Let's Get Invisible (2 page)

“Could we go now?” April asked impatiently. She started back toward the
stairway.

“Look at these old magazines,” Erin exclaimed, ignoring her. She picked one
up and started flipping through it. “Check this out. The clothes these models
are wearing are a riot!”

“Hey—what’s Whitey doing?” Lefty asked suddenly.

I followed his gaze to the far wall. Behind a tall stack of cartons, I could
see Whitey’s tail wagging. And I could hear him scratching furiously at
something.

“Whitey—come!” I commanded.

Of course he ignored me. He began scratching harder.

“Whitey, what are you scratching at?”

“Probably pulling a mouse apart,” Lefty suggested.

“I’m outta here!” April exclaimed.

“Whitey?” I called. Stepping around an old dining room table, I made my way
across the cluttered attic. I quickly saw that he was scratching at the bottom
of a door.

“Hey, look,” I called to the others. “Whitey found a hidden door.”

“Cool!” Erin cried, hurrying over. Lefty and April were right behind.

“I didn’t know this was up here,” I said.

“We’ve got to check it out,” Erin urged. “Let’s see what’s on the other
side.”

And that’s when the trouble all began.

You can understand why I say it was all Whitey’s fault, right? If that dumb
dog hadn’t started sniffing and scratching there, we might never have found the
hidden attic room.

And we never would have discovered the exciting—and frightening—secret
behind that wooden door.

“Whitey!” I knelt down and pulled the dog away from the door. “What’s your
problem, doggie?”

As soon as I moved him aside, Whitey lost all interest in the door. He
trotted off and started sniffing another corner. Talk about your short attention
span. But I guess that’s the difference between dogs and people.

The rain continued to pound down, a steady roar just above our heads. I could
hear the wind whistling around the corner of the house. It was a real spring
storm.

The door had a rusted latch about halfway up. It slid off easily, and the
warped wooden door started to swing open before I even pulled at it.

The door hinges squeaked as I pulled the door toward me, revealing solid
darkness on the other side.

Before I had gotten the door open halfway, Lefty scooted under me and darted
into the dark room.

“A
dead body
!” he shrieked.

“Noooo!” April and Erin both cried out with squeals of terror.

But I knew Lefty’s dumb sense of humor. “Nice try, Lefty,” I said, and
followed him through the doorway.

Of course he was just goofing.

I found myself in a small, windowless room. The only light came from the pale
yellow ceiling light behind us in the center of the attic.

“Push the door all the way open so the light can get in,” I instructed Erin.
“I can’t see a thing in here.”

Erin pushed open the door and slid a carton over to hold it in place. Then
she and April crept in to join Lefty and me.

“It’s too big to be a closet,” Erin said, her voice sounding even squeakier
than usual. “So what is it?”

“Just a room, I guess,” I said, still waiting for my eyes to adjust to the
dim light.

I took another step into the room. And as I did, a dark figure stepped toward
me.

I screamed and jumped back.

The other person jumped back, too.

“It’s a mirror, dork!” Lefty said, and started to laugh.

Instantly, all four of us were laughing. Nervous, high-pitched laughter.

It
was
a mirror in front of us. In the pale yellow light filtering into the small, square room, I could see it clearly now.

It was a big, rectangular mirror, about two feet taller than me, with a dark
wood frame. It rested on a wooden base.

I moved closer to it and my reflection moved once again to greet me. To my
surprise, the reflection was clear. No dust on the glass, despite the fact that
no one had been in here in ages.

I stepped in front of it and started to check out my hair.

I mean, that’s what mirrors are for, right?

“Who would put a mirror in a room all by itself?” Erin asked. I could see her
dark reflection in the mirror, a few feet behind me.

“Maybe it’s a valuable piece of furniture or something,” I said, reaching
into my jeans pocket for my comb. “You know. An antique.”

“Did your parents put it up here?” Erin asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe it belonged to my grandparents. I just
don’t know.” I ran the comb through my hair a few times.

“Can we go now? This isn’t too thrilling,” April said. She was still
lingering reluctantly in the doorway.

