INVISIBLE!
ROBERT SWINDELLS
CORGI YEARLING BOOKS
Contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Also available by Robert Swindells
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
About the Author
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INVISIBLE!
A CORGI YEARLING BOOK : 0 440 863635
First published in Great Britain by Doubleday
a division of Transworld Publishers
PRINTING HISTORY
Doubleday edition published 1999
Corgi Yearling edition published 2000
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Copyright © Robert Swindells, 1999
Chapter head illustrations copyright © Aidan Potts, 1999
The right of Robert Swindells to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Condition of Sale
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Corgi Yearling Books are published by Transworld Publishers, 61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA, a division of The Random House Group Ltd, in Australia by Random House Australia (Pty) Ltd, 20 Alfred Street, Milsons Point, Sydney, NSW 2061, Australia, in New Zealand by Random House New Zealand Ltd, 18 Poland Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand and in South Africa by Random House (Pty) Ltd, Endulini, 5a Jubilee Road, Parktown 2193, South Africa
Made and printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc.
Also available by Robert Swindells,
and published by Corgi Yearling Books:
ABOMINATION
HYDRA
INSIDE THE WORM
JACQUELINE HYDE
NIGHTMARE STAIRS
ROOM 13
TIMESNATCH
Rosie walked backwards. Carrie avoided the traveller’s eyes but didn’t close her own. She was determined to watch Rosie every inch of the way.
It happened just like before. One second she was there, the next she was not. They hadn’t locked eyes so it wasn’t hypnotism, and there was no way Rosie could’ve slipped out of her clothes and hidden in the long grass.
Carrie reached out. ‘Give me your hand.’ She winced as a hand slipped into hers. An invisible hand …
‘D’you want to see something special, Carrie?’
‘Like what?’ School was over for the day and Carrie wanted to go home. Besides, Rosie Walk was the new girl and Carrie wasn’t sure she wanted her for a friend.
‘I’m not telling. You’ve got to come with me if you want to see.’
‘Where to?’
‘Just the field.’
‘There’s nothing on the field except goalposts and dandelions and I can see them from here.’
‘There’s something else, Carrie. Something you wouldn’t believe.’
‘Oh sure. An alien craft, I bet.’ She turned to leave. Her twin brother Conrad had gone ages ago. Mum liked them to walk home together.
‘Better than an alien craft. Tons better.’
‘Oh yeah?’ She hesitated, curious in spite of herself. She’d heard Rosie was the daughter of travellers and travellers are different. Perhaps she had found something on the school playing field that none of the kids had spotted. She sighed. ‘OK, where is it?’
Rosie grinned and set off across the grass, which was kept short for games except round the very edge and at the four corners, where dandelions peeped through long blades which trembled in the breeze. Carrie followed, half angry because she’d let Rosie persuade her. It’s probably something really boring, like a hole the boys have dug or a dead bird. I’ll slosh her if it’s anything like that.
‘Here, see.’ Rosie had waded into the triangle of long grass in the farthest corner and was looking down at something. Carrie joined her.
‘What?’
‘This. D’you see the little toadstools?’
‘Sure I see them. Is that it – a bunch of toadstools? I don’t call that special.’
‘No, but see how they’re growing in a ring, Carrie. We call it a fairy ring.’
Carrie scoffed. ‘So do we. So does everybody. It’s a load of rubbish. I’m off.’
‘No, wait a minute. I want to show you what a fairy ring can do.’
‘Do? It can’t do anything, Rosie, except sit there.’
‘You’re wrong, Carrie. Watch.’ Rosie placed a foot on the ring, then brought her other foot behind so that the toe of that shoe touched the heel of the first. Then she lifted the first foot and placed it behind the other, which then rose and repeated the movement. In this way, Rosie walked backwards round the ring, very carefully, arms outstretched for balance. Carrie watched, thinking, Big deal. She’s walking backwards. I can do that without a fairy ring.
She was about to turn away in disgust when something astounding happened. It was so incredible that her mind refused to accept it. She screwed up her eyes, shook her head and looked again. Rosie’s jumper and skirt, socks and shoes were exactly where they’d been a second ago, but Rosie was no longer inside them. Where her head should be there was nothing. Her hands were gone too, and her thin brown legs. Her clothes were hanging in mid-air. Carrie screamed.
‘Carrie, it’s all right.’
It didn’t feel all right: a school outfit without a wearer, a voice with no mouth. Carrie crammed the knuckles of her right hand in her own mouth to keep from screaming again. If it comes towards me, I’m off.
