Twenty-Four Shadows

Tanya J Peterson

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Chapter 1

“Daddy!” With a running leap, Dominic hurled himself at the man entering the backyard.

 
“Hey, who’s this?” Isaac struggled to catch both the little boy and his own balance. Dominic giggled gleefully.

 
“Daddy, it’s me! Dominic. Here, I axident’ly knocked off your glasses, but I catched them. I’ll put ’em back on so you can see me.” Sticky fingers clutching the lenses rather than the frame, Dominic shoved the glasses hard onto Isaac’s face. “There. Is that better? Can you see me now?”

 
“Maybe it’s time to switch to contacts, man. Might even give you half a chance against me on the tennis court.” Max slapped Isaac lightly on the back as he brushed past him and strode into the yard.

 
Isaac rolled his eyes at his best friend’s retreating back and adjusted his glasses with his free hand. “Yes, Tiger, it’s better now. Thank you.” Isaac whooshed his son into the air and studied him. “I can see you, and I can see that you’re already dressed. It’s only eight o’clock. What’s the hurry? Is it a special day or something?”

 

He swung Dominic back down toward him and held him close as he walked toward Max and the two women standing in the middle of the yard.

 
“Daddy! Did you forget? It’s my birthday today and I’m having a big party and me, you, and Max are gonna make an obstacle course so let’s get to it!” Dominic wriggled loose and jumped down to the ground.

 

“C’mon!”

 
Isaac laughed. “Of course I remember. I need some time to change and talk party stuff with Mommy. Can you play in your sandbox for a while? I won’t take long, I promise.”

 

He bit his lip to keep from laughing as he watched Dominic huff out a breath of air and cross his arms tightly over his chest, then pucker the muscles of his face together in the expression that Isaac always joked was his look of either deep concentration or serious constipation.

 
“Maybe. Can I use the hose?”

 
“It’s your birthday, right?” Dominic nodded vigorously. Isaac noted that Dominic’s arms remained folded across his chest. Clearly, his son meant business. Isaac couldn’t help it; he laughed. “Well, then of course we’ll let you use the hose.”

 
“Yes!” Dominic loosened his arms and pumped a fist in victory. Isaac watched him run off. An almost-overwhelming feeling of love swelled inside of him, beginning in his chest and radiating up to his head and down to his toes.

 
“Hey, Tiger?” He waited until Dominic turned in his direction. “Happy birthday.”

 
“Thanks, Daddy. I’m five today!” He raised a hand, all five fingers outstretched, into the air and in one graceful motion swooped down to pick up the hose.

Twenty-Four Shadows Description:

In her eye-opening and heartrending fourth novel, award winning author Tanya J. Peterson takes us inside the anguished mind of Isaac Bittman—an average family man whose mysterious and progressively violent mood swings, many of which he cannot remember, begin to unravel the lives of those closest to him.

 

After a series of bizarre encounters, including losing his job and waking up half-dead in the wilds of Idaho, he begins treatment at a revolutionary mental health facility, where the childhood trauma he’s repressed for decades leads to revelations that his personality has splintered into twenty-four shadows, or “alters.” The novel intricately weaves together Isaac’s internal angst and his wife’s and best friend’s struggles to retain both a private and public semblance of normalcy.

 

Stark and realistically rendered, Twenty-four Shadows delves into the thought processes and erratic habits of a regular man dealing with life-altering mental illness, providing an empathetic, insightful glimpse into a misunderstood and often stereotyped condition.

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