Let's Get Invisible (5 page)

“Amazing,” Zack said, staring hard at the mirror. “I’ve
got
to try
it!”

“Well…” I wasn’t so sure I wanted Zack to do it. It was such a big
responsibility. I mean, what if something went wrong?

“You’ve
got
to let me do it!” Zack insisted.

“Hey—where’s Lefty?” I asked, glancing quickly around the small room.

“Huh? Lefty?” Zack’s eyes searched, too.

“I was so busy being invisible, I forgot he was here,” I said. And then I
called, “Hey, Lefty?”

No reply.

“Lefty?”

Silence.

I walked quickly around to the back of the mirror. He wasn’t there. Calling
his name, I made my way to the door and peered out into the attic.

No sign of him.

“He was standing right here. In front of the mirror,” Zack said, suddenly
pale.

“Lefty?” I called. “Are you here? Can you hear me?”

Silence.

“Weird,” Zack said.

I swallowed hard. My stomach suddenly felt as if I’d swallowed a rock.

“He was right here. Standing right here,” Zack said in a shrill, frightened
voice.

“Well, he’s gone now,” I said, staring at the dark, shadowy reflection of the
mirror. “Lefty’s gone.”

“Maybe Lefty went invisible, too,” Zack suggested.

“Then why doesn’t he answer us?” I cried. I tried calling my brother again.
“Lefty—are you here? Can you hear me?”

No reply.

I walked up to the mirror and angrily slapped the frame. “Stupid mirror.”

“Lefty? Lefty?” Zack had his hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone.
He stood at the door to the little room, calling out into the attic.

“I don’t believe this,” I said weakly. My legs were shaking so much, I
dropped down onto the floor.

And then I heard giggling.

“Huh? Lefty?” I jumped to my feet.

More giggling. Coming from behind the carton I’d carried into the little
room.

I lunged toward the carton just as Lefty popped up from behind it. “Gotcha!” he cried, and collapsed over the carton,
slapping the floor, laughing his head off.

“Gotcha! Gotcha both!”

“You little creep!” Zack screamed.

He and I both pounced on Lefty at the same time. I pulled his arm back until
he screamed. Zack messed up his hair, then tickled him.

Lefty was screaming and laughing and squirming and crying all at the same
time. I gave him a hard punch on the shoulder. “Don’t ever do that again,” I
shouted angrily.

Lefty laughed, so I gave him a hard shove and climbed to my feet.

Zack and I, both breathing hard, both red in the face, glared angrily at
Lefty. He was rolling around on the floor, covered in dust, still laughing like
a lunatic.

“You scared us to death. You really did!” I exclaimed heatedly.

“I know,” Lefty replied happily.

“Let’s beat him up some more,” Zack suggested, balling his hands into tight
fists.

“Okay,” I agreed.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Lefty cried. He was on his feet in a flash,
and out the door.

I chased after him, tripped over a stack of old clothes, and went flying
headfirst to the floor. “Ow!” I banged my leg hard. The pain shot up through my
body.

Pulling myself up slowly, I started after Lefty again. But voices on the
attic stairway made me stop.

Erin’s head popped up first. Then April appeared.

Lefty was sitting on the windowsill at the far end of the attic, red-faced
and sweaty, catching his breath.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I called to the two girls, brushing dust off my jeans,
then straightening my hair with one hand.

“Your mom said you were here,” Erin explained, looking from Lefty to me.

“What are you guys
doing
up here?” April asked.

“Oh… just hanging out,” I said, casting an angry glance at my brother,
who stuck his tongue out in reply.

April picked up an old
Life
magazine from a stack of yellowed
magazines and began flipping through it. But the pages crumbled as she looked at
them. “Yuck,” she said, putting it down. “This stuff is so old.”

“That’s what attics are for,” I said, starting to feel a little more normal.
“Whoever heard of keeping
new
stuff in an attic?”

“Ha-ha,” Lefty laughed sarcastically.

“Where’s that mirror?” Erin asked, stepping into the center of the room. “The
one that made that weird optical illusion last Saturday.”

“It wasn’t an optical illusion,” I blurted out. I didn’t really feel like
messing with the mirror anymore. I’d had enough scares for one afternoon. But
the words just tumbled out of me.

