Let's Get Invisible (4 page)

I pulled the chain.

The light went out.

But Lefty and I didn’t return.

“Max—I can’t see you!” Lefty whined.

“I know,” I replied quietly. I felt so frightened. I had chills running down
my back, chills that wouldn’t stop. “I can’t see you, either.”

“What happened?” Lefty cried. I could feel him tug at my invisible arm.

“I—I don’t know,” I stammered. “It worked before. I clicked off the light
and I was back.”

I gazed into the mirror. No reflection. Nothing.

No me. No Lefty.

I stood there, staring at the spot where our reflections should be, frozen
with fear. I was glad Lefty couldn’t see me because I wouldn’t want him to see
how frightened I looked.

“Try it again, Max,” he whined. “Please. Hurry!”

“Okay,” I said. “Just try to stay calm, okay?”

“Stay calm? How?” Lefty wailed. “What if we
never
get back? What if
no one
can ever see us again?”

I suddenly felt so sick. My stomach just sort of heaved.

Get a grip, I told myself. You’ve
got
to keep it together, Max. For
Lefty’s sake.

I stretched up for the light chain, but it seemed to be out of my reach.

I tried again. Missed.

And then suddenly, I was back. And so was Lefty.

We could see each other. And we could see our reflections in the mirror.

“We’re
back
!” We both shouted it in unison.

And then we both fell on the floor, laughing. We were so relieved. So happy.

“Ssshh!” I grabbed Lefty and shoved my hand over his mouth. I just remembered
it was the middle of the night. “If Mom and Dad catch us up here, they’ll kill
us,” I warned, whispering.

“Why did it take so long for us to come back?” Lefty asked, turning serious,
gazing at his reflection.

I shrugged. “Beats me.” I thought about it. “Maybe if you stay invisible
longer, it takes longer for you to get back,” I suggested.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The first time I went invisible,” I told him, “it was only for a few
seconds. And I came back instantly, as soon as I clicked off the light. But
tonight—”

“We stayed invisible a lot longer. So it took longer to come back. I get it,” Lefty said.

“You’re not as dumb as you look,” I said, yawning.

“
You
are!” he snapped back.

Feeling totally exhausted, I started to lead the way out of the tiny room,
motioning for Lefty to follow me. But he hesitated, glancing back at his
reflection in the mirror.

“We have to tell Mom and Dad about the mirror,” he whispered thoughtfully.

“No way!” I told him. “No way we’re telling them. If we tell them about it,
they’ll take it away. They won’t let us use it.”

He stared at me thoughtfully. “I’m not sure I
want
to use it,” he said
softly.

“Well, I do,” I said, turning at the doorway to look back at it. “I want to
use it just one more time.”

“What for?” Lefty asked, yawning.

“To scare Zack,” I said, grinning.

Zack couldn’t come over until Saturday. As soon as he arrived, I wanted to
take him up to the attic and give him a demonstration of the mirror’s powers.

Mainly, I wanted to scare the life out of him!

But Mom insisted that we sit down for lunch first. Canned chicken noodle soup
and peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

I gulped my soup as fast as I could, not bothering to chew the noodles. Lefty kept giving me meaningful glances across the
table. I could see that he was as eager as I was to scare Zack.

“Where’d you get that haircut?” my mom asked Zack. She walked around the
table, staring at Zack’s head, frowning. I could tell she
hated
it.

“At Quick Cuts,” Zack told her after swallowing a mouthful of peanut butter
and jelly. “You know. At the mall.”

We all studied Zack’s haircut. I thought it was kind of cool. The way it was
buzzed so short on the left, then hung down long on the right.

“It’s different, all right,” my mom said.

We all could tell she hated it. But I guess she thought she was covering up
by calling it
different.
If I ever came home with a haircut like that,
she’d
murder
me!

“What did your mom say about it?” she asked Zack.

Zack laughed. “Not much.”

We all laughed. I kept glancing up at the clock. I was so eager to get
upstairs.

“How about some chocolate cupcakes?” Mom asked when we’d finished our
sandwiches.

Zack started to say yes, but I interrupted him. “Can we have dessert later?
I’m kinda full.”

