| September 2005 Winner: Carol Gandolfo, The
Shadow
Honorable Mention: Paul Halewijn, All
Fall Down
Honorable Mention: Dr. Joyce Wheeler, Shadow
Sibling
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October
Honorable Mention
Shadow Sibling
by Dr. Joyce Wheeler
Mom insisted that, when a toddler, I chatted and
giggled with an imaginary playmate. Apparently, I created an exclusive babble
language and Mom had never been able to crack its code except for my word
for her, which was “Ooom-ma-moom.” Mother was wrong. My playmate
was not imaginary and continues to remain nearby.
Family
movies reveal me running toward the ocean with two shadows sliding across the
sands. Filming of my ballet class shows a shadow pirouetting toward the wall
and sliding up it. While walking tops of the white fencing, her shadow skips
below me on the flat of the fence and shadows simply don’t
behave in that fashion.
I recall walking to elementary
school crunching leaves and hearing missed leaves crunching behind me. I
avoided looking so I wouldn’t step on
a crack and break my dear mother’s back.
Later
I was possessed on my honeymoon bed and we sounded like a profane creature
in heat. I channeled her while she scratched my husband’s
back until it was bloody. He had been astonished yet seemed ominously gratified.
Therefore,
it was not too revelatory for me when my mother admitted I had been born
a twin but my sibling had not “made it.” Mom said my
twin had a tail, as did I, but my cartilage extension had been quietly snipped
off. The doctor said he did that for one out of every ten infants – but
mom never did tell my evangelist paternal grandmother about that!
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