Everyone Sees the Invisible Kid

Jolt 2) Now You See Me

"Well, are you just going to stand there?" She frowned at me. The look of horror and shock coating her face shifted to annoyance.

"You're British," I suddenly voiced the realization aloud. It was bad timing but sometimes I couldn't help blurting out whatever thought decided to rise to the surface of my mind. It was either that or every word would get trapped inside me, building up like a pressure cooker. It was always one way or the other. I always failed to negotiate with my brain to at least give me a fair medium between the two, but nope.

"Correct. And what of it?" She crossed her arms and shifted her weight from one leg to another. The orange basket remained on the ground; the cans scattered around it. I tightened my grip around the can in my hand, remembering I had automatically picked it up. I looked down at it and read the label. Dog food. It was a cheap brand with a minimalistic design. The dog on it looked like Banana when she was a puppy.

"You have a dog?" Another stupid question.

"What? No—I...Do you have any clothes?" She returned a clumsy retort.

"Usually. Yeah," my words came out more sheepish than I intended.

"Um," she began to say until Banana took a sudden interest in her and sprinted towards her. The girl shouted, but her cry evolved into laughter when Banana hopped up on her hind legs and began licking away with spazzy excitement. Her tail swished back and forth like a windshield wiper going full speed.

"Sorry, she normally doesn't do this with strangers," I said, managing to insert a joke, "Usually, the kisses come after the first date."

To my surprise the girl gave a small smile, although it was directed to Banana more so than me, "Classy lady. I like her already."

"This Classy Lady here is Banana. I'm Andy. Kaison. People around here call me the Invisible Boy," Banana finally retreated back to me, and I placed her on the leash again.

She raised an eyebrow and displayed a look that was a mixture of a smirk, sarcasm, and disgust, "You sure they don't call you the Naked Boy?"

"Look, all of this is going to sound pretty weird but nobody else can see me. You're the first person I've met that can."

Her eyebrow raised even higher before dipping into another frown. She shook her head and rolled her eyes as if I'd just told her a cheesy ghost story.

"Alright Andy Kaison," she knelt to the ground and began placing the fallen cans back into the hand basket, "It was um...interesting meeting you, but I've got to get going now. Cheers."

With that, she spun on her heels and headed back towards the way she initially came from. She was like some strange depiction of Little Red Riding Hood, only with a dark hoodie and bright orange basket with random cans instead of bread and milk or whatever.

A wave of dread washed over my body at the sight of her going and the butterflies in my stomach turned into caterpillars and began to gnaw at me. Instantly I wanted to know everything about her—her name, her favorite color, her least favorite food—whether she had any allergies or not—why she had stolen a grocery basket and cans of dog food. I wanted to know it all, because this girl, this stranger was unlike anyone I'd ever met before. She could see me. The real me. She was a single solitary shining needle hidden in a forest of dry and boring haystacks. And she was leaving so soon.

"Can you at least tell me your name?" I shouted to her back, loud enough so she could hear me.

"Tia," she returned the shout without bothering to turn around.

"Tia. Cool. Thanks," my voice barely made it above a whisper. It couldn't get past the knot that was forming in my throat.

I cupped my hands around my mouth like a megaphone and said, "We'll be here, around the same time tomorrow. I won't be naked. Promise!"

Tia turned around and gave a thumbs up—another sarcastic gesture. I wasn't sure how she would respond or if she would at all, but I figured sarcasm was better than the middle finger.

I stood there until she disappeared into the woods. I wanted to follow her and shout out to her, to beg her to come back, but my feet were suddenly glued to the ground and my mouth wouldn't cooperate anymore. Ninety-nine percent of me thought I would never see her again, but a tiny one percent was convinced I would. I clung to that tiny strand of hope with everything I had.