My class was going on an excursion to the hot springs. You know the ones. They are all mysterious and supposedly ‘magic’ in nature. The only miracle that happens there is the miracle that no one has been killed yet with all the seismic activity. I mean, they build this attraction on an old volcano, stomp about with their heavy machinery disrupting the natural order of things. What do they expect to happen? Oh well, I will just have to live with it much to my distaste. Mother thought it was a great idea to sign the permission slip and send me on my merry way. A bit of ‘fresh air’ she said. Brilliant.
The bus ride was so long. Thank god I avoided sitting next to David, narrowly might I add. That kid seriously needs to understand that I am not interested, and definitely never will be. He has been trying to impress me since day one. I don’t understand it at all. I said one word to him, ‘scarf’, and pointed to his scarf that he had dropped on the floor. From that moment he has followed me around as if I saved his life or something. I didn’t realise how important scarves were to people, I will be more careful in future I believe. I don’t think I even own a scarf actually. Hmm, how odd.
Ah, an interruption to my day dream, we were there. We all traipsed off the bus, one by one, me two or three people ahead of David. I would hate to make his day by being within talking distance. He thinks I don’t notice him trying to sneak closer to me as we walk along. Sigh, when would this day end. Another pool closed, isn’t that the third one we have passed already. Maybe they are all closed, that would be good. Just out and about, skipping school, and getting some ‘fresh air’ as mother phrased it. Ah damn, I spoke to soon, an open pool. Why did I have to open my big mouth.
I walk through the little gate leading into the pools. My class mates are scattered around the pools. Well if they want to get that close to the pool that’s their prerogative. I on the other hand will be feigning interest in this tree over here, avoiding contact with the pools at all costs. I have no need for their ‘miracles.’ Wow look at them, they are all mad. How are they supposed to get back on the bus looking like… “David, what have I told you about touching me.” “Aww, calm down grumpy, I just wanted to give you a hug.” “Get off me! You almost made me fall in.” “You’re not scared are you Lizabells.” “No.” “Looks to me like you are” “I am not, see.” Eww why did I touch it, that wasn’t a good idea. “You can’t really get a feel for it just like that, here lean in.” “Let go of me, I don’t want to touch the stupid water Daaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvvvvvvv….
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh god what is that noise. Wait, what is that noise, where the hell am I. This is my room. This is my bed. What the hell is going on! I fell into the hot spring, dragging David in with me. Wait a minute, did I die. Is this what happens when you die, you wake up in your own bed. Don’t be ridiculous, no one dies instantly falling into a hot spring, I would have known, I would have felt something. I must have just passed out and someone brought me back here. That makes sense, perfectly reasonable explanation for everything. I passed out, and someone brought me back here, and I slept it off until holy crap, look at the time. I sleep through the rest of the day and the night. I’m late for school. My project is due today, if I don’t present it I fail. That was the arrangement made between my parents and my teacher when they were called in to discuss my slipping grades.
Uniform, hair… egh that will have to do, shoes, apple… “bye mum” run, run, run. I won’t make it by the bell but I will be there in time for first period. Run faster… come on legs, I’ve been good to you over the years, now it’s time to return the favour and run like the wind. Shops, crazy woman’s house, almost there… Dave’s house, I am gonna kill that boy today. Concussion! He’s gonna be so dead, I hope he hit his head as well. That would be slight justice, but would hurt nothing in comparison to the pain I will make him feel. Yes, I see the gates, I’m gonna make it. I’m faster than I thought, go figure.
Woo, and that was my yearly exercise. Now, through the gates, up the path, aha quick while she’s not looking. Yes! Made it, I can’t believe I got away with that. Well I suppose I can believe it, Ms McHaver isn’t the brightest teacher I have ever had. Although, usually one of my classmates dobs me in, strange. Actually it’s really strange. None of them even looked at me as I was creeping to my desk. Actually it’s super strange. None of them are looking at me now. I turn around and wave to Sarah, she’s looking straight past me. “Oi, Sarah,” I whisper. She doesn’t even flinch. “C’mon stop messing around, what happened yesterday.” … still nothing. I lean back and flick her pencil which she is holding. She doesn’t even blink.
I look back around, Ms McHaver is still facing the board, writing up today’s daily poem. “Fine.” I turn and face Cass on my left, we aren’t technically besties, but she’s always been nice to me. “Hey Cass, how was the excursion yesterday?” I whispered. She continued to draw little circles in her book, not even acknowledging me. What is everyone’s problem today? Did I do something wrong. Oh wait, I turn back to Sarah, “I’m sorry that I didn’t sit next to you on the bus yesterday, but you know I don’t like sitting near Dave, you’ve been my best friend since primary school. Please forgive me?” She continued to stare straight past me. I don’t believe it. What is her problem, guess I will have to wait till lunch to find out.
I turn back to face the front, Ms McHaver has picked up some sheets from her desk and is walking around the class handing one to each student. She walks straight past my desk, straight on to Sarah, then Michael, Craig, and straight past me again to hand one to Cass. I raise my hand. She walks to the front of the class and begins reading the sheet she just gave out. I speak up “Ms McHaver, you missed me.” She continues to read from the sheet. A little louder, “Um excuse me, Ms McHaver, I didn’t get a sheet”… ok. I stand up, still with my hand raised. She’s not even looking at me, unreal. I walk up to the front of the class and stand a meter in front of her. She looks up, and looks straight past me, she is asking Cass a question about what she just read. “Ms McHav…” Wait… she’s not… she’s not really looking past me… if I didn’t know any better I would say… it’s almost as if she’s looking through me. I wave a hand right in front of her eye line to Cass. She doesn’t move, she just continues to stare in the same direction, continuing her lecture about how students never listen. What is this?
