Invisible

There was a little orphan boy who seemed to appear out of nowhere and ended up outside the house of a Professor Andrew David. The nameless boy smelled food and peeked into the window to look for a way to break in. Professor David checked the outside world through the exact same window the boy was peeking in, and at the exact same moment as well. The boy quickly ducked down, and the busy professor dismissed what he saw as a product of his imagination.

The boy sat down with his back flat on the wall right below the window. He saw food, but he also saw a very large man who looked like he could easily hurt little orphans. He did not know what to do. Then he heard a knock. He looked to his right, to where the sound was coming from. It was from the next-door neighbor’s house. Their door opened to receive the guest who had knocked.

“Hey, Ryan, good to see you again,” said the woman who answered before they both disappeared into the house. This gave the boy an idea. It did not make much sense, but his stomach was doing the thinking then. He decided to knock on Professor David’s door.

The knock was heard right when the professor was scribbling down some measurements. He heard the sound at the door but it was more important for him to get down on paper what was in his head. When he was done, he sat there for a moment to reread the numbers and units that would not have made sense to anyone else before putting it next to a beaker of white liquid. And then he remembered the door.

The boy was about to leave, although his body was more fit to collapse than to walk away, when the man appeared right in front of him. It did not even register in his head when the door was opened. But it did register that, with the sunlight shining on him, the huge man looked more like he would welcome hungry little orphans into his home and feed them. The big man had an equally big heart.

“Hello there,” the man said as quietly as he could, which was quite a task for someone his size. “What’s your name?”

The boy had a blank look in his eyes before saying the first name that entered his head. “Ryan.”

“Hello, Ryan. You can call me Andrew.” It only took Andrew a few seconds of looking at his skeleton-like visitor before knowing what the right thing to do was. He opened his front door wider and stepped to the side. “Come in, Ryan. I was just about to have a snack. Why don’t you join me.”

Andrew put out food and drinks and just let the boy eat and drink whatever he wanted. He devoured bread, potato chips, cupcakes, juice, soda, milk. Everything. As the food disappeared, slowly, so did Ryan. The professor’s eyes widened as he realized that what he and the boy thought was milk, was something else entirely.

The beaker on his work table was now on the dinner table, empty.

---
Ten years later…

There was something strange about the new house that the Garcias moved in to. Mr. and Mrs. Garcia didn’t say anything, but all of their children could feel it. They just couldn’t tell what it was exactly.

There were plenty of little things that made it strange, but nothing that jumped out. For one, they were told they were moving because of financial troubles which meant that the family should be moving into a smaller house, but this new one is almost the same size as their old one. Also, on the day that they moved in their things, Alexa found a glass of water on the table. Nobody else noticed this. Mr. Garcia even drank it in one gulp after carrying in four boxes of the family’s possessions.

At night, Alexa would sometimes wake up to what she thought was the sound of the door of the refrigerator downstairs opening and closing. Her two sisters were always sleeping peacefully during these instances. She was the only light sleeper in the family. She was also the only one who was too shy to have much of a life, which left her at home alone most of the time. But she never actually felt that she was alone. It comforted her.

Before they moved, there were also hours on end when she was just alone at home. Her older sister was always on dates, and her younger sister was always on play dates. Her parents, when not out together, were out with the company of each of their sets of co-workers. And Alexa would just sit at home, turning the radio on at full blast, pretending that the noise was her friend. But she knew it was stupid, and she wished she had somewhere to go where she was invited. But nobody invited her anywhere.

But in the new house, she didn’t feel as stupid. She didn’t feel as jealous. And she couldn’t explain why.

One morning when everyone was rushing for either work or school, Alexa thought she actually saw something this time, not just felt something. No, not thought. She knew that she did.

She was cooking pancakes for breakfast then, and while reaching for the flour, she heard a clang behind her that made her flinch, accidentally slapping the bag of flour. She looked and saw her younger sister looking guilty. There was spilled juice on the floor, but, thankfully, the cup she used only looked like glass but it was really plastic, so it didn’t break.

Returning to her half-made pancakes, she noticed a small wall of white dust next to the bag of flour. Alexa stared, and then a handprint appeared on the wall for a split second before the dust, the flour that escaped the bag, fell to the floor. She gasped, but before she could ponder on what that was all about, her older sister cried out, “Where are those pancakes?”

