Let's Get Invisible (3 page)

Then he and I helped clean up the mess.

A few minutes later, I saw him tossing the softball up in the living room
again.

That’s the thing about Lefty. He never learns.

I didn’t think about the mirror again for a couple of days. I got busy with
school and other stuff. Rehearsing for the spring concert. I’m only in the
chorus, but I still have to go to every rehearsal.

I saw Erin and April in school a lot. But neither of them mentioned the
mirror. I guess maybe it slipped their minds, too. Or maybe we all just shut it
out of our minds.

It was kind of scary, if you stopped to think about it.

I mean,
if
you believed what they said happened.

Then that Wednesday night I couldn’t get to sleep. I was lying there, staring
up at the ceiling, watching the shadows sway back and forth.

I tried counting sheep. I tried shutting my eyes real tight and counting
backwards from one thousand.

But I was really keyed up, for some reason. Not at all sleepy.

Suddenly I found myself thinking about the mirror up in the attic.

What was it doing up there? I asked myself. Why was it closed up in that
hidden room with the door carefully latched?

Who did it belong to? My grandparents? If so, why would they hide it in that
tiny room?

I wondered if Mom and Dad even knew it was up there.

I started thinking about what had happened on Saturday after my birthday
party. I pictured myself standing in front of the mirror. Combing my hair. Then
reaching for the chain. Pulling it. The flash of bright light as the lamp went
on. And then…

Did I see my reflection in the mirror after the light went on?

I couldn’t remember.

Did I see myself at all? My hands? My feet?

I couldn’t remember.

“It was a joke,” I said aloud, lying in my bed, kicking the covers off me.

It had to be a joke.

Lefty was always playing dumb jokes on me, trying to make me look bad. My
brother was a joker. He’d always been a joker. He was never serious. Never.

So what made me think he was serious now?

Because Erin and April had agreed with him?

Before I realized it, I had climbed out of bed.

Only one way to find out if they were serious or not, I told myself. I
searched in the darkness for my bedroom slippers. I buttoned my pajama shirt
which had come undone from all my tossing and turning.

Then, as silent as I could be, I crept out into the hallway.

The house was dark except for the tiny night-light down by the floor just
outside Lefty’s bedroom. Lefty was the only one in the family who ever got up in
the middle of the night. He insisted on having a night-light in his room and one
in the hall, even though I made fun of him about it as often as I could.

Now I was grateful for the light as I made my way on tiptoe to the attic
stairs. Even though I was being so careful, the floorboards squeaked under my
feet. It’s just impossible not to make noise in an old house like this.

I stopped and held my breath, listening hard, listening for any sign that I
had been heard.

Silence.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the attic door, fumbled around till I found
the light switch, and clicked on the attic light. Then I made my way slowly up
the steep stairs, leaning all my weight on the banister, trying my hardest not
to make the stairs creak.

It seemed to take forever to get all the way up. Finally, I stopped at the
top step and gazed around, letting my eyes adjust to the yellow glare of the ceiling light.

The attic was hot and stuffy. The air was so dry, it made my nose burn. I had
a sudden urge to turn around and go back.

But then my eyes stopped at the doorway to the small, hidden room. In our
hurry to leave, we had left the door wide open.

Staring at the darkness beyond the open doorway, I stepped onto the landing
and made my way quickly across the cluttered floor. The floorboards creaked and
groaned beneath me, but I barely heard them.

I was drawn to the open doorway, drawn to the mysterious room as if being
pulled by a powerful magnet.

I had to see the tall mirror again. I had to examine it, study it closely.

I had to know the truth about it.

I stepped into the small room without hesitating and walked up to the mirror.

I paused for a moment and studied my shadowy reflection in the glass. My hair
was totally messed up, but I didn’t care.

I stared at myself, stared into my eyes. Then I took a step back to get a
different view.

The mirror reflected my entire body from head to foot. There wasn’t anything
special about the reflection. It wasn’t distorted or weird in any way.

