by R. L. Stine
I turned and shoved him back a few steps. “Get out of my face,” I said. “Your breath stinks.”
That started another stupid argument, of course.
I was sorry I’d ever come up here. I should have stayed in bed, I realized.
Finally, I persuaded him to stand a foot away from me. A major victory.
Yawning, I turned back to the mirror. I was starting to feel sleepy. Maybe it was because of the heat of the attic. Maybe it was because I was tired of arguing with my dopey brother. Or maybe it was because it was really late at night, and I was tired.
“I’m going to turn on the light,” I told him, reaching for the chain. “Tell me if I go invisible again.”
“No.” He shoved his way right next to me again. “I want to try it, too.”
“No way,” I insisted, shoving back.
“Yes way.” He pushed me hard.
I pushed back. Then I had a better idea. “How about if we both stand in front of the mirror, and I pull the light chain?”
“Okay. Go ahead.” Standing an inch in front of it, practically nose to nose with his reflection, Lefty stiffened until he was standing at attention.
He looked ridiculous, especially in those awful green pajamas.
I stepped up beside him. “Here goes nothing,” I said.
I stretched my hand up, grabbed the light chain, and pulled.
The light on top of the mirror flashed.
“Ow!” I cried out. The light was so bright, it hurt my eyes.
Then it quickly dimmed, and my eyes started to adjust.
I turned to Lefty and started to say something. I don’t remember what it was. It completely flew out of my mind when I realized that Lefty was gone.
“L-Lefty?” I stammered.
“I’m right here,” he replied. His voice sounded nearby, but I couldn’t see him. “Max — where are you?”
“You can’t see me?” I cried.
“No,” Lefty said. “No, I can’t.”
I could smell his sour breath, so I knew he was there. But he was invisible. Gone. Out of sight.
So they weren’t putting me on! Erin, April, and Lefty had been telling the truth on Saturday after my birthday party. I really had gone invisible.
And now I was invisible again, along with my brother.
“Hey, Max,” his voice sounded tiny, shaky. “This is weird.”
“Yeah. It’s weird, okay,” I agreed. “You really can’t see me, Lefty?”
“No. And I can’t see myself,” he said.
The mirror. I had forgotten to check out the mirror.
Did I have a reflection?
I turned and stared into the mirror. The light was pouring down from the top of the frame, casting a bright glare over the glass.
Squinting into the glare, I saw … nothing.
No me.
No Lefty.
Just the reflection of the wall behind us and the open doorway leading to the rest of the attic.
“We — we don’t have reflections,” I said.
“It’s kinda cool,” Lefty remarked. He grabbed my arm. I jumped in surprise.
“Hey!” I cried.
It felt creepy to be grabbed by an invisible person.
I grabbed him back. I tickled his ribs. He started to laugh.
“We still have our bodies,” I said. “We just can’t see them.”
He tried to tickle me, but I danced away from him.
“Hey, Max, where’d you go?” he called, sounding frightened again.
“Try and find me,” I teased, backing toward the wall.
“I — I can’t,” he said shakily. “Come back over here, okay?”
“No way,” I said. “I don’t want to be tickled.”
“I won’t,” Lefty swore. “I promise.”
I stepped back in front of the mirror.
“Are you here?” Lefty asked timidly.
“Yeah. I’m right beside you. I can smell your bad breath,” I told him.
And he started to tickle me again. The little liar.
We wrestled around for a bit. It was just so strange wrestling with someone you couldn’t see.
Finally, I pushed him away. “I wonder if we could go downstairs and still be invisible,” I said. “I wonder if we could leave the house like this.”
“And go spy on people?” Lefty suggested.
“Yeah,” I said. I yawned. I was starting to feel a little strange. “We could go spy on girls and stuff.”
“Cool,” Lefty replied.
“Remember that old movie Mom and Dad were watching on TV?” I asked him. “About the ghosts who kept appearing and disappearing all the time? They had a lot of fun scaring people. You know, playing jokes on them, driving them crazy.”