She set her thoughts aside and concentrated on making breakfast. When she was done and everyone had eaten, she realized she made enough for six people as there were three pieces left on the table. When they all hurried to grab their things to get to the car, Alexa paused in front of the puddle of juice spilled earlier. There was another, smaller, oblong-shaped puddle next to it which she knew wasn’t there before.

“Clean that up later,” her mother said when she looked at where Alexa was looking at. Of course. Of course her mother would assume that she would clean it up. She would be the first one home. That was a well-known fact. Although it made her sad, Alexa decided that when she got home, alone, it would be a great opportunity to find out what was going on in this house.

---

Alexa came home to a dry floor, washed dishes and no pancakes. She just knew that something was up. Her heartbeat sped up with this knowledge, but she forced herself to breathe normally. There was no reason to think that something that would help her clean the house had any intention to harm her.

“Hello?” she inquired the air in front of her. “Hello? I know you’re there, whatever you are. Can you speak?”

After what she felt was hours passing by, she heard a reply. “Yeah. Yeah, I can speak.”

The voice wasn’t what she was expecting. She had imagined fairies, or some other little magical creature that had tiny, tinny voices. She wasn’t expecting to hear the voice of a teenage boy. Her face fell a little to have her childish fantasies shattered, but she smiled after she realized she got a reply.

“Uhm,” she said while thinking of where to start. “I’m Alexa. Alexa Garcia.”

“I’m Ryan.” He paused while she tried to face the way she thought that the voice was coming from. “Ryan David.”

“David?” she asked. “I think that’s the name of the last resident here. Professor David, I think. Is that you? You don’t sound old enough to be a professor though.”

“No. That was my… father.”

“Oh.” Alexa had so many questions and so many strange ideas of what this all could be. “What are you? I hope you don’t mind my asking.”

She heard Ryan clear his throat, as if it had been years since he last spoke. The thought made her think about herself. She hadn’t spoken to anyone much either, except for a few words to her family and classmates.

“I’m human, if that’s what you mean.” He spoke slowly, and paused a lot. “Would you like to sit down?”

Alexa almost jumped out of her skin when a chair moved on it own.

“Sorry about that,” Ryan said, sounding genuinely sorry while pulling out another chair for himself. “But please sit. I forgot how pleasant it was to have somebody to talk to.”

She complied, smiling as she silently agreed to the last thing that he said. “So, Ryan, why can’t I see you?”

“I don’t understand it myself. But you know that Andrew, my father, was a professor.”

“Where’s your father now?”

He chuckled at her eagerness, but it sounded sad. “I guess I should start from the beginning.” Ryan narrated his life from what he could remember as a homeless orphan, up to the point when he accidentally ingested the contents in the beaker that made him invisible.

“I felt really tingly when it happened, like tiny stars were exploding inside every part of me, but I thought that was just how people felt when they weren’t hungry anymore. Andrew never expected that his experiment would have this kind of effect. He was working on something that would make stress disappear. He said he was inspired by his students. But instead, it just made people disappear.”

Alexa was dumbfounded. She didn’t think something like this was at all possible. But she had to ask again. “Where is Andrew now?”

“He… died of a heart attack.”

“I’m sorry.” Ryan was quiet after that for quite a while that she almost would have forgotten he was there if she didn’t feel the sadness in the air. Not being able to see him made her brave and she offered her hand to the seat in front of her. “Would you like a hand to hold?”

Suddenly, she felt pressure on her palm and fingers. She squeezed his hand, and hers felt tingly. Not quite like tiny exploding stars, but more like a subdued pins-and-needles feeling. “Thank you, Alexa. That was the first time that I ever said that aloud to another person.”

“You’re welcome, Ryan.”

“I forgot to thank you for the pancakes too,” he said, trying to lighten the mood a little. She laughed a little and said that he was welcome again. Hearing her laugh made him feel better enough to continue.

“It was really ironic, the way he died. Aside from his old age, the stress his students caused him also helped trigger the attack. He was a brilliant man. I think he could have been successful in his experiment and saved himself, but after what happened to me, he didn’t think experimenting again was such a good idea. I tried to convince him that it wasn’t so bad, being invisible. But he felt so guilty about changing my life. What he didn’t understand was that he changed it for the better. If he didn’t open this house to me, I don’t know where I would be right now.”

