We pass them every day.
The bus driver who knows your stop before you ask.
The night janitor who polishes empty halls.
The guard who never sleeps, but no one remembers his name.
They are the shadows we step over-people unseen, unnoticed, invisible. Yet behind their silence lies a world as vivid and fragile as our own, sometimes heavier. Within their stories are the questions we fear to ask-and often, the answers we need most.
In this collection of ten interconnected stories, Regan Stemmers brings light to the overlooked: a bus driver haunted by small rituals, a school janitor who keeps more secrets than keys, a street sweeper who witnesses truths the rest of us miss. Each story pulls back the veil on ordinary lives, revealing quiet battles, small triumphs, and the kind of wisdom found only in the margins.
Tender, haunting, and sharply observant,
The Shadows We Step Over
reminds us that no life is ordinary-and that sometimes the people we ignore are the ones who see us most clearly.