The Shadow People

The Shadow People

On the Stone Steps Lila made a penguin shadow puppet dance on the steps. She called out to Emma and Rob to come see, but they were too busy working on the group project. Lila's class was on a field trip at the zoo. Emma and Rob were in Lila's group. They had decided to do their report on penguins. Emma was taking photographs of the birds, while Rob was writing down some information about them from a sign. Lila was sitting on the stone steps next to the penguin area. She was trying to compose a poem about penguins but became distracted making penguin shadow puppets. That's when Lila noticed another school group pass by. To her surprise, these children did not have shadows!

In the Reptile House Lila knew a lot about shadows. She had studied light in science class. A shadow happens when something blocks sunlight. Trees cast shadows. People cast shadows. But these people did not. Why? Lila wanted to find out. She followed the other school group into the reptile house. It was dark and creepy inside. Lila heard the voices of children but could not see anyone. It seemed the children from the other school had disappeared!

Lila fled the reptile house and went back to her spot on the stone steps. How strange, she thought. Those people had no shadows, and then they disappeared into the dark. She was about to tell Rob and Emma when she saw the strange school group walk out of the reptile house. No one will believe me, thought Lila. She decided to keep her thoughts to herself. But she couldn't take her eyes off the strange group.

The Hypercube " Hey, Lila, " called Emma. “ Are you done with your poem, yet?" Lila quickly scribbled down a few lines and then leapt up to join her classmates. As she hurried toward them, she noticed something shiny on the ground. Lila picked up the shiny object. It was a pendant on a chain. The pendant was a peculiar shape. She had never seen anything like it before. " Wow, " said Rob. He was standing next to Lila looking at the pendant. " That's cool! "

" It's a hypercube, " added Emma. " What's a hypercube?" asked Lila. “ A hypercube is a four-dimensional object, " said Emma. " But I thought there were only three dimensions of space, " said Lila. “ There are on our planet, but some people think there may be other worlds with more than three. We typically can't see things that have four dimensions. The hypercube should be invisible to us. "