Shadows

Jacob pedaled hard, steering his bike down the center of the street away from the shadows. The street lamps dropped successive pools of light and he darted into, and out of, each sanctuary on his path. The newspaper shack was two miles away.

The early morning was quiet enough for him to hear his bike's knobby tires hum along the pavement. The sound was reassuring, constant. Two days earlier a woman had been raped in the park three blocks to the east. Things like that happen in the shadows. He rose from his saddle, adjusted the newspaper sacks over his right shoulder, and pumped his legs vigorously.

There was nothing to be afraid of; he had never seen anyone along this route at this hour. During the daylight hours there were children on this street, playing in their front yards, sitting in wading pools splashing and giggling. Old ladies sat on their front porches sipping iced tea in the early afternoon. The Johnsons lived in the house on the corner. The Stenegas two houses down from there. Jacob slowed his bike and turned east on Lake Street. It was a business district and brightly lit. He coasted to catch his breath and turned north onto Chicago Avenue heading over the bridge across the railroad tracks. The newspaper shack was a small tin building overlooking the tracks. He could see the light shining through its bare window as he crossed the bridge. Danny's car was parked in the weeds along the side of the shack.

"Yo, Jake!" Danny said as Jacob rode up. "An early bird this morning. How ya doing, buddy?"

"Fine," Jacob answered. He parked his bike and headed inside. Danny was leafing through slips of pink and blue paper as Jacob entered the shack.

"Let's see, no stop orders, no start orders, no bitch slips. That means no fines buddy boy, and 128 papers, same as yesterday." Danny lifted the papers onto a wooden bench. Jake gathered his bundles and moved across the room to sit by the pot bellied stove. He folded the papers into thirds and wrapped a rubber band around each so he could throw them from his bike. He would start his route once the light filled the sky. "So, how long you had your route, Jake?" Danny was sitting on the bench across from Jacob, his hands resting on his knees.

"A little over two years," Jake said.

"Two years? That about makes you senior carrier doesn't it?"

"Bobby started two months before I did," Jacob said. He folded his papers carefully.

"Yeah, well Bobby turned in his notice this morning," Danny said, "so I guess that makes you senior carrier."

"Bobby quit?" Jacob seemed surprised.

"Yeah, well, we've had quite a few carriers give notice the last few weeks," Danny said. He slapped his knees with both hands and rose from the bench. His shadow spread across Jacob's torso and Jacob felt his chest muscles tighten.

"You're not gonna quit on me now are ya Jake?" Danny looked directly at Jacob.

"No," Jacob said. He felt nauseous, light headed.

"God, I hope not!" Danny said. He forced a laugh. "I'm short three carriers already. Bobby makes four."

"I won't quit," Jacob said. "I need the money for school stuff." He finished folding his papers and arranged them in his bags. The morning sun filled the little window in the east wall and spread its light across Jacob's face. "Did Bobby say why he was quitting?"

"No," Danny said. "Same as the others, I imagine. Actually he didn't say a lot. He rode up in his Dad's car, collected his papers, and said today was his last day."

"His mom probably made him stop," Jacob said. "She was pretty upset." He lifted his bags onto his shoulders and headed out into the sunlight. Danny followed him out.

"Yeah, well, I can't blame them," Danny said. "It upsets me, too."

Jake hoisted his papers onto his bike. He spread the shoulder strap of one bag over the high rise handle bars, resting the papers between the bars facing the front. The second bag he arranged in the same manner with the bag facing his chest. "I heard they found the kid yesterday," Jacob said.

"Yeah, I heard that too." Danny stood by the doorway as Jacob mounted his bike.

"I wonder how long he'd been in the water?"

"Two months is what I read." Danny said. "It's in this morning's paper. I was reading it before you showed up. Said he was dead before he was thrown in the river. There wasn't any water in his lungs. They found his papers the day he disappeared sitting neat as could be half way through his route."

"I hope they catch whoever did it," Jacob said. He felt sad.

"Me too," Danny said.

"Listen, if you don't want any service errors you'd better get going. It's after six."

Jacob rode away. There were cars on the streets and the morning sunlight had replaced the light from the street lamps. He pedaled hard anyway.