A little girl, ill to a point near death, lies alone in her room. She lies quietly on her bed, unmoving but awake, contemplating the moment as well as what is to come. Having long ago learned control of herself, she does not fear her fate. The girl looks up, and sees a shadow of a man by the window. She calls to him, but he will not show himself. She begs him to keep her company, but he stays just out of sight, tantalizingly close and yet never in full view.
The girl's mother longs to go in and comfort her daughter, tell her stories, keep her company, but the doctor has told her she cannot. The girl must be kept calm at all costs. If anything should happen to cause her to become excited, she will die. When the mother enters the room to administer another dose of medicine, she is told about the man by the window. She tells her daughter it was just a dream, but when she goes over to the window she can see that someone has been there. Frightened, she asks the doctor who it could have been. She answers her own question, drawing on what she knows in her heart to be true.
"Shadow of the Wings" is a deeply emotional story. Touching upon the foundations of life and death, it examines the thin line that separates the two. The penetrating themes, as well as the characters themselves, are deeply tied to Easter. Above all, the story is a celebration of life.
I will say to you -- be not afraid.
Azriel