Rayan and the Shadow That Grew and Shrank

Rayan lived in a house with a sunny courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard there was a small fountain, and all around it were pots of mint, geraniums, and a little orange tree. The floor was made of smooth pale tiles, warm under bare feet.

One morning, Rayan stepped out into the courtyard with a piece of toast in his hand. The sun had just come up over the wall. And there, stretched out across the tiles, was a long, thin, dark shape.

It had a head. It had arms. It had legs that went on and on, almost all the way to the fountain.

Rayan waved. The shape waved back.

"It's my shadow!" he said. "But it's so tall!"

He stood on his tiptoes, and the shadow grew even taller. He crouched down, and the shadow became a round little lump. He hopped, and the shadow hopped with him.

His big sister Lubna came outside with a bucket of chalk. She was nine and knew lots of things.

"Lubna," said Rayan, "look how tall my shadow is. It's taller than Baba!"

Lubna looked. "It is very long," she agreed. "But wait until lunchtime. It will be different."

"Different how?" asked Rayan.

Lubna smiled a mysterious smile. "You'll have to find out."

Rayan did not like waiting to find out. He wanted to know right now. But Lubna had an idea.

"Let's draw it," she said. She handed him a piece of blue chalk. "Stand right here, on this tile with the star pattern. Don't move. I'll trace around your shadow."

Rayan stood very still on the star tile. Lubna crawled along the floor, drawing a blue line all around the long, thin shadow. It took a long time, because the shadow was so long. When she finished, there was a tall blue chalk person lying on the courtyard floor.

"Now we'll see what happens," said Lubna. And she wrote a little sun next to it, low down near the wall, to show it was morning.

Rayan played all morning. He helped Mama water the mint. He floated a leaf boat in the fountain. But every little while, he ran back to the star tile to check on his shadow.

Each time he stood there, something was different.

The shadow was getting shorter.

At first, it only reached halfway to the fountain. Then it reached only to the pot of geraniums. It seemed to be shrinking, little by little, like a puddle drying in the sun.

"Lubna!" he called. "My shadow is getting smaller. Is something wrong with it?"

"Nothing's wrong," said Lubna. "Keep watching."

At lunchtime, the sun was high in the sky, right above the courtyard. It was hot, and the tiles were warm. Rayan stood on the star tile.

He looked down. His shadow was tiny! It was just a small dark puddle right around his feet. It barely had a head at all.

"Where did it go?" he cried.

Lubna traced around this one too, in green chalk. It was a very quick drawing. Next to it, she drew a sun high up in the sky.

"When the sun is low, shadows are long," she explained. "When the sun is high, right over your head, shadows are short. Because the light comes down from straight above you."

Rayan thought about this as he ate his lunch of rice and lentils. He kept looking out of the window at the sunny courtyard.

"Lubna," he said, "will my shadow stay small forever now?"

Lubna laughed. "What do you think? You're the shadow scientist."

After lunch, Rayan had a little rest. Then he went out into the courtyard again. The air was softer now. The sun had moved across the sky and was sinking toward the other wall.

He stood on the star tile.

His shadow was growing again! But this time, it was stretching out in a completely different direction, the opposite way from the morning. It reached toward the little orange tree instead of the fountain.

"It's growing on the other side!" said Rayan. "It moved!"

"Because the sun moved," said Lubna. "In the morning, the sun was over there." She pointed to one wall. "Now it's over there." She pointed to the other. "The shadow always points away from the sun."

Rayan was amazed. He pointed at the sun, then at his shadow, then at the sun again. "So the sun and my shadow are like a seesaw," he said. "When one is on one side, the other is on the other side."

"That's a very good way to say it," said Lubna.

She gave him the orange chalk. "You can draw this one yourself," she said.

Rayan could not trace his own shadow without moving, so Lubna stood on the star tile instead, and he traced her shadow. It was long and thin, just like his morning shadow had been, but it pointed the other way, toward the orange tree. Rayan drew a sun next to it, low near the other wall.

When Baba came home from work, Rayan ran to meet him at the door.

"Baba, come and see! I'm a shadow scientist!"

Baba came out into the courtyard. On the warm tiles, there were three chalk shadows: a long blue one pointing toward the fountain, a tiny green one in the middle, and a long orange one pointing toward the orange tree. Next to each one was a little sun.

"Morning, lunchtime, and afternoon," said Rayan proudly. "The sun moves across the sky, and the shadow moves the other way. When the sun is low, the shadow is long. When the sun is high, the shadow is tiny."

Baba whistled. "You worked all that out today?"

"Lubna helped," said Rayan. "But I watched it all by myself."

That evening, when the sun had gone and the first stars came out, Rayan stood on the star tile one last time. He looked down. There was no shadow at all.

"Goodnight, shadow," he whispered. "See you in the morning."

And the next morning, when the sun peeped over the wall, there it was again, long and thin, waving hello.