Chapter One
I have always been different. Not because I look weird. I have straight blonde shoulder-length hair, tanned skin, brilliant blue eyes, and am 5’ 3”. I was as normal looking as a 13 year-old girl could be. Yet there was something about me that was definitely wrong, and all of the 6.8 square miles of Whitney, Nevada knew that something was off about the Bender’s little girl. That’s me, Melanie Bender - the little girl.
Whitney, Nevada didn’t know what was wrong with me, but my family sure did, and in a town this small a secret can’t be kept too long and my secret was pretty big - I can turn invisible.
Before I carry on, let me introduce you to my family. Let’s start with my mom, for she’s the glue that holds my family together. Mandy Bender is what you would call “big boned,” not fat… just “big boned,” she has thick, curly, dirty blonde hair that’s always pinned back into a neat bun smack in the middle of her head, bright blue eyes that sparkle in the midday sun, and a towering height of 5’ 11”. My dad might as well be from another planet. He’s a skinny little guy with grey eyes and mousy brown hair that’s always tucked underneath a worn gray Boston Red Sox cap. Compared to my mom, he’s a midget; at the height of 5’ 6” my mom towers over him. As for me, I fit right in the middle.
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For me, turning invisible is easy. It's a tingling feeling that starts at the tips of my toes and then travels upward, a bit like you’re butter melting on a hot pan, then, suddenly, poof! You're gone. Invisible. The first time I turned invisible I was only two years old, and my mom totally freaked out, after all, I am her only child. She ran all over the house screaming my name, I had no idea what was happening; I thought I was right there. A few minutes later though, I reappeared right in front of my mother, leaving her completely baffled.
I didn’t realize I was different until I turned eight, and that one day changed my life forever. I was at school, Bright Woods Elementary, and we were cutting out cute little snowflakes for our Christmas concert next week. The room was filled with scraps of paper flying this way and that, buzzing with holiday joy and the noise level steadily rising. The noise was starting to bother me so I thought, why not turn invisible and just work on my snowflake outside? Unfortunately, as I was turning invisible, Mary Lee Turner, the class gossiper, spotted me in my seat one second and gone the next, with my scissors floating midair. At first, I guess she thought it was a trick of the light or something, I don’t really know. All I do know is that she figured out what happened and told Miss Goldwin, our third grade teacher. Miss Goldwin looked around, checked outside the room, and even checked the bathrooms and the school yard to see where I had gotten to. Unfortunately, as she was coming back into the classroom, I reappeared right in front of her eyes. Big mistake.
After that day, the whole town looked at me differently; news can get around pretty fast in such a small town in the middle of Nebraska. People started wondering what was wrong with me, wondering what was wrong with my family. Word got out about the “invisible girl,” and a lot of scientists, doctors, and journalists started appearing at our doorstep; wanting to have a peek at this girl. Suddenly our little town in Nebraska wasn’t so little anymore. Mom didn’t even let me leave the house alone anymore, for the fear that one of these “foreigners” would pick me up and take me.
One day, on December 23rd, when I was eleven years old, we ran out of firewood and the winter winds found their way into my home. Mom was busy preparing dinner and Dad was taking a nap so she asked me to quickly bring in a bundle from the side of the house. She didn’t see any harm in it, after all, I was barely stepping off the front porch. Boy was she wrong. I stepped outside and the first breath I took was harsh and cold. As I was struggling to pick up a bundle of wood, a gloved hand covered my mouth. The stranger took out a piece of cloth and tied it over my mouth. Tight. He took out a cloth bag and stuffed me in it, not caring that he was pulling out my hair in the process. I wanted to wail in agony but I couldn’t, the stranger took the bag and roughly swung it over his shoulder.
I had been kidnapped.
