Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on the boy without a shadow. ” Michael was immediately frightened and troubled upon hearing this truth about himself. The first thought that comes into his mind is that he would not be allowed or would be unwise to go out of the house. He cannot have friends. How will he go to school? How will he eventually earn something for himself? Michael decides to go out only during the night and he will try to avoid getting in front of or under a light. One night, the faith healer Malik visited him. He told Michael, “As far as I know, people who do not have a shadow are children of the dark. In your case, I hope this is not true. Oh dear Lord, please have mercy on this boy!” Michael often peeks outside their window to look at the people passing by their house. He patiently waits for Emily, the beautiful maiden who just simply takes his breath away every time she passes by. “I have to talk with Emily. I have to tell her how I truly feel about her. Perhaps she will reciprocate my love for her,” uttered Michael to himself. However, along with the deep affection is the overwhelming anxiety. “How will I be able to support the woman I love if I am a locked out, if I am a prisoner of a dark secret? What if my dark secret is revealed to the world? Will she still learn to love me?” But the truth is Michael is a very good boy. There is no hint of evilness in him. Instead of going to school he reads the books his mother brings home. His passionate love for books expanded his horizon and deepened his knowledge. He is the opposite of what Malik says about him being a child of the devil. Michael is a true believer in Christ and an obsessive reader and follower of the teachings of the Bible. He developed a deep, enduring love for the Lord. Every day and every night he browses and reads the Bible and other books, looking for an explanation for his strange condition. He found out in his research that in some Asian cultures a person without a shadow is a person who has no honor, no purpose in life, and no value for his fellow people. He found out in the Bible that the demon hides in the darkness and thus it has no shadow. He reads in Psalm 91:1, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty”. He reads in the Koran: “Say, ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak From the evil of that which He created And from the evil of darkness when it settles And from the evil of the blowers in knots And from the evil of an envier when he envies.” One time he stumbled upon the story of Hans Christian Andersen. According to the story, the shadow of an intelligent and rich man abandoned him. After many years the shadow came back with the appearance of a real human being. They became rivals for the heart of a very beautiful princess. The shadow said, “I will let you have the princess, I will stop courting her in one condition. I will be the possessor and you will be the shadow.” Michael’s mother, Rosalinda, is a fortune-teller. Whether she really possesses the power to see the future or just pretending to be a clairvoyant is uncertain. She performs fortune telling in the big plaza of the city, in front of a large church which became known as the main site of fortune telling. Rosalinda goes there every day to inform people about their future through a deck of cards or a crystal ball. Her customers are those who are uncertain and anxious about their future. Her husband left her.