“Maybe it was a carnival mirror,” Lefty said, pushing me out of the way and
making faces into the mirror, bringing his face just inches from the glass. “You
know. One of those fun house mirrors that makes your body look like it’s shaped like an egg.”

“You’re already shaped like an egg,” I joked, pushing him aside. “At least,
your head is.”

“You’re a
rotten
egg,” he snapped back. “You stink.”

I peered into the mirror. I looked perfectly normal, not distorted at all.
“Hey, April, come in,” I urged. “You’re blocking most of the light.”

“Can’t we just leave?” she asked, whining. Reluctantly, she moved from the
doorway, taking a few small steps into the room. “Who cares about an old mirror,
anyway?”

“Hey, look,” I said, pointing. I had spotted a light attached to the top of
the mirror. It was oval-shaped, made of brass or some other kind of metal. The
bulb was long and narrow, almost like a fluorescent bulb, only shorter.

I gazed up at it, trying to figure it out in the dim light. “How do you turn
it on, I wonder.”

“There’s a chain,” Erin said, coming up beside me.

Sure enough, a slender chain descended from the right side of the lamp,
hanging down about a foot from the top of the mirror.

“Wonder if it works,” I said.

“The bulb’s probably dead,” Lefty remarked. Good old Lefty. Always an
optimist.

“Only one way to find out,” I said. Standing on tiptoes, I stretched my hand up to the chain.

“Be careful,” April warned.

“Huh? It’s just a light,” I told her.

Famous last words.

I reached up. Missed. Tried again. I grabbed the chain on the second try and
pulled.

The light came on with a startlingly bright flash. Then it dimmed down to
normal light. Very white light that reflected brightly in the mirror.

“Hey—that’s better!” I exclaimed. “It lights up the whole room. Pretty
bright, huh?”

No one said anything.

“I
said,
pretty bright, huh?”

Still silence from my companions.

I turned around and was surprised to find looks of horror on all three faces.

“Max?” Lefty cried, staring hard at me, his eyes practically popping out of
his head.

“Max—where are you?” Erin cried. She turned to April. “Where’d he go?”

“I’m right here,” I told them. “I haven’t moved.”

“But we can’t see you!”
April cried.

All three of them were staring in my direction with their eyes bulging and
looks of horror still on their faces. But I could tell they were goofing.

“Give me a break, guys,” I said. “I’m not as stupid as I look. No way I’m
falling for your dumb joke.”

“But, Max—” Lefty insisted. “We’re
serious
!”

“We can’t see you!” Erin repeated.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Suddenly, the light started to hurt my eyes. It seemed to grow brighter. It
was shining right in my face.

Shielding my eyes with one hand, I reached up with the other hand and pulled
the chain.

The light went out, but the white glare stayed with me. I tried to blink it
away, but I still saw large bright spots before my eyes.

“Hey—you’re back!” Lefty cried. He stepped up and grabbed my arm and
squeezed it, as if he were testing it, making sure I was real or something.

“What’s your problem?” I snapped. I was starting to get angry. “I didn’t fall
for your dumb joke, Lefty. So why keep it up?”

To my surprise, Lefty didn’t back away. He held onto my arm as if he were
afraid to let go.

“We weren’t joking, Max,” Erin insisted in a low voice. “We really couldn’t
see you.”

“It must have been the light in the mirror,” April said. She was pressed
against the wall next to the doorway. “It was so bright. I think it was just an
optical illusion or something.”

“It
wasn’t
an optical illusion,” Erin told her. “I was standing right
next to Max. And I couldn’t see him.”

“He was invisible,” Lefty added solemnly.

I laughed. “You guys are trying to scare me,” I said. “And you’re doing a
pretty good job of it!”

“You scared
us
!” Lefty exclaimed. He let go of my arm and stepped up
to the mirror.

I followed his gaze. “There I am,” I said, pointing to my reflection. A
strand of hair was poking up in back of my head. I carefully slicked it down.

“Let’s get out of here,” April pleaded.

Lefty started to toss his softball up, studying himself in the mirror.