�
��Don’t be scared, Carrie. Keep watching.’ The black shoes reversed their direction, walking forward; heel to toe, heel to toe round the ring, as carefully as when Rosie had walked backwards. The grey skirt and maroon jumper moved too, seeming to hover above the shoes and socks. The spectacle exerted a ghastly fascination which kept Carrie rooted to the spot when her every instinct screamed at her to flee. And when the circle was complete there was Rosie, grinning as she let her arms fall to her sides. ‘Good, eh?’
Carrie took her hand away from her mouth and wiped it slowly down the side of her skirt. Common sense was already asserting itself, telling her that what she thought she’d witnessed hadn’t really happened. It’s a trick of some sort. Has to be.
‘How … how did you do that?’
Rosie stepped out of the ring. ‘It’s the circle, Carrie. The magic circle. Anybody can do it. Any child, I mean.’ She smiled. ‘Grown-ups can’t. That’s the best part about it.’
Carrie shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you. What is it, Rosie – hypnotism? Did you hypnotize me?’
‘No, of course I didn’t. I’m not that clever. It’s absolutely true that if you walk backwards round a fairy ring, you become invisible.’ She shrugged. ‘Doesn’t need to be a fairy ring. There are stone circles that’ll do instead, like the one above the village.’
‘Inchlake Ring?’
‘Sure. Kids did it there three thousand years ago.’
‘Have you done it there?’
‘Not yet, but I will. You can too if you want to.’
‘I … couldn’t I try now, in this ring?’
‘Sure, but …’
‘But what?’ I knew it. She tricked me somehow.
‘Well the thing is, you don’t become invisible to yourself, Carrie. You’ll still see your hands and knees and you won’t feel any different, but you’ll be invisible to me.’ She shrugged again. ‘Means you’ll have to take my word that it’s worked for you, that’s all.’
It’s a trick. She has a good laugh while I make a prat of myself, tottering round the fairy ring with my arms out, then tells me I’m invisible. Well OK, if she’s that hard up for something to laugh at. There are no witnesses. If she grasses me up to the kids tomorrow, I’ll deny it. Who’re they going to believe – me, or the new kid? ‘All right, I’m ready.’
Rosie nodded. ‘Fine. Just step into the ring and do as I did. Be careful. If any part of your foot breaks the circle, it won’t work.’
‘Right.’
It was harder than she’d expected, walking backwards in a tight circle. A couple of times she nearly overbalanced. And Rosie was right about not feeling anything. She didn’t realize she’d completed the circle till the other girl cried out, ‘There – you’ve done it!’
‘Have I?’ She stopped, looked down at herself and saw what she always saw. Well – what did you expect? She’s having you on, you dork. ‘What do I look like?’
Rosie grinned. ‘You don’t look like anything, Carrie. There’s just your clothes.’
Yeah, I bet. ‘What if I step out of the circle now?’
‘You’d stay invisible, but I wouldn’t if I were you. Not here. Not in daylight. Somebody might come.’
‘Right. So you want me to walk forward now, round the ring?’
‘Yes. Carefully. Don’t want to stay like that, do you?’
You think you’re fooling me, but you’re not. I’m calling your bluff. ‘Rosie?’
‘What?’
‘Do it again, and this time I’m gonna stand right there.’ Carrie’s sleeve pointed to a spot very close to the ring. ‘Let’s see you vanish when I can practically touch you.’
Rosie nodded. ‘Fine. You can shut your eyes if you want, then you can’t be hypnotized.’ She smiled. ‘Walk forward now. Two more steps, there.’ They swapped places. Rosie walked backwards. Carrie avoided the traveller’s eyes but didn’t close her own. She was determined to watch Rosie every inch of the way.
It happened just like before. One second she was there, the next she was not. They hadn’t locked eyes so it wasn’t hypnotism, and there was no way Rosie could’ve slipped out of her clothes and hidden in the long grass.
Carrie reached out. ‘Give me your hand.’ She winced as a hand slipped into hers. An invisible hand. She swallowed. ‘Yes, OK. Look, would you …?’
‘What?’ Rosie chuckled. ‘Suspicious character, aren’t you?’
‘I suppose I am, but it’s so weird. What I was going to ask was, would you show Con tomorrow? My brother?’
‘Sure, if you like.’
‘Thanks. I’d better go. Mum goes mad.’
‘OK. See you, Carrie.’
‘See you, Rosie. If you’re not invisible, I mean.’
When Carrie got home her twin was upstairs as usual, playing games on his computer. She knocked on his door. ‘Can I come in a minute, Con?’
‘What for? I’m busy.’
‘I’ve got something to tell you.’ She depressed the handle and pushed the door open.
Conrad swivelled the office chair, scowling. ‘I said I was busy, Carrie.’
‘I can’t talk about this in front of Mum and Dad, Con.’
‘Why not?’ He looked at her. ‘What you done – murdered somebody?’
