The Inventor's Son

Chapter 5: In Which a Ringing Bell is Nearly a Lad's Undoing

KEARNEY CAME AROUND the corner, and Ethan could see him only from the knees down. Shod with tall black leather boots, Kearney even made an ominous impression when all one could see of him was his feet. "Hide me from my enemies," Ethan breathed, thinking that those words were as good as anything else. And he surely had enough intention to keep the spell on track! He dared to glance down, and saw...nothing!

Thinking he was certainly safe from the fiend now, Ethan felt a rather foreign sensation within him; he felt hope. However, a very strange thing occurred just after Kearney's stomping feet passed by Ethan. The house to which these hedges belonged had a stuck doorbell or some such problem. It was as though someone had stepped up to the front door and starting ringing it over and over again.

Since Ethan believed that Kearney would follow the sound of the doorbell, he moved deeper into the bushes, crackling some twigs while he did so, forgetting that though he may be invisible, he was not inaudible as well! Kearney turned around and swiped the five blades of his hand over the foliage, just missing Ethan's head by a few inches! Terrified, Ethan did not even dare to breathe.

"Kearney! There's nothing there," Pollman said in a hushed tone.

"The boy! I heard him!" Kearney protested.

"It must've been some animal! There's nothing there," Pollman argued. "We've got to get out of here before the-"

The front door of the house whose bell had gone so woefully amok banged open. "For the love of God! Who rings a bell like that? Some worthless truant?"

Kearney turned away from Ethan and gave the homeowner a mangled grin. The unfortunate fellow screamed and slammed his door shut. Kearney roared and charged the front door that had just been slammed. "Come on!" Pollman urged Kearney. Reluctantly, Kearney followed Pollman away from the house and down the street.

Ethan did not dare to move even a tiny amount. He prayed that his shaking did not cause him to move enough to make noise. He'd nearly died just then! If Kearney's claws had come even a bit closer... Ethan knew what he needed to do-return to the shed in his grandmother's backyard.

As he contemplated how he was going to accomplish something that sounded dead simple but in reality could result in his death, he was grabbed! He gasped, but the one who had seized his shoulders, very fortunately, was the good Inspector Huntington! "What're you doing? We need to hurry! I've got every lad on the beat looking for those two bastards!"

"Inspector Huntington, I thought I had made myself invisible!" Ethan protested.

"Invisible? I could see you plain as day!"

"Well, if that is the case, then..." Ethan trailed off. He was confused, and it frustrated him that he could not take the time to solve the riddle of how Liam could see him while he was invisible. After all, Pollman had just convinced Kearney that Ethan was not right under him waiting to be sliced up like a holiday ham. Either way, Liam was correct; they had to move.

Ethan led Liam back to the Ballard house. The journey took several minutes, on account of Ethan's sudden, nearly overwhelming weakness. Liam noticed Ethan's weakness and propped him up without a word.

Ethan was certain that part of his exhaustion stemmed from his invisibility trick. That was the first time he'd done something like that, and it actually worked! He convinced himself that it was a fluke and he'd better not attempt such a stunt again in the future.

They did not realize that someone had been tracking them quite diligently. This individual eventually made himself known by running in front of them. Ethan grinned with relief. "Sam! Thank God you've escaped! We're getting back to Grandmother's house..." Sam nodded and scurried ahead.