When I got home to my teeny tiny apartment I could actually hear Garfield yowling behind the door. Garfield is a large orange tabby (just like the cartoon Garfield) and like his namesake, Garfield is entirely obsessed with food. I’ve had lots of cats and every cat I’ve had loved food and looked forward to mealtimes but this cat takes it to entirely new level.

Garfield watched me carefully as I opened a can of cat food (Chicken and Turkey tenders) and was already trying to bury his face in the bowl as I scooping out the contents. He grunted happily as he scarfed down his dinner.

With Garfield tended to, I found myself wondering about the bizarre conversation I had in the garage.

Whoever I spoke with clearly was not a little girl yet in some ways she sounded so naive, the way a child might sound. And I kept coming back to how the shadow looked human and yet not human at all. Perhaps someone with dwarfism? Her head was obscured by the hoody but there was something wrong with it. A deformity could explain that of course.

My mind wandered to some of the old conspiracy stories about the airport when it was first constructed. One of the best known is the story about the blue mustang sculpture you see as you drive into the airport. The sculpture, nicknamed “Blucifer” is 32-feet high and depicts a rearing stallion with glowing red eyes. Seriously, the eyes light up at night. The artist working on the sculpture actually died when a piece of the sculpture fell on him. A lot of native Denverites loathe the statue and there have been several campaigns to get rid of it. 

Is the statue cursed? Was the artist’s death some kind of human sacrifice? I don’t think so but I do think it’s ugly and creepy. 

And then there were stories about the airport built being built with extensive underground tunnels and chambers. One tunnel is said to be over 100 miles in length connecting Denver with the NORAD defense base beneath Cheyenne Mountain. According the conspiracy believers, the airport was actually built by an elite secret society known as the Illuminati and that when the apocalypse occurs, the illuminati and their families will live in this underground lair.

Which led me to another conspiracy story, the lizard people. There is a conspiracy story that the illuminati are actually beholden to alien lizard people. That all the real wealth and power in the world is controlled by these lizard people who hide underground in strategic bases around the world. Supposedly DIA is one of these places where the lizard people live. 

I’ve always immediately dismissed all these stories as the paranoid fabrications of gullible people but I keep coming back to this person I was speaking to. Her sibilant way of speaking, her strange, somewhat disturbing shadow. But she seemed anything but threatening. She seemed fearful, timid even. I wouldn’t expect a lizard princess master of the universe to behave in such a tentative way. She seemed, well, kind of lonely. 

As I drank a beer and watched the news I decided that if I saw my little shadow friend again I’d ask her some questions. 

Copyright © Judy Murdoch

Lizard Girl – 3