I was walking around the exhibition hall when I noticed the shadow of a girl. While everyone else was amused listening to the exhibition guide, I was looking who was the girl with such a peculiar and vivid shadow. For a strange reason, I thought that the shadow had life in itself. Instead of contemplating the art exhibition, I was worried about seeing her without her parents. As I heard the words of the woman in front of me, my spine and chest suddenly started constricting my heart.

“I’m so glad children are not allowed in this exhibition. Last time…”, said the woman, and my ears became deaf to the rest of her words as I saw the girl’s shadow turning her head towards me. I desperately looked everywhere for the girl or the source of the shadow. The shadow was approaching, becoming bigger and bigger, step by step.

 Suddenly, the lights went off, I felt the small hand of an infant grabbing my hand, I felt how her arms and legs were climbing my body from behind. I anxiously tried to remove her with my arms or by kicking her, but as I tried to reach my back, she would swing with such ease to my front, and vice versa. I would swing my arms and legs with such haste as I tried to grab and throw her away that I would have appeared a lunatic dancing the second part of the Harlem shake.

I could hear her shy and infant chuckle as she had fun terrorizing me. She finally succeeded in piggybacking on me, and she hugged me with the strength of a formidable adult as if hugging her beloved possession for her dear life. I was nervously sweating. I felt her lips next to my right ear as she chuckled one more time before kissing it swiftly, followed by her chuckle on my left ear.

The lights turned back on. The shadow had disappeared. Everyone was in the art exhibition and someone made a comment about the lights being off  for a “couple of seconds”; although in my perspective, those few seconds had been an hour struggle with a fiend.

 No children were ever present at the art exhibition on that day…

I teach English in Taiwan and many children enjoy playing with me. I am their favorite teacher. I wish I had not been “the favorite one” on that day. It seems like the spirit of that girl presented certain attraction toward me.