam’s way since she apparently had decided that I was out to get her. He said he was shorthanded and she was under a great deal of stress. I sulked, biting into the garden deli sandwich, chewing over my thoughts with the food.

“He’s a liar and a cheat,” the man sitting across from me said when I took another bite. I looked up. Sure enough it was one of those tall men in sunglasses, like the one that had winked at me before.

I put my sandwich down. “For your information, my father is a good man. You are a liar and a mischief maker.”

I expected the man to be affronted, but he only smiled.

He leaned back in his seat, folding his arm across his chest. “So, you can see us. Interesting.”

I leaned over the table glaring at him, lowering my own pair of shaded spectacles to look at him directly. “Yeah, I can see you—you over grown imp. But why are you talking to me? Up until now all you guys have ever done is run off when I point you out.”

He gave a loud sniff as if the conversation wasn’t worth his time. “Well, what did you expect? We tempt people—not actually converse with them. You are the first to actually see us, little Miss Orange Eyes.”

A nearby waiter whispered to a waitress a little too loudly for me to miss hearing his remarks. “Is she nuts? Who’s she talking to?”

I shifted in my seat.

The tall imp laughed. “Don’t you see now? You make yourself a great target for fun just by acting so out-of-the-ordinary. Personally, I’d love to see you humiliate yourself. Such is just delicious fun.”

My fists clenched under the table.

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you,” he added, scooting back with a smirk of enjoyment on his face. “You are already considered a freak by all these people here. Can’t you hear them?”

I most certainly could. Their imps were already coaxing them to call me rude names to my face.

I stood up slowly and calmly, closing my eyes. When I got to my feet, I looked at this imp, face to face. He grinned at me with a certain level of triumph. I tipped my sunglasses back onto my face, set money on the