The Year Without Shadows

On the first morning of spring, people stepped outside and noticed something impossible: nobody had a shadow. Not under streetlights, not beneath noon sun, not even in front of projector screens. At first it felt like a trick of weather, a peculiar atmospheric event that scientists would explain by lunch. But by nightfall, cats were hissing at empty corners, children were crying in rooms that looked normal, and old painters were standing in their studios…