They talked some more until Alexa’s younger sister arrived. He was gone before she knew it, but before that, he said, “Talk to you tomorrow, Alexa.”

The next day Ryan got to learn more about the new resident of his home.

“Don’t get me wrong, Alexa. I like that you’re always at home to keep me company, but I know that’s not the reason why you’re never out.” She could have told him that he was very close to becoming that reason, but she held her tongue. “What is the reason?”

“Well,” she said as she thought the question over. “I don’t know. I mean I do, I just don’t like thinking about it. I think it might be because I didn’t really like going outside as much as the other kids did. I’d probably only go to half of anything that I was invited to. The more things I declined, the less invites I got. Even my own family doesn’t invite me much to anything, like movies, trips to the mall, groceries. I didn’t mind it so much then, but it would be nice to go out at least once in a while.”

“Andrew was the only one who ever invited me anywhere. But I don’t think I can understand how you feel.”

“That’s alright, you don’t have to understand.” She smiled at the seat in front of her, at him. Then she remembered something. “Hey, we got this house pretty cheap. Did you scare away all the other people interested in this?”

At this he released a barking laugh. “I did, actually. They were all so easy to scare. But your parents weren’t even fazed. I was thinking of scaring all of you when you guys moved in but I realized that I missed having someone to share the house with. Plus, I liked your cooking.”

It was Alexa’s turn to release a laugh.

And that was how most of their days were spent. After school and on weekends when the rest of her family wasn’t at home, they would just sit, talk, laugh, and sometimes hold hands when they touched on emotional subjects. Sometimes they would eat together and it never failed to amaze Alexa how Ryan’s food could look like it was eating itself up.

Once, Alexa tried something on Ryan.

“I wonder what you look like,” she told him.

“I wonder myself.” As she imagined what he might look like, her thoughts went back to the day she made those pancakes.

“I know!” she said as she got up from her usual seat and opened a cabinet to get some flour.

“What are you doing?”

She opened the bag and scooped some flour out, a mischievous look on her face. “Finding out what you look like. Stay still now.”

The first few moments were awkward as she accidentally poked his eye and put too much flour up his nose, but she got the hang of it.

“There,” she said as she dabbed the last bit of skin on his face with flour. She wiped the white dust off of her tingling hand and admired her masterpiece. It would have been creepy for anyone else to see a floating white face with invisible eyes under their lids, but Alexa had a different reaction.

Studying his face; his deep set eyes, slightly large nose, and serious mouth; made her realize that she had something on him. A crush. She hadn’t had a crush in years. And she never had a crush that could put those famous butterflies in her stomach.

“How do I look?” he asked.

“Like a ghost.” She pulled him off the seat and followed him to mirror in the hallway. They stood together, a pale girl with long, straight hair, and a white face, floating above and beside hers.

“I just realized something,” he said as he looked at her.

“What? That you’re handsome?” she teased.

“I realized that you just covered me with flour.” She had a confused look on her face as to why he would state the obvious, but it quickly turned to shock as a ball of flour hit her out of nowhere.

Alexa mock growled and told him that he would pay for this before running back to the table where the bag of flour sat. He ran after her, hoping to get to the bag first, but she had a head start and took it away before a dusty, invisible hand could. She flung the contents in the direction of the white face. The floor got most of it, but there was enough on Ryan for Alexa to see that her companion was of a slender build, but not too thin. How could he be when he had someone who cooked good food for him? Alexa’s staring made her susceptible to Ryan’s second attack.

“Gross!” Alexa protested while covering herself with the empty bag still in her hands. “No fair. You’re scooping from the floor. Ew!”

Ryan just laughed in reply, but he stopped when he heard the front door opening. He stood as still as he could until he realized that staying still didn’t make him invisible. As the sound of footsteps came closer, Alexa dropped the bag, took his hand, and ushered him into the bathroom.

They heard a muffled “What the heck?” from Alexa’s younger sister as she must have seen the mess they left. “Alexa? Alexa?”

Alexa heard another laugh come from Ryan. She looked at the crinkly skin surrounding his invisible eyes. “You have a lot of explaining to do. Go.”

But she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to step out of the cramp bathroom. She didn’t want to let go of his hand.

“Alexa?” her sister called again. Ryan started dusting himself off, slowly becoming transparent again. When she couldn’t see him anymore, Alexa stepped out of the bathroom to try to explain the awkward mess. But she couldn’t concentrate, and her sister must have thought she was experiencing cabin fever. But she let it go and went upstairs, and Alexa followed after smiling at the boy that she couldn’t see, but could sense was there.

