Invisible (5 page)

A deep satisfaction settles over me as I watch my mother and the salesgirl in their frantic search. I stroll over to a comfy looking chair and sit. It’s interesting that I can manage to sit or even bump into things and hurt myself while invisible, but when I try to grab something or someone, my hand passes right through.

I watch for a while longer, as Mom and the salesgirl, whose name I’ve since discovered is Anna, run around searching for me in the most ridiculous of places. They peer in every change room and even check behind the sales counter and storage room in the back of the store. How on earth would I have gotten from the change room to the storage room without anyone seeing? That is, if I weren’t invisible.

The store manager, a tall lanky blonde with a superior attitude picks up the phone and I hear her talking to mall security.

Oh no! I stand, wave my arms and scream at the top of my lungs. It was fun watching Mom get all panicky while looking for me, but I don’t need the added drama of a security guard. Then maybe even the cops. “Hey, I’m here. I’m right here.”

What if I never come back? There’s no doubt I’ve been gone longer than my past record of a little over two minutes. But exactly how long, I don’t know; five, six minutes? My heart bangs against my ribs and I begin to hyperventilate.

“
Oh, God, Lola! Where have you been?” Mom cries and wraps her arms around me. I’m met with a face full of hair. With her heels and piled up hair, Mom’s almost my height. I squeeze back and let out a long breath of relief. My heart slows, and my breathing becomes regular, but my legs are still a little rubbery.

I’ve drawn a crowd. Anna and the manager hang back with the shoppers. A low applause erupts from the on-lookers and suddenly I feel a little guilty, not to mention like a five-year-old reunited with her mother after being lost in Wal-Mart.

“
Where were you?”

“
I was sitting right there the whole time. You haven’t been listening to a thing I’ve said and I suppose you didn’t see me because you didn’t want to.” I feign indignation.

“
How in the world could I do that? It wasn’t just me looking for you,” she replies, confusion settling on her face.

“
Well, I was right there.” I point to the chair.

“
But… but… how in the world…?”

“
It doesn’t matter, Mom. I’m fine and I’m right here, so can we go back and get the black dress?”

The manager and Anna the salesgirl have gone back to work and the crowd has dissipated. Mom pulls a compact from her purse and applies another coat of lipstick on her collagen-enhanced lips and pats her hair back in place. Settling her nerves seems to include a bit of preening.

“
Oh, okay, if that’s what you want, honey,” she says absently, looking a million miles away.

I smile. “Yeah. That’s what I want.”

Chapter Nine

Victory is mine. Well, sort of.

I still have to go to the grad dance and I have to wear a friggin’ dress, but I suppose I won because Mom bought the one I kinda liked. I shoved it in my closet as soon as we got home, and there it can stay until I absolutely have no choice but to wear it. Mom even relented on the jewelry. My little disappearing act threw enough of a scare into her that she let me get what
I
wanted. All that’s left are my shoes, but I convinced her to get them another time. I’m hoping to go to the mall on my own, or with Charlie, to pick them. Shoe shopping with Mom is another nightmare I could do without.

It’s Sunday morning and time for my visit with Grandma Rose. I slip out of the house before anyone’s up and don’t bother to leave a note, figuring they’ll know where I am. As I approach the park where I was almost beaten up a week ago, I quicken my pace, even though no one’s there at this hour. I keep my gaze trained straight ahead, completely ignoring the corner of Whiteside and Moorehouse. The heat of humiliation flushes my cheeks and I fight back tears as I remember what they did to me, and that Jon was there to witness it.

By the time I get to Gran’s and slip the key into the lock of her apartment door, I realize I’d clenched my jaw the whole way over, causing an uncomfortable ache. With thumbs, I
rub at the place where the bones meet, trying to unlock the tension there.

“
Is that my darling granddaughter?” Gran calls from her usual spot in the solarium.

My spirits lift when I hear her voice and I abandon my massage. Gran’s company is all I’ll need to help me relax. “Hi, Grandma Rose,” I answer, making my way over to have a look at her latest creation.

“
Do you like it?” she asks, grinning from ear to ear.

I’m faced with an unrecognizable blob of paint vaguely in the shape of a human face. My eyes search frantically for the photo Gran inevitably uses while painting, and find nothing.

“
I did this one out of my imagination,” she proclaims proudly. “I think I’ve gotten good enough to not need a picture.”

“
Yeah, Gran, you did a great job,” I lie.

“
Guess who it is.”

“
Um.” I quickly search my mental database for Gran’s favorite entertainers, but I can’t even tell if she’s painted a man or a woman.

“
Frank Sinatra,” I say, knowing he’s her all-time favorite.

Gran’s smile goes out and her shoulders slump. “Aw, hell. It’s Katy Perry. I painted it for you ’cause I know you like her.”

“
That would have been my second guess. Most definitely, as a matter of fact, I was going to guess Katy Perry but…”

Grandma raises a paint-speckled hand and laughs. “It’s okay, Kiddo. This one stinks. I guess the best place for it’s the garbage chute at the end of the hall.” She takes it from the easel and starts for the door.

“
No,” I say quickly. “Leave it. When it’s dry, I’ll take it home.”

She narrows her eyes. “You sure?”

“
Absolutely! I’ll hang it over my bed.”

“
Okay,” she says, swinging it back onto the easel. “It’ll take a day or two to dry. I used oils this time.”

I sniff the air and turn in the direction of the kitchen. “Is something burning?”

“
Oh, shit!” Gran rushes past me to the kitchen and pulls open the oven door.

I follow her in time to see a pan of charcoal black disks, smoking and crumbling.

“
Damn it. I wanted to make your favorite cookies. You know, the ones you just have to slice and plop on the pan. The
foolproof
, a monkey can bake ’em ones.”