“But we’re not ghosts,” Lefty replied in a trembling voice. I think the idea kind of frightened him.
It frightened me, too!
“Could we go back to normal now?” Lefty asked. “I don’t feel right.”
“Me, neither,” I told him. I was feeling very light. Kind of fluttery. Just … weird.
“How can we get back right again?” he asked.
“Well, the last time, I just pulled the chain. I clicked the light off, and I was back. That’s all it took.”
“Well, do it,” Lefty urged impatiently. “Right now. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.” I started to feel kind of dizzy. Kind of light. As if I could float away or something.
“Hurry,” Lefty said. I could hear him breathing hard.
I reached up and grabbed the light chain. “No problem,” I told him. “We’ll be back in a second.”
I pulled the chain.
The light went out.
But Lefty and I didn’t return.
“Max — I can’t see you!” Lefty whined.
“I know,” I replied quietly. I felt so frightened. I had chills running down my back, chills that wouldn’t stop. “I can’t see you, either.”
“What happened?” Lefty cried. I could feel him tug at my invisible arm.
“I — I don’t know,” I stammered. “It worked before. I clicked off the light and I was back.”
I gazed into the mirror. No reflection. Nothing.
No me. No Lefty.
I stood there, staring at the spot where our reflections should be, frozen with fear. I was glad Lefty couldn’t see me because I wouldn’t want him to see how frightened I looked.
“Try it again, Max,” he whined. “Please. Hurry!”
“Okay,” I said. “Just try to stay calm, okay?”
“Stay calm? How?” Lefty wailed. “What if we never get back? What if no one can ever see us again?”
I suddenly felt so sick. My stomach just sort of heaved.
Get a grip, I told myself. You’ve got to keep it together, Max. For Lefty’s sake.
I stretched up for the light chain, but it seemed to be out of my reach.
I tried again. Missed.
And then suddenly, I was back. And so was Lefty.
We could see each other. And we could see our reflections in the mirror.
“We’re back!” We both shouted it in unison.
And then we both fell on the floor, laughing. We were so relieved. So happy.
“Ssshh!” I grabbed Lefty and shoved my hand over his mouth. I just remembered it was the middle of the night. “If Mom and Dad catch us up here, they’ll kill us,” I warned, whispering.
“Why did it take so long for us to come back?” Lefty asked, turning serious, gazing at his reflection.
I shrugged. “Beats me.” I thought about it. “Maybe if you stay invisible longer, it takes longer for you to get back,” I suggested.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“The first time I went invisible,” I told him, “it was only for a few seconds. And I came back instantly, as soon as I clicked off the light. But tonight —”
“We stayed invisible a lot longer. So it took longer to come back. I get it,” Lefty said.
/> “You’re not as dumb as you look,” I said, yawning.
“You are!” he snapped back.
Feeling totally exhausted, I started to lead the way out of the tiny room, motioning for Lefty to follow me. But he hesitated, glancing back at his reflection in the mirror.
“We have to tell Mom and Dad about the mirror,” he whispered thoughtfully.
“No way!” I told him. “No way we’re telling them. If we tell them about it, they’ll take it away. They won’t let us use it.”
He stared at me thoughtfully. “I’m not sure I want to use it,” he said softly.
“Well, I do,” I said, turning at the doorway to look back at it. “I want to use it just one more time.”
“What for?” Lefty asked, yawning.
“To scare Zack,” I said, grinning.
* * *
Zack couldn’t come over until Saturday. As soon as he arrived, I wanted to take him up to the attic and give him a demonstration of the mirror’s powers.
Mainly, I wanted to scare the life out of him!
But Mom insisted that we sit down for lunch first. Canned chicken noodle soup and peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.
I gulped my soup as fast as I could, not bothering to chew the noodles. Lefty kept giving me meaningful glances across the table. I could see that he was as eager as I was to scare Zack.