I can never keep a secret. It’s a real character flaw.

“What do you mean?” Erin asked, very interested. She walked past me, heading
to the open doorway of the little room.

“You mean that wasn’t an optical illusion last week?” April asked, following
her.

“No, not really,” I said, glancing at Lefty, who hadn’t budged from the
windowsill across the large room. “The mirror has strange powers or something.
It really can turn you invisible.”

April laughed scornfully. “Yeah. Right,” she said. “And I’m going to fly to
Mars in a flying saucer tonight after dinner.”

“Give me a break,” I muttered. I turned my eyes to Erin. “I’m serious.”

Erin stared back at me, her face filled with doubt. “You’re trying to tell us
that you’ve gone in that room and become invisible?”

“I’m not
trying
to tell you,” I replied heatedly. “I
am
telling
you!”

April laughed.

Erin continued to stare at me, studying my face. “You
are
serious,”
she decided.

“It’s a trick mirror,” April told her. “That’s all. That light on top of it is so bright, it makes your eyes go weird.”

“Show us,” Erin said to me.

“Yeah. Show them!” Lefty exclaimed eagerly. He jumped up from the windowsill
and started running to the little room. “I’ll go this time! Let me do it!”

“No way,” I said.

“Let
me
try it,” Erin volunteered.

“Hey, do you know who else is here?” I asked the girls, following them to the
room. “Zack is here.” I called to him. “Hey, Zack. Erin wants to go invisible.
Think we should let her?”

I stepped into the room. “Zack?”

“Where’s he hiding?” Erin asked.

I uttered a silent gasp.

The mirror light was on. Zack was gone.

“Oh, no!” I cried. “I don’t believe this!”

Lefty laughed. “Zack’s invisible,” he told Erin and April.

“Zack—where are you?” I demanded angrily.

Suddenly, the softball floated up from Lefty’s hand. “Hey, give that back!”
Lefty shouted, and grabbed for it. But invisible Zack pulled the ball out of
Lefty’s reach.

Erin and April were both gaping at the ball as it floated in midair, their
eyes bulging, their mouths wide open.

“Hi, girls,” Zack called in a booming, deep voice that floated from in front
of the mirror.

April screamed and grabbed Erin’s arm.

“Zack, stop kidding around. How long have you been invisible?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” The ball flew back to Lefty, who dropped it and had to chase
it out into the attic.

“How long, Zack?” I repeated.

“About five minutes, maybe,” he replied.

“When you chased after Lefty, I turned on the light and went invisible. Then
I heard you talking to Erin and April.”

“You’ve been invisible the whole time?” I asked, feeling really nervous and
upset.

“Yeah. This is awesome!” he exclaimed. But then his tone grew doubtful. “I—I’m starting to feel kinda funny, though, Max.”

“Funny?” Erin asked, staring at where Zack’s voice seemed to be coming from.
“What do you mean ‘funny’?”

“Kinda dizzy,” Zack replied weakly. “Everything’s kind of breaking up. You
know. Like a bad TV picture. I mean, you’re starting to fade, to seem far away.”

“I’m bringing you back,” I said. And without waiting for Zack to reply, I
reached up and pulled the light chain.

The light clicked off. Darkness seemed to roll into the room, filling the
mirror with gray shadows.

“Where
is
he?” April cried. “It didn’t work. He isn’t back.”

“It takes a while,” I explained.

“How long?” April asked.

“I don’t really know,” I said.

“Why aren’t I back?” Zack asked. He was standing right beside me. I could
feel his breath on my neck. “I can’t see myself.” He sounded very frightened.

“Don’t get tense,” I said, forcing myself to sound calm. “You know it takes a
while. Especially since you stayed invisible so long.”

“But how long?” Zack wailed. “Shouldn’t I be back by now?
You
were
back by now. I remember.”

“Just stay cool,” I told him, even though my stomach was churning and my
throat was dry.

“This is too scary. I
hate
this!” April moaned.

“Be patient,” I repeated softly. “Everybody just be patient.”

We all stared from the spot where we thought Zack was standing to the mirror,
then back again.

“Zack, how do you feel?” Erin asked, her voice trembling.