Erin made her way around to the back of the mirror. “It’s too dark back here.
I can’t see anything,” she said.

She stepped around to the front and stared up at the oval-shaped lamp on top.
“You disappeared as soon as you pulled the chain on that lamp.”

“You’re really serious!” I said. For the first time I began to believe they
weren’t joking.

“You were invisible, Max,” Erin said. “Poof. You were gone.”

“She’s right,” Lefty agreed, tossing the softball up and catching it,
admiring his form in the mirror.

“It was just an optical illusion,” April insisted. “Why are you guys making
such a big deal about it?”

“It
wasn’t
!” Erin insisted.

“He clicked on the light. Then he disappeared in a flash,” Lefty said. He
dropped the softball. It bounced loudly on the hardwood floor, then rolled
behind the mirror.

He hesitated for a few seconds. Then he went after it, diving for the ball in
the darkness. A few seconds later, he came running back.

“You really were invisible, Max,” he said.

“Really,” Erin added, staring hard at me.

“Prove it,” I told them.

“Let’s
go
!” April pleaded. She had moved to the doorway and was
standing half in, half out of the room.

“What do you mean
prove it
!” Erin asked, talking to my dark reflection
in the mirror.

“Show me,” I said.

“You mean do what you did?” Erin asked, turning to talk to the real me.

“Yeah,” I said. “You go invisible, too. Just like I did.”

Erin and Lefty stared at me. Lefty’s mouth dropped open.

“This is dumb,” April called from behind us.

“I’ll do it,” Lefty said. He stepped up to the mirror.

I pulled him back by the shoulders. “Not you,” I said. “You’re too young.”

He tried to pull out of my grasp, but I held onto him. “How about you, Erin?”
I urged, wrapping my arms around Lefty’s waist to keep him back from the mirror.

She shrugged. “Okay. I’ll try, I guess.”

Lefty stopped struggling to get away. I loosened my grip a little.

We watched Erin step up in front of the mirror. Her reflection stared back at
her, dark and shadowy.

She stood on tiptoes, reached up, and grabbed the lamp chain. She glanced
over at me and smiled. “Here goes,” she said.

The chain slipped from Erin’s hand.

She reached up and grabbed it again.

She was just about to tug at it when a woman’s voice interrupted from
downstairs. “Erin! Are you up there? April?”

I recognized the voice. Erin’s mom.

“Yeah. We’re up here,” Erin shouted. She let go of the chain.

“Hurry down. We’re late!” her mom called. “What are you doing up in the
attic, anyway?”

“Nothing,” Erin called down. She turned to me and shrugged.

“Good. I’m
outta
here!” April exclaimed, and hurried to the stairway.

We all followed her down, clumping noisily down the creaking wooden stairs.

“What were you doing up there?” my mom asked when we were all in the living
room. “It’s so dusty in that attic. It’s a wonder you’re not filthy.”

“We were just hanging out,” I told her.

“We were playing with an old mirror,” Lefty said. “It was kind of neat.”

“Playing with a mirror?” Erin’s mom flashed my mom a bewildered glance.

“See you guys,” Erin said, pulling her mom to the door. “Great party, Max.”

“Yeah. Thanks,” April added.

They headed out the front door. The rain had finally stopped. I stood at the
screen door and watched them step around the puddles on the walk as they made
their way to the car.

When I turned back into the living room, Lefty was tossing the softball up to
the ceiling, trying to catch it behind his back. He missed. The ball bounced up
from the floor onto an end table, where it knocked over a large vase of tulips.

What a crash!

The vase shattered. Tulips went flying. All the water poured down onto the
carpet.

Mom tossed up her hands and said something silently up to the sky, the way
she always does when she’s very pushed out of shape about something.

Then she really got on Lefty’s case. She started screaming: “How many times
do I have to tell you not to throw that ball in the house?” Stuff like that. She
kept it up for quite a while.

Lefty shrank into a corner and tried to make himself tinier and tinier. He
kept saying he was sorry, but Mom was yelling so loud, I don’t think she heard him.

I bet Lefty wanted to be invisible right at that moment.

But he had to stand and take his punishment.