---

“Are you totally invisible to yourself too?” She asked him one day. She couldn’t get enough of knowing more about him, and he was the same way with her.

“Not exactly. I can see shimmering air where my body part is supposed to be, but I can’t see any details. It looks like the air above a fire without any smoke. I’m really invisible to you? I’ll put my palm right in front of your face. Tell me if you see any sort of difference in your vision.”

Alexa waited and squinted and concentrated really hard. “Nope, I don’t see a thing.”

She was unnaturally quiet then. Ryan could sense something was wrong, but he didn’t know what to say. He just let his hand fall from in front of her face and on top of her own hand. She turned her palm to face his, and their fingers found their place in the spaces between the others. He didn’t have to ask what was wrong. He knew she would explain when she was ready.

“I’m going to bed,” she said.

“Okay,” he said. They both stood up, and she could feel a warm pressure surrounding her body. He was giving her a hug.

The next day it was the start of a three day weekend because it was a non-working holiday on Monday. Alexa woke up to the sound of their car pulling out of their driveway. When she looked out of the window which was facing the street, she could just make out the silhouette of the vehicle and she could see there were some things tied to the roof. Bewildered, Alexa went downstairs and saw nobody.

“Ryan?” At first she was afraid that he wasn’t there either, and she gave a sigh of relief when she heard his voice in front of her.

“Good morning, Alexa,” he said in a light tone.

“Do you know where everybody is?”

“From the snatches of conversation I heard, I think they were going on a mini-vacation near your dad’s parents’ place.”

And just like that, Alexa broke.

“They’re on vacation?!” she screamed, tears in her eyes. She was shocked with her reaction, and so was Ryan. He enveloped her in his invisible arms, and her tears were able to stay unspilled for the moment. He didn’t understand what was going on with her, which caused him to ask the obvious.

“Didn’t they tell you?” She just shook her head against his shoulder. His wet shoulder, as her tears finally spilled at the same time she spilled what has been going on.

She ranted to him that yesterday at school, half of her teachers called on her but still didn’t know her name; that a student she had been classmates with for the last few months made eye contact with her for the first time and asked her if she was new here; and little things happened too like all of her stuff fell out of her locker; and on the way home she got bird poop on her.

“I mean, didn’t that bird see that there was a person under it? And now, just when I felt like I needed a vacation, my family gets the same idea but leaves without me!” She spent a few minutes buried in his shoulder with her eyes closed, her whimpers the only sound in the house. Then she felt a tingle on the top of her head. It took her a while to realize that it was a kiss from Ryan.

She lifted her head up and she felt a kiss again, this time on her forehead. She spent a few moments in calm as she thanked him, but she got worked up again and started ranting again. “Yesterday I really envied you. I wish I were invisible. I don’t want to face the world anymore.”

She felt him kiss her forehead again, and it made her want more. She tried to kiss him, but ended up with his chin. Then he helped her out, and his mouth found hers. This time, she felt more than a tingle. It felt like how he described his transformation months ago, like tiny exploding stars. She felt it on her mouth.

She broke away from the kiss, and the feeling disappeared, but she didn’t want it to. She leaned into him and he kissed her again, and she savored the explosions. She held on to the feeling as long as she could. It traveled from her mouth, to her cheeks, the rest of her head, and the rest of her body. She was consumed with the feeling.

Some people say they saw fireworks when they kissed their true love. Alexa thought exploding stars are better. But best of all, when they stopped and she opened her eyes, she saw a shimmer in the air. As if the fire of her heart caused the air in front of her to change. The shimmer was in the shape of a person.

“Alexa,” it said. She realized that she was seeing Ryan the way that he saw himself ever since he became invisible. “Look at yourself.”

She did, and she gasped. She was just a shimmer in the air too. And she was happy.

“How could this happen?” Ryan said, sounding worried. But Alexa was the farthest thing from worried. She felt as if Professor Andrew was successful with his cure for stress because she got what she wanted.

“Maybe whatever made you invisible stayed in your system. Like, in your saliva?” she offered a guess. It sounded so funny that Ryan laughed and forgot his worry.

He kissed her again, and for the first time in ten years, he felt tiny exploding stars in spreading through his body.

The End