“Where’d you get that haircut?” my mom asked Zack. She walked around the table, staring at Zack’s head, frowning. I could tell she hated it.
“At Quick Cuts,” Zack told her after swallowing a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly. “You know. At the mall.”
We all studied Zack’s haircut. I thought it was kind of cool. The way it was buzzed so short on the left, then hung down long on the right.
“It’s different, all right,” my mom said.
We all could tell she hated it. But I guess she thought she was covering up by calling it different. If I ever came home with a haircut like that, she’d murder me!
“What did your mom say about it?” she asked Zack.
Zack laughed. “Not much.”
We all laughed. I kept glancing up at the clock. I was so eager to get upstairs.
“How about some chocolate cupcakes?” Mom asked when we’d finished our sandwiches.
Zack started to say yes, but I interrupted him. “Can we have dessert later? I’m kinda full.”
I pushed back my chair and got up quickly, motioning for Zack to follow me. Lefty was already running to the stairs.
“Hey — where are you going so fast?” Mom called after us, following us into the hall.
“Uh … upstairs … to the attic,” I told her.
“The attic?” She wrinkled her face, puzzled. “What’s so interesting up there?”
“Uh … just a bunch of old magazines,” I lied. “They’re kind of funny. I want to show them to Zack.” That was pretty fast thinking, for me. I’m usually not very quick at making up stories.
Mom stared at me. I don’t think she believed me. But she turned back to the kitchen. “Have fun, guys. Don’t get too dirty up there.”
“We won’t,” I told her. I led Zack up the steep stairs. Lefty was already waiting for us in the attic.
It was about a hundred degrees hotter up there. I started to sweat the second I stepped into the room.
Zack stopped a few feet behind me and looked around. “It’s just a lot of old junk. What’s so interesting up here?” he asked.
“You’ll see,” I said mysteriously.
“This way,” Lefty called eagerly, running to the little room against the far wall. He was so excited, he dropped his softball. It rolled in front of him, and he tripped over it and fell facedown on the floor with a thud.
“I meant to do that!” Lefty joked, climbing up quickly and leaping after the ball, which had rolled across the floor.
“Your brother is made of rubber or something.” Zack laughed.
“Falling down is his hobby,” I said. “He falls down about a hundred times a day.” I wasn’t exaggerating.
A few seconds later, the three of us were in the hidden room standing in front of the mirror. Even though it was a sunny afternoon, the room was as dark and shadowy as ever.
Zack turned from the mirror to me, a bewildered look on his face. “This is what you wanted to show me?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Since when are you into furniture?” he asked.
“It’s an interesting mirror, don’t you think?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “Not too interesting.”
Lefty laughed. He bounced his softball off the wall and caught it.
I was deliberately taking my time. Zack was in for the surprise of his life, but I wanted to confuse him a little bit first. He was always doing stuff like that to me. He always acted as if he knew everything there was to know, and if I were good, he’d share a little bit of his knowledge with me.
Well, now I knew something he didn’t know. I wanted to stretch this moment out, make it last.
But at the same time, I couldn’t wait to watch the look on Zack’s face when I disappeared right in front of his eyes.
“Let’s go outside,” Zack said impatiently. “It’s too hot up here. I brought my bike. Why don’t we ride to the playground behind school, see who’s there?”
“Maybe later,” I replied, grinning at Lefty. I turned to my brother. “Should I show Zack our secret or not?”
Lefty grinned back at me. He shrugged.
“What secret?” Zack demanded. I knew he couldn’t stand to be left out of anything. He couldn’t bear it if anyone had a secret he didn’t know about.
“What secret?” he repeated when I didn’t answer.
“Show him,” Lefty said, tossing up the softball.
I rubbed my chin, pretended to be thinking about it. “Well … okay.” I motioned for Zack to stand behind me.
