A Protecting Shadow

Witness: Dorothy
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Date of Encounter: Feruary 20, 1992

I was 19 years old and had just moved with my boyfriend to a new state where I knew no one. We moved in to an upscale apartment in a good part of the city where nothing bad ever seemed to happen. He still had obligations back home and would have to be out of town for a couple of days at a time. When he would leave, there would be footsteps up and down the front steps all night long. Then while he was putting away books in the house there was a stack against the wall, they laid over in the floor — they didn't fall everywhere, just laid over. Since he was gone he was sure I was making it up.

One night we were sitting in the living room watching a movie and I felt a hand run up the middle of my back. I quietly asked that it stop. After that incident I started asking questions about previous tenants in the apartments. The community housekeeper told me that in the building adjacent to ours within the year before we moved in, a young police officer had been killed in the line of duty. He was on the verge of getting married — according to the story she was apparently about my age. Well my boyfriend and I split up but stayed on good terms. Several months later he wanted to know how I would feel if he told me he now believed me. I was shocked. He said that while shaving he looked up and saw the shadow of a man behind him in the doorway after I had moved out.

"Tony" never appeared to him again but has remained a constant presence with me. I have moved numerous times and my "shadow" remains with me to watch over and protect. I hope he always will.