I pushed back my chair and got up quickly, motioning for Zack to follow me.
Lefty was already running to the stairs.

“Hey—where are you going so fast?” Mom called after us, following us into
the hall.

“Uh… upstairs… to the attic,” I told her.

“The attic?” She wrinkled her face, puzzled. “What’s so interesting up
there?”

“Uh… just a bunch of old magazines,” I lied. “They’re kind of funny. I
want to show them to Zack.” That was pretty fast thinking, for me. I’m usually
not very quick at making up stories.

Mom stared at me. I don’t think she believed me. But she turned back to the
kitchen. “Have fun, guys. Don’t get too dirty up there.”

“We won’t,” I told her. I led Zack up the steep stairs. Lefty was already
waiting for us in the attic.

It was about a hundred degrees hotter up there. I started to sweat the second
I stepped into the room.

Zack stopped a few feet behind me and looked around. “It’s just a lot of old
junk. What’s so interesting up here?” he asked.

“You’ll see,” I said mysteriously.

“This way,” Lefty called eagerly, running to the little room against the far
wall. He was so excited, he dropped his softball. It rolled in front of him, and
he tripped over it and fell facedown on the floor with a
thud.

“I
meant
to do that!” Lefty joked, climbing up quickly and leaping
after the ball, which had rolled across the floor.

“Your brother is made of rubber or something,” Zack laughed.

“Falling down is his hobby,” I said. “He falls down about a hundred times a
day.” I wasn’t exaggerating.

A few seconds later, the three of us were in the hidden room standing in
front of the mirror. Even though it was a sunny afternoon, the room was as dark
and shadowy as ever.

Zack turned from the mirror to me, a bewildered look on his face. “
This
is what you wanted to show me?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Since when are you into furniture?” he asked.

“It’s an interesting mirror, don’t you think?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “Not too interesting.”

Lefty laughed. He bounced his softball off the wall and caught it.

I was deliberately taking my time. Zack was in for the surprise of his life,
but I wanted to confuse him a little bit first. He was always doing stuff like
that to me. He always acted as if he knew everything there was to know, and if I
were good, he’d share a little bit of his knowledge with me.

Well, now I knew something he didn’t know. I wanted to stretch this moment
out, make it last.

But at the same time, I couldn’t wait to watch the look on Zack’s face when I
disappeared right in front of his eyes.

“Let’s go outside,” Zack said impatiently. “It’s too hot up here. I brought
my bike. Why don’t we ride to the playground behind school, see who’s there?”

“Maybe later,” I replied, grinning at Lefty. I turned to my brother. “Should
I show Zack our secret or not?”

Lefty grinned back at me. He shrugged.

“What secret?” Zack demanded. I knew he couldn’t stand to be left out of
anything. He couldn’t
bear
it if anyone had a secret he didn’t know
about.

“What secret?” he repeated when I didn’t answer.

“Show him,” Lefty said, tossing up the softball.

I rubbed my chin, pretended to be thinking about it. “Well… okay.” I
motioned for Zack to stand behind me.

“You’re going to make funny faces in the mirror?” Zack guessed. He shook his
head. “Big deal!”

“No. That’s not the secret,” I told him. I stepped in front of the mirror,
admiring my reflection, which stared back at me in the glass.

“Watch!” Lefty urged, stepping up beside Zack.

“I’m watching. I’m watching,” Zack said impatiently.

“I’ll bet you I can disappear into thin air,” I told Zack.

“Yeah. Sure,” he muttered.

Lefty laughed.

“How much do you want to bet?” I asked.

“Two cents,” Zack said. “Is this some kind of trick mirror or something?”

“Something like that,” I told him. “How about ten dollars? Bet me ten
dollars?”

“Huh?”

“Forget the bet. Just show him,” Lefty said, bouncing up and down
impatiently.

“I have a magic kit at home,” Zack said. “I can do over a thousand tricks.
But it’s kid stuff,” he sneered.

“You don’t have any tricks like this,” I said confidently.

“Just get it over with so we can go outside,” he grumbled.

I stepped into the center of the mirror. “Ta-
daa
!” I sang myself a
short fanfare. Then I reached up and grabbed the light chain.

I pulled it. The lamp above the mirror flashed on, blindingly bright at
first, then dimming as before.

