Untouchable

Chapter Four

Meg

“Meg! Time for dinner!” called my brother from downstairs.

                I had been up in my room since coming home from the beach. When I walked in, I set the basket of shells on the dining room table and ran upstairs without a word. I caught my dad’s eye, and he must have seen something in my face, because he said my name with a questioning tone. I just ignored him and ran to my room, locking the door.

                I walked had over to my bed and sat down, put my head in my hands, and tried to stop my body from shaking. What the hell just happened? There was something seriously wrong here, and I feared I might be going crazy. At first I thought it might have just been my imagination, but then I went over what happened – the shadow, the hand grabbing me – and decided that it must have been real. I mean, if you see it, and you feel it, it must be there, right?

                But the only thing I saw was its shadow, I reason. There must be some logical explanation… maybe some sort of government experiment gone wrong, or maybe I’m just having a mental breakdown.

                Whatever the reason, I stayed upstairs until it was time for dinner, thinking about all the horrible things that it – whatever it was – could be.

                So, when I heard my brother yell for dinner, I slowly unlocked my door and stepped outside into the hall. I made my way to the bathroom to wash up and then headed downstairs to the dining room. I could smell the meat from upstairs, and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw the wonderful steaks sitting at our spots on the table. My dad knew I loved a nicely BBQed steak, and must have made it special for my birthday. The last time we had steak was when…

                “Hey, mind grabbing some drinks from the fridge before we sit down?” asked my dad, who had stuck his head in from the kitchen. He must have been finishing up vegetables or something.

                “Sure,” I replied blandly. I went into the kitchen and poured us three glasses of water. I could see the veggie of choice tonight was green beans. Yum.

                “C’mon guys, I’m starving out here!” said Marcus, who had just appeared on his seat.

                “Well maybe it would help if you gave us a hand at bringing stuff out, moron.” I told him.

                “Now guys, none of that please,” said my dad. We both bring out the rest of the meal, and sit down to start. Before my brother is about to take a huge bite of steak, when my dad said: “A toast to Meg, whose birthday we have the absolute pleasure of celebrating.”

                “Blah blah blah, yay Meg, now let’s eat!” said my brother, clinking our glasses together. He picks up his utensils and starts devouring his steak.

                The food is delicious, as usual, but my heart just wasn’t into it today. My dad must have noticed, because he asked me what was wrong.

                “Why the long face, bud? The steak no good?” asked my dad.

                “No, it’s good, my mind is just… elsewhere,” I replied vaguely.

                “Oh, alright. Well, you know you can always tell me anything, honey,” he looked at me with a knowing face. I wondered if I should tell him about what happened at the beach this afternoon, when Marcus beat me to it.

                “Maybe she’s just crazy from whatever freaked her out at the beach,” said Marcus.

                “What?! Uh, no, that’s not it at all!” I said, although unconvincingly.

                “Why? What happened at the beach?” asked my dad.

                “No-nothing at all, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing,” I said more forcefully.

                “She freaked out for no reason, screeching and all!” laughed my brother.

                “I was not screeching!” I said sharply, “I just thought I saw… a crab?” Wow, that sounded lame.

                “Don’t worry, honey, crabs won’t hurt you if you don’t bother them. In fact, they are probably more scared of you that you are of them,” said my dad.

                “Sure. That’s it.” Phew, that’s over with. “Anywho, Dad, have you signed us up for school next year?” I tried to change the subject. But I also wanted to know the answer to the question. My dad could be forgetful at times.

                “Yes, as a matter of fact I did. You’re all set for grade 12 in September. We have an appointment with the guidance councillor the Friday before school starts,” replied my dad.

                “What about me?” asked my brother.

                “It’s grade seven for you at the local elementary school. And what’s really cool, it that it’s only a ten minutes’ walk from here.”

                “Wow, that’s awesome! I can leave whenever I want!” exclaims Marcus happily.

                “Yes, but it also means some responsibility as well…” my dad went on to give my brother the speech about how he always need to be on time, that it’s an opportunity for him to be independent, and so on. I just continued to eat my food in silence, glad that the attention was off me.

                I then started to think about what happened some more. I think if I was to figure anything about this strange phenomenon out, then I would have to consult the oracle. That is, Google.

***

                After dinner, I excused myself and headed upstairs. It was my brother’s turn to do dishes, so I was off the hook. I booted up my computer and searched up ‘weird shadows on the beach’, but all I got was stuff about evil spirits that go bump in the night. All were claimed to have been seen only by hallucinations and stuff.  And at night. So that theory was out.

                Then it hit me. I thought, what if this thing has a shadow, and it’s invisible. Because then it would still be there and able to touch me, but not be seen. So I searched up ‘invisible people’, but again, nothing like what I saw – or didn’t see? – was documented, or even suggested. So much for theory two. I laid back on my bed.

                What the hell am I dealing with?

                “The shadow… the shadow in the sand… the shadow…” I said to myself.

                Wait a second.

                The shadow was in the shape of… a person. Maybe it’s actually a real person. Maybe this person can talk to me, tell me what he or she is, who they are, what they are doing here. Maybe I can find out their name, where they live, and… why they are invisible in the first place.

                Well, I should at least wait until tomorrow; get some questions together before I barge off to interrogate this person, whoever it is. My mind was made up.

                I was determined to seek out this invisible person the next day. 

 

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