“You’re going to make funny faces in the mirror?” Zack guessed. He shook his head. “Big deal!”
“No. That’s not the secret,” I told him. I stepped in front of the mirror, admiring my reflection, which stared back at me in the glass.
“Watch!” Lefty urged, stepping up beside Zack.
“I’m watching. I’m watching,” Zack said impatiently.
“I’ll bet you I can disappear into thin air,” I told Zack.
“Yeah. Sure,” he muttered.
Lefty laughed.
“How much do you want to bet?” I asked.
“Two cents,” Zack said. “Is this some kind of trick mirror or something?”
“Something like that,” I told him. “How about ten dollars? Bet me ten dollars?”
“Huh?”
“Forget the bet. Just show him,” Lefty said, bouncing up and down impatiently.
“I have a magic kit at home,” Zack said. “I can do over a thousand tricks. But it’s kid stuff,” he sneered.
“You don’t have any tricks like this,” I said confidently.
“Just get it over with so we can go outside,” he grumbled.
I stepped into the center of the mirror. “Ta-daa!” I sang myself a short fanfare. Then I reached up and grabbed the light chain.
I pulled it. The lamp above the mirror flashed on, blindingly bright at first, then dimming as before.
And I was gone.
“Hey!” Zack cried. He stumbled backward.
He actually stumbled out of shock!
Invisible, I turned away from the mirror to enjoy his stunned reaction.
“Max?” he cried out. His eyes searched the room.
Lefty was laughing his head off.
“Max?” Zack sounded really worried. “Max? How’d you do that? Where are you?”
“I’m right here,” I said.
He jumped at the sound of my voice. Lefty laughed even harder.
I reached out and took the softball from Lefty’s hand. I glanced at the reflection in the mirror. The ball seemed to float in midair.
/> “Here. Catch, Zack.” I tossed it at him.
He was so stunned, he didn’t move. The ball bounced off his chest. “Max? How do you do this trick?” he demanded.
“It isn’t a trick. It’s real,” I said.
“Hey, wait …” He got a suspicious look on his face. He ran around to the back of the mirror. I guess he expected me to be hiding back there.
He looked very disappointed when he didn’t see me. “Is there a trapdoor or something?” he asked. He walked back in front of the mirror, got down on his hands and knees, and started searching the floorboards for a trapdoor.
I leaned over and pulled his T-shirt up over his head.
“Hey — stop it!” he yelled, climbing angrily to his feet.
I tickled his stomach.
“Stop, Max.” He squirmed away, thrashing his arms, trying to hit me. He looked really frightened now. He was breathing hard, and his face was bright red.
I pulled his T-shirt up again.
He jerked it down. “You’re really invisible?” His voice rose up so high, only dogs could hear it. “Really?”
“Good trick, huh?” I said right in his ear.
He jumped and spun away. “What does it feel like? Does it feel weird?”
I didn’t answer him. I crept out of the room and picked up a cardboard carton just outside the door. I carried it up to the mirror. It looked great. A carton floating all by itself.
“Put it down,” Zack urged. He sounded really scared. “This is really freaking me out, Max. Stop it, okay? Come back so I can see you.”
I wanted to torture him some more, but I could see he was about to lose it. Besides, I was starting to feel weird again. Sort of dizzy and lightheaded. And the bright light was hurting my eyes, starting to blind me.
“Okay, I’m coming back,” I announced. “Watch.”
I leaned against the mirror and reached up for the chain. I suddenly felt very tired, very weak. It took all my strength to wrap my hand around the chain.
I had the strangest sensation that the mirror was pulling me, tugging me toward it, holding me down.
With a determined burst of strength, I pulled the chain.
The lamp went out. The room darkened.
“Where are you? I still can’t see you!” Zack cried, his voice revealing panic.
“Just chill,” I told him. “It takes a few seconds. The longer I stay invisible, the longer it takes to come back.” And then I added, “I think.”