And I was gone.

“Hey!” Zack cried. He stumbled backwards.

He actually stumbled out of shock!

Invisible, I turned away from the mirror to enjoy his stunned reaction.

“Max?” he cried out. His eyes searched the room.

Lefty was laughing his head off.

“Max?” Zack sounded really worried. “Max? How’d you do that? Where
are
you?”

“I’m right here,” I said.

He jumped at the sound of my voice. Lefty laughed even harder.

I reached out and took the softball from Lefty’s hand. I glanced at the
reflection in the mirror. The ball seemed to float in midair.

“Here. Catch, Zack.” I tossed it at him.

He was so stunned, he didn’t move. The ball bounced off his chest. “Max? How
do you do this trick?” he demanded.

“It isn’t a trick. It’s real,” I said.

“Hey, wait…” He got a suspicious look on his face. He ran around to the
back of the mirror. I guess he expected me to be hiding back there.

He looked very disappointed when he didn’t see me. “Is there a trapdoor or
something?” he asked. He walked back in front of the mirror, got down on his
hands and knees, and started searching the floorboards for a trapdoor.

I leaned over and pulled his T-shirt up over his head.

“Hey—stop it!” he yelled, climbing angrily to his feet.

I tickled his stomach.

“Stop, Max.” He squirmed away, thrashing his arms, trying to hit me. He
looked really frightened now. He was breathing hard, and his face was bright
red.

I pulled his T-shirt up again.

He jerked it down. “You’re really invisible?” His voice rose up so high, only
dogs could hear it. “Really?”

“Good trick, huh?” I said right in his ear.

He jumped and spun away. “What does it feel like? Does it feel weird?”

I didn’t answer him. I crept out of the room and picked up a cardboard carton
just outside the door. I carried it up to the mirror. It looked great. A carton
floating all by itself.

“Put it down,” Zack urged. He sounded really scared. “This is really freaking
me out, Max. Stop it, okay? Come back so I can see you.”

I wanted to torture him some more, but I could see he was about to lose it.
Besides, I was starting to feel weird again. Sort of dizzy and lightheaded. And
the bright light was hurting my eyes, starting to blind me.

“Okay, I’m coming back,” I announced. “Watch.”

I leaned against the mirror and reached up for the chain. I suddenly felt
very tired, very weak. It took all my strength to wrap my hand around the chain.

I had the strangest sensation that the mirror was pulling me, tugging me
toward it, holding me down.

With a determined burst of strength, I pulled the chain.

The lamp went out. The room darkened.

“Where are you? I still can’t see you!” Zack cried, his voice revealing
panic.

“Just chill,” I told him. “It takes a few seconds. The longer I stay
invisible, the longer it takes to come back.” And then I added, “I think.”

Staring into the blank mirror, waiting for my reflection to return, I
suddenly realized that I didn’t know anything at all about this mirror, about
turning invisible. About coming back.

My mind suddenly whirred with all sorts of terrifying questions:

What made me think that reappearing was automatic?

What if you could only come back twice? And after the third time you went
invisible, you stayed invisible?

What if the mirror was broken? What if it was locked away in this hidden room
because it didn’t work properly and it made people stay invisible forever?

What if I never came back?

No, that can’t be, I told myself.

But the seconds were ticking by. And my body was still not visible.

I touched the mirror, rubbing my invisible hand over the smooth, cool glass.

“Max, what’s taking so long?” Zack asked, his voice trembling.

“I don’t know,” I told him, sounding as frightened and upset as he did.

And then suddenly, I was back.

I was staring at my reflection in the mirror, watching intently, gratefully,
as a wide smile crossed my face.

“
Ta-daaa
!” I sang my triumphant fanfare, turning to my still shaken
friend. “Here I am!”

“Wow!” Zack exclaimed, and his mouth remained in a tight O of surprise and
wonder. “Wow.”

“I know,” I said, grinning. “Pretty cool, huh?”

I felt very shaky, kind of trembly all over. My knees felt all weak and
sweaty. You know the feeling.

But I ignored it. I wanted to enjoy my moment of glory. It wasn’t often that
I got to do something that Zack hadn’t already done ten times.