The Shop That Picks Up Shadows

On a back street a little ways from the station, there is an old sign that reads "Shadow Shop."

The wooden door is marked "Lost and Found," and
hanging from the eaves are old umbrellas, clocks, and single shoes.

However, what this shop deals in is not "lost items."
They say it deals in "dropped shadows."

—

On my way home from work, I stopped in my tracks,
and the old shopkeeper called out to me.

"You've dropped your shadow."

I gave a bitter smile.

"Can you really pick up a shadow?"

The old man nodded slowly.

"You see, whenever people have something they want to forget,
they leave a piece of their shadow behind.
The shadows they leave behind come here."

—

In the back of the shop, "shadows" of various sizes were lined up on shelves.

They were shaped like scraps of light-ink-colored cloth,
and when light hit them, the figure of their owner would emerge for just an instant.

The old man picked up one shadow.
"This one is from yesterday. It's a young woman's shadow.

It smells of tears."

—

I asked timidly,
"Then, could my own shadow... be here too?"
The old man pointed to the back of the shelf.

"It is.
The shadow of the 'dream you gave up on' two years ago.
It is still waiting for you."

—

The moment I received that shadow with trembling fingertips,
something deep in my chest suddenly came undone.

The pain I thought I had forgotten,
along with the warmth of the 'wish' that had certainly existed, came flooding in.

—

On my way home, I looked at my shadow illuminated by a streetlamp.

It was nestled right at my feet.

It felt a little darker, and a little warmer.

When I suddenly looked back, the light of the "Shadow Shop" was already out,

as if the shop had never been there at all.