The fact that it was such a normal reflection helped to calm me. I hadn’t realized it, but my heart was fluttering like a
nervous butterfly. My hands and feet were cold as ice.

“Chill out, Max,” I whispered to myself, watching myself whisper in the dark
mirror.

I did a funny little dance for my own benefit, waving my hands above my head
and shaking my whole body.

“Nothing special about this mirror,” I said aloud.

I reached out and touched it. The glass felt cool despite the warmth of the
room. I ran my hand along the glass until I reached the frame. Then I let my
hand wander up and down the wood frame. It also felt smooth and cool.

It’s just a mirror, I thought, finally feeling more relaxed. Just an old
mirror that someone stored up here long ago and forgot about.

Still holding onto the frame, I walked around to the back. It was too dark to
see clearly, but it didn’t seem too interesting back here.

Well, I might as well turn on the light at the top, I thought.

I returned to the front of the mirror. Standing just inches back from it, I
began to reach up for the lamp chain when something caught my eye.

“Oh!”

I cried out as I saw two eyes, down low in the mirror. Two eyes staring out
at me.

My breath caught in my throat. I peered down into the dark reflection.

The two eyes peered up at me. Dark and evil eyes.

Uttering a cry of panic, I turned away from the mirror.

“Lefty!” I cried. My voice came out shrill and tight, as if someone were
squeezing my throat.

He grinned at me from just inside the doorway.

I realized that it had been Lefty’s eyes reflected in the mirror.

I ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “You scared me to death!”
I half-screamed, half-whispered.

His grin grew wider. “You’re stupid,” he said.

I wanted to strangle him. He thought it was a riot.

“Why’d you sneak up behind me?” I demanded, giving him a shove back against
the wall.

He shrugged.

“Well, what are you doing up here, anyway?” I sputtered.

I could still see those dark eyes staring out at me in the mirror. So creepy!

“I heard you,” he explained, leaning back against the wall, still grinning.
“I was awake. I heard you walk past my room. So I followed you.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be up here,” I snapped.

“Neither should you,” he snapped back.

“Go back downstairs and go to bed,” I said. My voice was finally returning to
normal. I tried to sound as if I meant business.

But Lefty didn’t move. “Make me,” he said. Another classic argument-winner.

“I mean it,” I insisted. “Go back to bed.”

“Make me,” he repeated nastily. “I’ll tell Mom and Dad you’re up here,” he
added.

I hate being threatened. And he knows it. That’s why he threatens me every
hour of the day.

Sometimes I just wish I could pound him.

But we live in a nonviolent family.

That’s what Mom and Dad say every time Lefty and I get in a fight. “Break it
up, you two. We live in a nonviolent family.”

Sometimes nonviolence can be real frustrating. Know what I mean?

This was one of those times. But I could see that I wasn’t going to get rid
of Lefty so easily. He was determined to stay up in the attic with me and see
what I was doing with the mirror.

My heart had finally slowed down to normal. I was starting to feel calmer. So
I decided to stop fighting with him and let him stay. I turned back to the
mirror.

Luckily, there wasn’t
another
pair of eyes in there staring out at me!

“What are you doing?” Lefty demanded, stepping up behind me, his arms still
crossed over his chest.

“Just checking out the mirror,” I told him.

“You going to go invisible again?” he asked. He was standing right
behind me, and his breath smelled sour, like lemons.

I turned and shoved him back a few steps. “Get out of my face,” I said. “Your
breath stinks.”

That started another stupid argument, of course.

I was sorry I’d ever come up here. I should have stayed in bed, I realized.

Finally, I persuaded him to stand a foot away from me. A major victory.

Yawning, I turned back to the mirror. I was starting to feel sleepy. Maybe it
was because of the heat of the attic. Maybe it was because I was tired of
arguing with my dopey brother. Or maybe it was because it was really late at
night, and I was tired.

“I’m going to turn on the light,” I told him, reaching for the chain. “Tell
me if I go invisible again.”

“No.” He shoved his way right next to me again. “I want to try it, too.”

“No way,” I insisted, shoving back.

“Yes
way
.” He pushed me hard.