“Weird,” Zack replied. “Like I’m never coming back.”

“Don’t say that!” I snapped.

“But that’s how I feel,” Zack said sadly. “Like I’m never coming back.”

“Just chill,” I said. “Everybody. Just chill.”

We stood in silence. Watching. Waiting.

Waiting.

I was never so frightened in all my life.

“Do something!” Zack, still invisible, pleaded. “Max—you’ve
got
to
do something!”

“I—I’d better get Mom,” Lefty stammered. He dropped the softball to the
floor and started to the door.

“Mom? What could Mom do?” I cried in a panic.

“But I’d better get
somebody
!” Lefty declared.

At that moment, Zack shimmered back into view. “Wow!” He uttered a long,
breathless sigh of relief and slumped to his knees on the floor.

“Yaaaay!” Erin cried happily, clapping her hands as we all gathered around
Zack.

“How do you feel?” I asked, grabbing his shoulders. I think I wanted to know
for sure that he was really back.

“I’m back!” Zack proclaimed, smiling. “That’s all I care about.”

“That was really scary,” April said quietly, hands shoved into the pockets of
her white tennis shorts. “I mean, really.”

“I wasn’t scared,” Zack said, suddenly changing his tune. “I knew there was
no problem.”

Do you
believe
this guy?

One second, he’s whining and wailing, begging me to do something.

The next second, he’s pretending he had the time of his life. Mister
Confident.

“What did it feel like?” Erin asked, resting one hand on the wooden mirror
frame.

“Awesome,” Zack replied. He climbed unsteadily to his feet. “Really. It was
totally awesome! I want to get invisible again before school on Monday so I can
go spy in the girls’ locker room!”

“Zack, you’re a pig!” Erin declared disgustedly.

“What’s the point of being invisible if you can’t spy on girls?” Zack asked.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked, genuinely concerned. “You look kind of
shaky to me.”

“Well, I started to feel a little strange at the end,” Zack confessed,
scratching the back of his head.

“How do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, like I was being pulled away. Away from the room. Away from you guys.”

“Pulled where?” I demanded.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I only know one thing.” A smile began to form on
his face, and his blue eyes seemed to light up.

Uh-oh, I thought.

“I only know one thing,” Zack repeated.

“What?” I had to ask.

“I’m the new invisible champ. I stayed invisible longer than you. At least
five minutes. Longer than anybody.”

“But I haven’t had a turn!” Erin protested.

“I don’t
want
a turn!” April declared.

“Chicken?” Zack teased her.

“I think you’re stupid for messing around with this,” April said heatedly.
“It isn’t a toy, you know. You don’t know anything about it. You don’t know what
it really does to your body.”

“I feel fine!” Zack told her, and pounded his chest with both hands like a
gorilla to prove it. He glanced at the dark mirror. “I’m ready to go back—even
longer.”

“I want to get invisible and go outside and play tricks on people,” Lefty
said enthusiastically. “Can I go next, Max?”

“I—I don’t think so….”

I was thinking about what April had said. We really were messing around with
something that could be dangerous, something we didn’t know anything about.

“Max has to go again,” Zack said, slapping me hard on the back, nearly
sending me sprawling against the mirror. “To beat my record.” He grinned at me.
“Unless you’re chicken, too.”

“I’m
not
chicken!” I insisted. “I just think—”

“You’re chicken,” Zack accused, laughing scornfully. He started clucking
loudly, flapping his arms like a chicken.

“
I’m
not chicken. Let
me
go,” Lefty pleaded. “I can break Zack’s
record.”

“It’s my turn,” Erin insisted. “You guys have all had turns. I haven’t gone
once yet!”

“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “You go first, Erin. Then me.” I was glad Erin
was so eager to do it. I really didn’t feel like getting invisible again just
yet.

To be honest, I felt very fluttery and nervous.

“Me next!” Lefty insisted. “Me next! Me next!” He started chanting the words
over and over.

I clamped my hand over his mouth. “Maybe we should all go downstairs,” I
suggested.

“Chicken?” Zack teased. “You’re chickening out?”

“I don’t know, Zack,” I replied honestly. “I think—” I saw Erin staring at
me. Was that disappointment on her face? Did Erin think I was a chicken, too?