A Shadow In the Corner Part One

I saw her there….A little girl, a baby really… so sad, so alone. How very much I wished to go to her, to comfort her and to hold her against my cold dead flesh. Yes….I am capable of compassion. I am even capable of love, although I do not give it freely. Standing there, I seem but a shadow to the mortals that come and go…yet this child ….this object of innocence seems to perceive me….seems to know who I am. She speaks to the darkness where I stand watching her, how very perceptive she was. Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation…. Yes… the song from Phantom of the Opera. The songs of that story are very appropriate when considering the events….She told me of her hopes, dreams, fears, confiding in me as a child normally would to a parent. When she was hurt, whether a scraped knee or a scraped heart, it was me, the shadow that heard of it. Her “parents”, and I use the word ironically, had no time for her. To them, she was a duty, an encumbrance, but I discovered I treasured every moment that was shared with me. The nights come and go. The weeks become months, become years and this girl grows. Pretty becomes lovely becomes beautiful. The child that trusted the shadow in the corner as a confidant grows into a young woman, and I realize I love her, and I always have. Sing once again with me, our strange duet….And so once when her heart was torn, and she felt she was dying inside, I could not stop myself…I sang to her. The child that I felt in my heart as my daughter had always known I was real…but this was a confirmation. I sang…softly to this beautiful child. I sang of darkness and of love. Of the love of a father for a daughter….but also that of lovers, for I am no mortal man, and the love of my heart cannot be categorized as others do. She froze unmoving, listening not only with her ears, but also with her spirit to the songs of my heart….of my soul. A blackness so profound that others would be repelled, yet she found a soft warmth there that comforted and entranced her. She found then a magical realm within my songs.