A Chance Meeting

Introductions

The eleven-year-old was completely flummoxed now.

What in the hell just happened? The policeman just stepped through the body of that man.

Her thoughts were running wild for a possible explanation for the bizarre event she had just witnessed.

Am I going mad? I can still see the tattered young man lying on the grass, someone no one seems to notice, not even the two policemen standing right next to me. Did I just imagine all these events? Is that man even real? I'm way past the age to make up stuff like this in my head.

The two policemen who were asked to watch her kept giving her weird looks. Of course, they have their doubts about the story.

In their perspective, I had just pointed to an empty space and told them that their man was lying there. They must be thinking that I'm over the bend.

Did the break-in really happen? I was lonely and bored and then suddenly my house gets broken in by some guy. But why would I imagine stuff up that makes me so scared and petrified that I would be afraid for my life? It doesn't make any sense to me.

The man was still lying on the floor apparently unconscious of her hit. She had been able to strike him on the head and render him unconscious, while the others were not even able to see or touch him. This gave more credence to her theory that this was all inside her head. But why on earth would she make up something like this was beyond her.

One of the policemen, Bradley was calling her parents and she had no idea what she would tell her parents about this.

Something about this entire thing still didn't feel right to her. She had heard the loud crash coming from the basement. She could have imagined it, but still, she had found the windows shattered and glass lying all over the floor. Something must have done that, most likely her imaginary intruder. She had seen him open the front door as well. He could touch things he wanted to if he could use the doorknob. And obviously, she could interact with him considering that she had knocked him out. The only real way to know the truth about the man was to find the evidence of breaking in and shattered windows in the basement. But then again, she could have done that herself if this was all supposed to be her imagination.

This is not real, this is not real. She kept repeating this mantra over and over in her head, hoping that the man would disappear. But still, she could see him lying on the grass.

Would he wake up and try to hurt her? None of these people could even see or touch him. They won't be able to protect me. They wouldn't even believe me if I told them. They would think that I'm just going nuts over fear.

She was rummaging her head, trying to think of a solution for this seemingly impossible situation when she noticed that some of the policemen that went in were coming back.

"Looks like he got away," the policeman said to her.

"The windows to the basement were broken in as you said, but there is no sign of him inside the house. He must have bolted out before we came here."

She didn't say anything back to him. The house was broken in. She hadn't imagined that part. That means that most likely, she hadn't imagined the man either. But that didn't make any sense to her as she was the only one able to interact with him. That also made her feel very scared now as to how to deal with the man when he eventually woke up. She could just thwack him in the head again. But she didn't tell the policemen about the invisible intruder again. It won't do any good for her right now.

"We will stay here with you till your parents get here," the policemen told her.

But she wasn't paying any attention to him now. Because at that moment the unconscious man had started stirring and no one else seemed to notice it. He slowly got up, nursing the back of his head where she had hit him. He looked around and noticed the police were there and then he spotted her.