Grandma Rose isn’t much of a baker and the only two dishes I’ve ever seen her cook were pasta with tomato sauce from a jar, and Shake ’n Bake chicken wings.

“
It’s okay. I shouldn’t be eating cookies anyway. Mom just bought me a new dress for grad and I have to be able to fit into it next month,” I say, patting my belly.

Grandma throws the pan, burned up cookies and all, into the sink and turns on the water. A black river runs off it and down the drain.

“
Lola, don’t you worry about your figure. That’s your mom talking.”

We move into the living room and sit. I find my usual corner of the couch and Gran settles in the armchair across from me. The room is small and cluttered, but I find it cosy. Family pictures are everywhere and most of them are of me. I know I’m her favorite without her ever having said so.

“
I know I’m fat. I’m a big, fat giant. Look at you. I’m not like you. I’m not like Mom, or Eva or anyone else in the family except Dad’s Uncle Sammy,” I say emphatically.

“
Lola!” Gran says, like I’m in trouble. “Stop it right now. I don’t like hearing you talk about yourself that way.” She rests a gnarled hand on my knee. “Stop hating yourself, honey. It hurts my heart.”

I take a deep breath to keep from crying and clutch her hand. “I just want to be like everyone else. I want to be pretty and have lots of friends and… a boyfriend.” My gaze darts away and settles on the floor.

She lifts my chin with a finger. “You will. Don’t you worry. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.” Gran bites her bottom lip and I can tell she wants to say something else. She turns away, and then looks back at me out of the corner of her eye.

I lean forward in anticipation. But she just squeezes my hand and smiles.

“
Gran? What were you going to say?”

“
Huh?”

“
It looked like you wanted to tell me something.”

She gives me another contemplative look and sighs. “Has anything… out of the ordinary happened to you lately?”

“
Like?”

“
Oh, I don’t know, just anything that may seem impossible, but it’s happening anyway?” she says quickly, then studies my expression.

I freeze.
Is she talking about what I think she’s talking about?

Chapter Ten

“
Lola, honey,” Grandma explains, “out of our whole family, you and I are the most alike. Now, we may not be the same size, but we definitely look like we’re related. You’ve got dark curly hair like I have or
used
to.” She laughs. “And blue eyes. I’m you in miniature. I’m a heck of a lot shorter but I’ve got the same sturdiness to me. It’s your mom and Eva who are different. They’re your Grandpa Ken all the way, so fine boned and delicate. Did you know that you and I even have the same blood type?” She cocks a brow.

“
No. I don’t even know what my blood type is. How do you know we’ve got the same blood?”

Gran grins. “It was the first thing I asked when you were born. You’re A-negative just like me. You and I are the only ones in the family with that type of blood besides your great-great-grandmother Nell. She was my grand-mother and she had it too. It’s very rare, ya know.”

“
Ahhh,” I say, wondering where this is all going.

“
It first happened to me right around your age,” Grandma Rose says with a nod. “I suspect it’s happened to you by now too. It’s all right, you can tell me.” Gran’s eyes are huge as she gazes hopefully at me.

I hug myself tight around my middle and decide to tell her, only I’m hoping we’re talking about the same thing and that she’s not just asking if I’ve gotten my period by now or something.

“
You’re talking about
vanishing
, right?” I cringe a little, bracing for her reply.

“
Oh, heavens, yes. So it’s happened!” Gran is on her feet, doing a little happy dance. “I knew it would. I just knew it!”

An overwhelming sense of relief washes over me and I smile. “How did you know?”

“
Because you’re like me. Didn’t you hear what I just told you? We’ve got the same blood, Lola, the same DNA.”

“
You mean, you can disappear too?” My heart quickens.

“
Well, no, not any more, but I did when I was younger. I had a name for it. I called it The Vanishing.”

“
The Vanishing,” I repeat
.
I like the sound of that. “So then The Vanishing will eventually go away?”

“
It did for me and I suspect when the time is right, it will for you, too.”

I purse my lips and nod slowly, contemplating what Gran’s just told me. My ability’s so new. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet. It’s a pain in the ass and can scare the crap outta me, but I would be sad to see it go so soon, especially now that I’m gaining a little control over it. I wouldn’t want to deal with it forever, though, so Gran’s words are reassuring.

I pull my legs up under me and make myself comfortable. There’s much to learn about The Vanishing and I want to know it all. “So, tell me about when it first happened to you. How old were you? Where were you? What were you doing? Is there any way to control it?”

Grandma Rose holds up both hands. “Slow your roll there, honey. We’ve got all afternoon.” She gets to her feet and pulls me from my comfy corner of the couch. “Come on, let’s walk and talk.”

* * * *

“
I can’t believe it, Gran, why didn’t you tell me sooner? It would have been nice to know what to expect, ya know,” I say as we circle the track around the small man-made lake at the end of her apartment complex.

Grandma giggles. “Now, how would that have sounded? ‘Lola, one day you’ll simply vanish, but don’t worry, you’ll return to the visible spectrum,
eventually
.’ It woulda scared ya too much. Besides, I didn’t know for sure that it would happen to you.”

I strip off my jacket and tie it around my waist. The warmth of the late spring sun feels good on my face. “Well, then why did you bring it up now?”

“
Funny thing is, I saw it on your face.”

Fooling Grandma Rose is near impossible. She always knows how I feel. Maybe that’s in the DNA too.

I give Gran the details of my first experience and then tell her about the times after. I tell her how I practice with Charlie and that I’ve been able to vanish for longer and longer periods.

“
Good for you, honey. You’re a smart girl and you’re doing all the right things. Practising is great. Keep it up.”