I pushed back. Then I had a better idea. “How about if we
both
stand
in front of the mirror, and I pull the light chain?”

“Okay. Go ahead.” Standing an inch in front of it, practically nose to nose
with his reflection, Lefty stiffened until he was standing at attention.

He looked ridiculous, especially in those awful green pajamas.

I stepped up beside him. “Here goes nothing,” I said.

I stretched my hand up, grabbed the light chain, and pulled.

The light on top of the mirror flashed.

“Ow!” I cried out. The light was so bright, it hurt my eyes.

Then it quickly dimmed, and my eyes started to adjust.

I turned to Lefty and started to say something. I don’t remember what it was.
It completely flew out of my mind when I realized that Lefty was gone.

“L-Lefty?” I stammered.

“I’m right here,” he replied. His voice sounded nearby, but I couldn’t see
him. “Max—where are
you
?”

“You can’t see me?” I cried.

“No,” Lefty said. “No, I can’t.”

I could smell his sour breath, so I knew he was there. But he was invisible.
Gone. Out of sight.

So they
weren’t
putting me on! Erin, April, and Lefty had been telling
the truth on Saturday after my birthday party. I really had gone invisible.

And now I was invisible again, along with my brother.

“Hey, Max,” his voice sounded tiny, shaky. “This is weird.”

“Yeah. It’s weird, okay,” I agreed. “You really can’t see me, Lefty?”

“No. And I can’t see myself,” he said.

The mirror. I had forgotten to check out the mirror.

Did I have a reflection?

I turned and stared into the mirror. The light was pouring down from the top
of the frame, casting a bright glare over the glass.

Squinting into the glare, I saw…
nothing.

No me.

No Lefty.

Just the reflection of the wall behind us and the open doorway leading to the
rest of the attic.

“We—we don’t have reflections,” I said.

“It’s kinda cool,” Lefty remarked. He grabbed my arm. I jumped in surprise.

“Hey!” I cried.

It felt creepy to be grabbed by an invisible person.

I grabbed him back. I tickled his ribs. He started to laugh.

“We still have our bodies,” I said. “We just can’t see them.”

He tried to tickle me, but I danced away from him.

“Hey, Max, where’d you go?” he called, sounding frightened again.

“Try and find me,” I teased, backing toward the wall.

“I—I can’t,” he said shakily. “Come back over here, okay?”

“No way,” I said. “I don’t want to be tickled.”

“I won’t,” Lefty swore. “I promise.”

I stepped back in front of the mirror.

“Are you here?” Lefty asked timidly.

“Yeah. I’m right beside you. I can smell your bad breath,” I told him.

And he started to tickle me again. The little liar.

We wrestled around for a bit. It was just so strange wrestling with someone
you couldn’t see.

Finally, I pushed him away. “I wonder if we could go downstairs and still be
invisible,” I said. “I wonder if we could leave the house like this.”

“And go spy on people?” Lefty suggested.

“Yeah,” I said. I yawned. I was starting to feel a little strange. “We could
go spy on girls and stuff.”

“Cool,” Lefty replied.

“Remember that old movie Mom and Dad were watching on TV?” I asked him.
“About the ghosts who kept appearing and disappearing all the time? They had a
lot of fun scaring people. You know, playing jokes on them, driving them crazy.”

“But we’re not ghosts,” Lefty replied in a trembling voice. I think the idea kind of frightened him.

It frightened me, too!

“Could we go back to normal now?” Lefty asked. “I don’t feel right.”

“Me, either,” I told him. I was feeling very light. Kind of fluttery. Just… weird.

“How can we get back right again?” he asked.

“Well, the last time, I just pulled the chain. I clicked the light off, and I
was back. That’s all it took.”

“Well, do it,” Lefty urged impatiently. “Right now. Okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.” I started to feel kind of dizzy. Kind of light. As if I could
float away or something.

“Hurry,” Lefty said. I could hear him breathing hard.

I reached up and grabbed the light chain. “No problem,” I told him. “We’ll be
back in a second.”