The Shadow
Darkness comes late in this part of the world. While the rest of Asia blossom like fluorescent mushrooms, here, one can still feel the shuffling of the sun’s rays at 7 pm. A wandering tourist would easily mistake the hour to be around 4 pm if he doesn’t consult his watch. In that aspect, this place is so much different from my hometown. At that hour smoke can already be seen wafting out from small houses preparing their dinner and into the darkness. Lights will have started coming out of kerosene lamps and makeshift fluorescent bulbs attached to electric posts. Families will have gathered in the sala watching TV waiting for dinner to be served.
When darkness descends here, it descends quickly; engulfing this little city with its arms, almost grabbing it. Night time is the most difficult part of the day. Nothing heightens a man’s loneliness than the elongated shadows that darkness brings. Sometimes I try to mitigate this loneliness by going online, but in a world that’s supposedly brought closer by technology, at no other point in time have I felt more removed from the community of men than when I am in front of the computer, banging away at the keyboards.
Some folks would rather seek the solace of alcohol to the cold, artificial comfort of technology. Strangers like me who have uprooted their lives from different parts of the world to work here will have already positioned themselves in bars, sipping their drinks to cloud their minds. It is not unheard of for an employee to make a side trip to his favorite bar everyday after work before going home. An empty apartment is too much to bear; a lucid mind is too treacherous if left to its own devices. A slightly inebriated mind however would readily welcome slumber with open arms.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Perhaps its true that only The Shadow knows, but this is not a comic book story nor is this a movie; this is reality– and around here shadows are chased away by those brave enough and avoided like the plague by those who can’t stand the dark.