‘Don’t be stupid. It’s private, that’s all.’
‘Aw, all right.’ He sighed, killed the sound FX and gave her his full attention.
Carrie told him everything that had happened on the field. When she’d finished he shook his head. ‘You’re a nut, Carrie. She’s having you on. Invisibility’s just in stories. It’s a scientific impossibility.’
‘I saw it, Con. She was there, and then she wasn’t. Just her uniform, hovering over the ring. And when she reversed the action she reappeared. I was only two metres away. I saw it happen.’
Conrad snorted. ‘Know what I think? I think the pair of you have cooked up this tale hoping to make a donkey out of me, but it won’t work. You’ll have to find somebody else to play your trick on. Somebody less intelligent.’ He swivelled his chair, restored the sound and plunged back into his game.
Boys! Carrie considered pulling the plug on the computer, decided against it and left the room, slamming the door.
‘You heard Mum, Carrie. Walk home together, she said, not twenty minutes apart like yesterday. So come on.’
‘No. I want you to see what I saw, then you can call me a nut.’
Rosie sighed. ‘Make your minds up, for goodness’ sake. I’m expected home too, you know.’
Carrie glowered at her twin. ‘I’ve made mine up. It’s him.’
Rosie studied the boy. ‘I reckon he’s chicken.’
‘I am not. ’Course I’m not, but I’m not stupid either. Nobody can be invisible.’
Rosie shrugged. ‘Come and prove me a liar, then.’
‘You are a liar.’
‘Prove it.’
Conrad scowled at her. ‘All right, but I warn you. When I have proved it, I’m going to shove so many fistfuls of grass-clippings down your neck, you’ll leave a green trail all the way home.’
The girl nodded. ‘Fair enough.’
‘Huh!’
‘OK.’ Rosie had located the ring. ‘Who wants to be first?’ She looked at Conrad. ‘What about you, since you’re not chicken?’
Conrad shook his head. ‘No way. I told you – I’m not stupid. You’ll not catch me walking round a fairy ring while you have a giggle with my sister. You go first and I’ll watch.’ He glared. ‘Very closely.’
‘Suit yourself.’ Rosie stepped into the circle and walked backwards, slowly, arms outstretched.
Carrie swallowed and glanced at her brother. ‘Are you watching?’
‘’Course I am, you turkey.’
‘OK OK. No need to be rude.’
When Rosie vanished, Conrad rubbed his eyes and gaped. There were Rosie’s clothes, exactly as his twin had described. Clothes with nobody in them. He looked sidelong at Carrie, who caught his eye.
‘Well? Am I a nut or not? If I am, you are.’
He shook his head. ‘It’s some sort of illusion, Sis. Has to be.’ He scanned the long grass with slitted eyes. ‘She’s hiding. In a hole or something.’
‘No I’m not.’ A sleeve waved at them. ‘See – I’m right here in my jumper.’ One shoe left the ground, its sock a tube of grey wool. ‘Look. I can balance on one foot.’
‘Huh! I still say it’s a trick. Let’s see you come back.’
‘Fine. Watch carefully.’ The shoes began to shuffle forward round the circle. The grey skirt kept pace, swinging slightly. Above it drifted the maroon jumper, its empty sleeves stretched out. Conrad strained his eyes to discover some fraud: thin wires perhaps, but there was nothing. The shoes completed the circle and there were Rosie’s legs and hands, her reddish hair framing an impudent grin. ‘Come on then, Conrad – tell us how it’s done.’
‘I … can’t.’ He shook his head.
Rosie laughed. ‘Wanna see your sister do it?’
He nodded. ‘I suppose.’
Carrie took Rosie’s place in the ring. Rosie came and stood beside the boy, whose cheeks had turned pale. She looked at him. ‘Sure you’re not chicken, Conrad?’
‘I’m sure.’ He sounded croaky.
‘It’s just that you’re as pasty as a chilled portion, and you clucked just now.’
‘Shut your face.’
They watched Carrie vanish, heard her say, ‘Have I done it?’
‘You’ve done it,’ confirmed the traveller child. ‘Hasn’t she, Conrad?’
‘Y … yeah. You can come back, Sis. I believe you.’
‘Am I a nut?’
‘No you’re not. Walk forward, for Pete’s sake.’ He felt sick.
Carrie reappeared and left the ring. ‘Your turn, Con.’
‘I know, I know. Give me a chance.’ He stepped in. ‘Backwards, right?’
The girls nodded.
‘And it doesn’t hurt or anything?’
‘No.’
‘And you always come back if you walk forward? It never fails, I mean?’
‘Never.’
‘And you’ll tell me when …?’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake get on with it!’ This from Carrie.
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