Somewhere In-Between ~ An Adventure in the Afterlife

CHAPTER 10 - CARL'S RECORDER

Although being invisible felt like a sort of superpower, it wasn't much fun because the only person to laugh with was Lizzie, who was in no mood to enjoy his antics. Max mimicked the teacher's motions in front of class, stand inches from a teacher's face and stick out his tongue, or sit in the teacher's chair with his feet propped up on the desk. Nothing worked. Lizzie just buried her head and pretended not to see him through every class.

As they stood in line to board the bus back home, Max complained. "You're no fun at all, Liz."

Lizzie whispered, "I'm not talking to you, Max, until we're off the bus, okay?"

"You just make it so hard to have fun! You're way too serious, Liz. Come on, you have to admit – when I messed with Ms. Davis's whiteboard, that was pretty funny."

Liz held her flushed face in her hands, remembering. Somehow Max figured out how to switch files around within the computer. Instead of today's Algebra assignment, an enormous photograph was displayed on the smartboard of a selfie Ms. Davis had taken at Disneyworld with Mickey Mouse. "I can't believe you did that, Max," she mumbled under her breath.

"My favorite was when I kept poking Mr. Carpenter in the back. He was so clueless. It was hilarious! He kept thinking there was something crawling in the back of his shirt – ha!" Max laughed.

Lizzie just rolled her eyes and shook her head with disapproval. "Thank goodness the bus is finally here," she muttered, and followed the line to get into her seat. Max sat by the driver again, and Liz gave him a warning glare to behave himself.

Liz put her ear buds back in and turned on her MP3 player. Peter Gabriel again. She flipped forward to Salisbury Hill, and her eyes wandered over to Carl who sat in the bench seat across the aisle, one seat ahead of her. She always wondered about his tape recorder. Everyone did, but whenever someone asked him about it, he would dodge the subject. Most people thought it was creepy, wondering if he was taping gossip to blackmail other students. But that didn't make sense, because there was nothing secretive about carrying around a big bulky tape recorder that looked like it came from the 1970's. If he was secretly taping people, shouldn't he use a smaller gadget like an iPhone? She saw Carl fumble with his bulky cassette recorder, and placed some equally bulky headphones over his ears. Seriously, Lizzie, thought, does this kid even know about modern technology?

Lizzie didn't realize she was still watching Carl, who was in his own little world. She was just beginning to zone out herself, remembering her father as she listened to one of his favorite tunes. But suddenly she noticed Carl almost jump in his seat, grasping the headphones on his ears, letting out a yelp! The sound and motion got her attention, and she squinted at him curiously. Since he was across the aisle a seat ahead of her, she could only see a portion of his face. She saw him lean forward over the recorder and press the rewind button. His posture was intense. As he pressed play, even from her line of sight she could see that his eyes were wide as saucers as he listened and turned the volume knob up on his machine. She heard him gasp again, and rewind... again... and again... and again.

Finally Carl stopped, taking off his headphones. He took out his pad of paper and scribbled down another note. When he tucked the pad back in his pocket, he seemed to sense her looking at him. He turned his head slowly and his expression spooked her. It was the look of a person who had just discovered a great secret.