Do we control our shadows, or do our shadows control us? And what if our shadows could do a better job of living our lives than we do? If so, could we somehow allow them to?
Jeff was down and out, a loner, a loser, struggling with life, essentially afraid of his own shadow—until one day, he noticed his shadow sometimes appeared to be doing its own thing, and not simply miming his own actions, movements—or seemingly, even his attitude.
Over time, his shadow became increasingly independent, and began showing Jeff—via shadow theater, cast on the ground before him—how to handle situations in his life in ways that were much more beneficial to him.
And that was just fine with Jeff…in fact, maybe he could just hand complete control of his life over to his shadow…?
A Bearable Darkness of Being is one of the stories included in author Rand Eastwood‘s dark fiction collection Rolling The Bones: 12 Tales of Life, Death, Loss, & Redemption—which, comprising 8 short stories, 3 novellas, and a short novel, is available in both trade paperback and hardcover.
Eastwood has said of this particular story:
“It quite unexpectedly became one of my favorite stories in the book [Rolling The Bones], exuding a sort of mysterious “Twilight Zone” atmosphere that I really like—somewhat different from much of my other work.”
A Bearable Darkness of Being is not available as a stand-alone single elsewhere, so we’ve published it in our Free Ebook Library, free to download! We hope you enjoy it!
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To check out all of Rand Eastwood’s books, visit Woodlands Press on Amazon, or visit his author website.






