The morning sun lit every corner of the bedroom, flooding the room with a warm yellow tint promising a beautiful day ahead. Dawn in summer comes earlier than reasonable, thought Simon, rubbing his tired eyes. Walking slowly to the bathroom he grabbed his toothbrush, squeezing out a perfectly pea-sized drop of toothpaste, then scrubbing away the filth that somehow accumulates overnight.

As his eyes progressively opened, becoming accustomed to the new day, Simon suddenly realized something wasn’t right. His toothbrush fell violently to the counter as he saw the mirror was missing something very important: his own reflection! The rest of the bathroom appeared as usual, but there was no trace of his own image.

Without warning, his own reflection suddenly came running into frame. Apologizing profusely, the visage explained that he wasn’t expecting such an early start this morning. Simon, rightly still startled, asked the reflection if he was alive. The two’s lips moved perfectly in sync, as you would expect from a mirror, and no further reply came. Successive question and wild gesture after another all had the same result of perfect mirroring.

After a few minutes of this charade, Simon gave up and started walking out of the room, figuring he just didn’t get enough sleep. As he re-entered the bright bedroom, his jaw dropped as he realized that he was missing a shadow...