Godfrey's Guide

 the deep down hero of my youth:


THERE ONCE WAS A SHOW ON THE RADIO...
CALLED "THE SHADOW," WHICH FIRST went on the air in August of 1930 and remained being broadcast until the year of 1954.  By that time, Orson Welles  would open the show in his egg-shaped tones and deep-baritone voice with the words:  Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, the Shadow knows...


  ...Words which, to this very day, instantly sent shivers up my spine.  He was my ultimate hero:  A figure never seen, only heard, the invincible crime fighter who possessed many gifts which enabled him to overcome the enemy.  Besides his tremendous strength, he could defy gravity, speak any language, unscramble every code, and instantly become invisible with his ability to Cloud men's minds. 


  Along with his team of operatives, The Shadow battled his adversaries with chilling names like The Black Master and The King of Crimes, along with The Five  Chameleons  and, of course, the most evil archenemy of them all, the ghastly Red Menace.  There they were, with their with their hard-boiled faces and unflinching eyes, their fearful visions and apocalyptic solutions for the future of the world: The hostile self-styled opponents of The Shadow, desperate for a new enemy, only to be brought to their knees and cast into eternal darkness by an unlikely hero who was  invisible to the naked-eye.

  It mattered not to The Shadow that the vast majority of his enemies did not see the world as he saw it, nor did it seem to matter to him whether they could see him or not; with his  amazing knowledge of the entire human race, he vanquished them with his adeptness and sophistication and  suave savior fa ire; absolutely certain of his rectitude, totally free of doubt, equipped with an understanding of mankind that eluded all previous generations, he held true to his convictions no matter what the cost.  He simply labored on with revolutionary zeal, a zeal shaped by his belief in honesty and social justice, he rallied against inequity and corruption perpetrated against the innocent wherever it might be found, do whatever needed to be done in order to make it right. 


  But many did not believe him.  They had grander plans for themselves.  They wanted to impose their foul and corrupt vision on anyone who dared to stand in their way.  Behind the likes of The Red Menace and The Five Chameleons and the Black Master, lay the furious, fear-driven visions of how they would make their will the law of the land.  And the only one who stood in their way was, of course, The Shadow.  Obviously, in spite of the specifics, this great vague glob of pure evil would most certainly want The Shadow to be forever out of their way.  Their immense agitation was that it was based on one thing:  The great flaw in every plan that they seemed to conjure up was met with the mystery of how to find and then hunt down an invisible man?  


  Oddly enough, this never seem to deter them and they had no interest in giving up.  Absolutely certain in their quest, totally free of doubt, equipped with an unending misunderstanding of human beings in general, and of the power of The Shadow in particular, every solution they seemed to come up with ended in the nightmare of utter defeat...


  ...And yet, as I listened to the to the radio with my 12 year-old head beneath the pillow, I sometimes shook in horror at the mere thought of someone like The Red Menace or The Black Master or even The Five Chameleons silently slipping through my window on some foggy moonless night to do whatever dastardly deed that came to mind, while The Shadow was off elsewhere protecting some other neighborhood kid.


  Then one evening, as I was about to lay my head back on my pillow, I came up with a magical solution on how I would be able to vanquish any evil-doer who came my way.  

  It was quite simple.

  All I needed to do was find out where The Shadow lived, walk over to his house, give a loud knock on his door, then wait until the door came open, and even if I might not be able see him because he had clouded my mind, I could ask him if he could make me invisible too...

   ...The trouble with that was this...

  ...66 years later, I find that I am still trying to figure out not only where he lived or how I would have gotten there if I had found out, but also wonder if The Shadow could have actually seen me when I arrived because he had somehow granted me my wish and had already made me invisible before I even rapped on his door?