The Curiosity of The Enigmatic

“Taniaaaaaa,” a voice whispered next to my ear as if from far away. “Time for schoooool.”

Half asleep, I smacked Oliver against the side of his head and he snatched my other pillow out from under my head.

I groaned and whined, “Leave me alone.” I stifled a yawn. “How’d you get into my room anyways, I thought I'd locked it.” I rubbed my eyes and pushed myself to a sitting position feeling the after effects of too much sleep: it felt as if I had jet lag and there was a funny taste in my mouth.

“You did,” Oliver said pretending to be confused. I looked down and saw a suspicious bulge in his board shorts’ pocket. I tried unsuccessfully to raise one eyebrow at him sceptically. But I probably just ended up looking like a startled pug judging by my brother’s reaction.

He laughed in my face and walked out of my room not closing the door behind him. Sheesh. Do I have to put an electric fence in my doorway, man it with a guard and ferocious bulldog and have a sign saying, “Toxic spill” just to keep people out of my room?
I shook my fist at my brother and yelled, “I’ll get my key back if it’s the last thing I do!”

“It’s a spare!” he laughed from the hallway.

“Fine, I’ll get my spare back‒,” I began and then stopped abruptly. I brought my hand back to eye level and looked at it without really seeing it. Realisation sunk in and I almost cried with relief. I ignored the little voice of disappointment that started to whisper inside my mind: It would’ve been awesome to have invisibility. I shook the thought off like a dusty rug that had known better days.

I must’ve all just been a feverish dream! What a realistic surreal dream. Where did it end and where did it begin?

I dressed quickly for school, hopping around on one foot to put on a sock, fumbling with the buttons on the regulation white shirt, and almost falling flat on my face in my haste to jump into my black skirt. I picked up my brush, had second thoughts and instead simply tied up my hair with a white ribbon without brushing it. I looked in my mirror and had the uncomfortable flashback of not seeing myself. It was only a dream, I calmed myself and smiled wanly.

I rushed down for breakfast, expertly dodging my mother’s questions and ranting. She was furious that I was up so late on my first day. I rushed back up, brushed my teeth and did other morning rituals before heading to my room. I grabbed my school backpack from my closet, shook out all of last year’s forgotten homework, erasers and what not, then I grabbed my new diary and pen and shoved it inside. My mother had already started the car and she was just about to pull away when I opened the front passenger door and hopped inside. My mother glared at me but after ten minutes of silent driving she smiled and asked if I felt better.

“Eh?” I looked at her.

“Not: eh? You’re too much like your brothers for comfort,” my mother sighed “You were not feeling well yesterday, remember and you wouldn’t let me come in.”

“That really happened?” I asked, more to myself.

“Of course. You probably confused the events in your head because of your flu or whatever you had. I’m happy that it only lasted for half a day. One can’t afford to miss even one day in your final year...”

My mother talked on, as always oblivious of the fact that I wasn’t listening.Half a day? It really happened then... But I’m certain now that I didn’t have a fever; fever’s take days to run its full course and I felt perfectly fine. Besides, if what I had had was a feverish dream why then was the part with my mother asking after me real?

Confused, bewildered and in a slight daze I felt the car stop and I climbed out like a zombie and dragged my feet like one all the way to the matric (final year) quad not hearing my mother yell goodbye.

My only close friends who noticed my existence were waiting for me. I caught their excitement; this was our final year and we had privileges as such. But whenever the euphoria of being in my final year died down, nagging thoughts of what had really happened yesterday refused to be kept at bay.

Does madness run in the family? I thought later, washing my hands in the girls’ bathroom. A girl walked out not even noticing me, as always. I better not have kids...I smiled grimly but the smile fell from my face. In midair the water spilled into a pool and ran in tiny rivulets into the basin, vaguely outlining the shape of my cupped hands. Hands that weren’t there. I suppressed a scream and quickly closed the tap, the water on my hands making it possible to see where I put them. I didn’t need to look down at my bare legs to know that they would be in the same state as the rest of me. I rushed into a cubicle and started to hyperventilate.

What should I do?! Flip, it’s really happening! Why at school of all places?!

“Tania? What’s taking you so long?” I heard my friend Yvonne coming into the bathroom. “We get to see the grade eights being initiated today; you’re making me miss it.”
I stayed quiet praying she wouldn’t wait and just bloody well leave. Even though she was my friend she found it hard just like anyone else to remember what they were doing if it involved me. For the first time I really thought about it and wondered if it was connected in some way to being able to become invisible. It would explain a lot.

After a few minutes I heard her muttering and finally leaving. I sat still on the lid of the toilet seat and listened. But no one else left or entered the bathroom; most were probably watching the initiation.

Should I just go home, a school outfit walking along by itself? But I couldn’t risk taking off my clothes; I didn’t know when my visibility would be ‘switched on’ again and I had no idea what triggered it.

I better act now before break ends. I sneak a peek outside of the cubicle. All clear.
I sneak outside and look up and down the hallway. Also clear. The bell rings, the sound is shrill in my ears and I sprint down the hallway when I hear the clamour of voices: chattering, shrieking, shouting and laughing.

“Tania! You missed the whole thing!” Yvonne and Lisa grab me and smile.
My heart does a summersault and lands with a jarring crash into a body of icy cold water. I’m totally thrown off and my mouth goes dry. I’m totally thrown off. What’s going on? I smile uncertainly as they pull me along to English and explain what had happened at the initiation.

I look down when I see a tell tale flash of leg. My grin widens and my heart sinks.