One morning, Leo woke up and the sun was already peeking curiously through his bedroom window. He quickly got dressed, brushed his teeth, and ran out into the yard, where the soft, green grass, still damp with morning dew, was waiting for him. He took a few steps and suddenly stopped. A very long, dark friend stretched out at his feet. It was his shadow, but today it was somehow different. It was enormous!
"Wow! Look at me, I'm a giant!" Leo laughed and stretched out his arms. His shadow giant did the same. Leo jumped, and the giant jumped with him. They started chasing each other around the yard. Leo ran as fast as he could, but the long shadow was always with him, as if it were glued to his heels. It danced with him, waved at him, and stretched far, far away, all the way to the garden fence.
"You're the longest shadow in the world!" Leo shouted cheerfully, trying to jump over it. It was impossible. Every time he jumped, his shadow jumped too.
After a while, his mom called him for breakfast. When he had eaten warm pancakes with jam and returned outside, something had changed. He looked at the ground and frowned. His shadow friend was gone. Well, not completely gone, but it was much, much smaller. It was just a little patch beneath his feet.
"Hello? Where did you hide?" Leo asked, looking around. "Don't you want to play giants anymore?"
Suddenly, a quiet, whispering voice came from under his sneakers. "But I do. I've just shrunk a little."
Leo stepped back in surprise. "You can talk?"
"Of course," the shadow whispered. "I mostly just listen, but it seemed like you needed an explanation."
Leo sat down on the grass and looked closely at the small, dark shape beneath him. "Why are you so small? You were huge this morning. Did you get tired from all that running?"
The shadow chuckled, which sounded like the gentle rustling of leaves. "I never get tired. My size doesn't depend on me, but on our great lamp in the sky."
"Lamp?" Leo wondered and looked up. Only the sun was shining in the sky. "You mean the Sun?"
"Exactly," the shadow replied. "Imagine the Sun is a giant flashlight. When it's low above the ground in the morning, it shines on you from the side. That's why I'm so long and stretched out. Like when you shine a flashlight on your hand in your room at night and a big monster appears on the wall."
Leo nodded. He had tried that before. It was fun.
"But now," the shadow continued, "it's almost noon. The Sun is almost directly above your head. It's shining on you from above, so I'm as short as I can be. I'm hiding right under you."
"Oh!" Leo blurted out. "So when the Sun is low again, you'll be long again?"
"Exactly! In the evening, when the Sun is setting on the other side, I will stretch out into the distance again, just on the opposite side as in the morning," the shadow explained. "We can watch it together if you want. We can become timekeepers!"
"Timekeepers?" Leo's eyes lit up. "How?"
"It's simple. Take a straight little stick and stick it here in the ground," the shadow instructed him.
Leo ran to the apple tree and found a nice straight twig underneath it. He stuck it into the soft earth in the middle of the lawn. The stick immediately cast a short shadow.
"Excellent," the shadow praised him. "Now, take a small white pebble and place it exactly where the stick's shadow ends."
Leo found a smooth white pebble and placed it at the end of the short shadow. "Done. And now what?"
"Now we will wait and watch. Every time you come outside, we'll see where the shadow has moved and how long it is. We can create our very own sundial!"
Leo was thrilled. He kept running back from his toys every few moments to check on the stick. After some time, he noticed that the shadow was indeed moving and slowly getting longer. He placed another pebble there, a grey one this time.
As evening approached and the sun sank towards the horizon, colored orange and pink, Leo ran back to their clock. The stick's shadow was now long, almost like his was in the morning. It pointed in the exact opposite direction.
"Look! You were right!" he exclaimed excitedly. "It's long again!"
"You see?" said his own shadow, which was once again stretching out behind him like a faithful companion. "And now look at our pebbles. We've created a little arc of time. We know when it was noon—that's where the white pebble and the shortest shadow are."
Leo knelt and traced the path the pebbles had marked with his finger. "So tomorrow, when the stick's shadow is by the white pebble again, I'll know it's time for lunch?"
"Exactly! You'll be able to tell the time just by the sun and the shadow. Without having to look at the clock in the kitchen," the shadow whispered proudly.
Leo smiled. It was no longer just his shadow. It was his friend, his partner in discovery, and his secret teacher. He raised his hand and waved. His long evening shadow waved back at him.
"Great, now we know how to do it!" Leo said. "Tomorrow, we'll set our alarm by the shadow!"
The next morning, right after breakfast, he checked his stick. The shadow was still long. He played in the garden, building a fort out of blankets, but he kept one eye on the shadow as it slowly shortened and traveled towards the white pebble. When it got close and was almost as short as it could be, Leo ran into the house.
"Mom! It's almost lunchtime, right?" he called out triumphantly.
His mom looked at the clock on the wall, surprised. "You're right, sweetie. It will be in a little while. How did you know?"
Leo just smiled mysteriously. "I have my ways," he said, and winked at his small, almost invisible shadow hiding at his feet. Together, they had discovered one of the world's oldest secrets. And it was the best game they had ever played.
And what about you, children? On your next walk, will you try to notice how long your shadow is? Maybe you, too, will figure out what time it is, just with the help of the sun.