I spin around. No one in the class is looking at me, just like when I walked in. But this time I’m standing smack bang in the middle of the classroom and not one eyeball is turned on me. This is so weird. I look down. I’m still me. I’m not see-through or anything freaky like that. I look back up, still nothing. I walk back to my desk. I sit and face the front. What… who… I really don’t understand. I look back up, slowly around the classroom. These are my classmates, have been for the whole year so far. I move from one to the other, staring at them. Each one continues to ignore my existence, staring out the window, at their book, towards the front, but never at me. As if I was an empty chair, no one sitting here at all. Just like that chair over there, Dave’s chair.
Oh my god, that’s Dave’s chair. Dave’s chair is empty. Dave’s not in his chair. Dave’s not in this room. Dave fell into the hot spring with me, and now he’s not here. Something really strange is going on here. I leap up, still no one turns. This is all Dave’s fault. I just know it. I grab my bag and start walking out, I have to find Dave. I walk quickly, out of the classroom and towards the front exit. He must be at his house. What did he say to everyone to make them ignore me? He’s gone too far this time and I intend to tell him that.
I’m walking faster now. At least he lives close-by. I will have this sorted out in no time. If this is one of his stupid schemes I’m gonna… I stop dead in my tracks. Dave is at the gates of the school. He’s sitting there, huddled in a ball staring at the ground. He looks awful, what on earth happened. I walk slowly up to him… “Dave?” He jumps up, startled. He stares at me. “Elizabeth?” “Um yea… it’s me, who else would it be.” He never calls me Elizabeth. This is really freaky. “Dave you’re scaring me, what’s wrong.” “You can see me?” “Of course I can see you, you are standing right there, are you alright?” “No one can see me.” “I just said I can see you. What are you talking about?” “My mum can’t see me… no one can see me.” “I’m looking at you right now, I can see you! Stop messing around, what have you done! Everything is so weird today. No one will speak to me in class, what happened yesterday? Tell me now!”
He looked up at me, staring deep into my eyes… “yesterday?” “Oh my god Dave, cut it out. Yesterday! We went to the hot springs, you made me fall in, then I woke up in my room this morning, and now no one will talk to me. What happened?” “Wait, you don’t remember anything after falling into the hot springs?” “Am I speaking English, that’s what I just said to you, what happened?” “I don’t know.” He said this in a whisper, it caught me off guard. “You what…” I stuttered. He grabbed my shoulders tightly. His eyes had tears in them. “Elizabeth, I don’t know. I don’t remember anything, and this morning when I woke up my mother could not see me. No one could see me except for you.”
He let go and sat back down on the bench. I don’t know how long I stood there. There words echoing in my brain… no one could see me. No one could see me. When I was in class, they all looked straight through me, as if I wasn’t there. “No one could see me either.” That wasn’t my voice, but it came from inside of me. I sat down next to Dave, numbness coming over me. “I went to class, no one could see me at all.” Why is this happening? Why are we invisible? “Are we dead?” Dave’s words shook me. That’s what I thought this morning, when I woke up. But it’s impossible. Our whole class was at the pools, someone would have saved us. That pool, the one that we fell in, it was huge, I remember. There was nothing we could have hit our heads on. It just doesn’t make sense. “No, we can’t be dead. There has to be some other explanation, a joke, a coma. Maybe I’m in a coma.” “What about me, if you’re in a coma then why can no one see me?” “Maybe we are both in Coma’s” “Then how are we having this conversation?” “I don’t know, but we can’t be dead, we just can’t be.”
We sat in silence for a while. I could hear Dave’s breath, it was erratic. It was almost in tune with my thoughts, a mixture of disbelief and panic, fearfulness and sadness jittering madly around inside my head, and then a sudden pang of anger. “This is all your fault!” I turned my assault to him. “What…” “You pushed me into the hot spring!” “I… did… not” he spluttered, caught off guard by my hostility, “you fell.” “Fell my ass, you pushed me! This is all your fault!” “Are you serious, you really want to fight over this?” “No I don’t want to fight, but I don’t want to be invisible either. We can’t always have what we want Dave.” That didn’t come out even half as sarcastic and anger filled as I wanted it to be, something to do with the tears that had begun to stream uncontrollably down my face. He faltered, “Liz, I’m sorry. I never wanted … it’s just that I really like you… and I never wanted to hurt you. I could never want to hurt you. I’m a horrible person.” He sat back down, resuming his distant stare into the ground. I stood standing, the tears still flowing silently.
“Ding, ding, ding,” We were startled out of our trance by the lunch bell. Everyone was running out of the gates, straight past us, just as before. Still nothing had changed. “We have to do something,” I said. Dave looked up, as if the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. “Like what?” he asked. “We should go back to the hot springs. That’s where this happened, maybe it can undo it.” “Yeah, you’re right Liz. That makes perfect sense, why didn’t I think of that before.” “Because I am the genius around here,” I announced loudly, holding my arms out as if my loyal subjects were bowing at my feet.“ “Pft… as if. If you’re a genius, then I am the Prince of Egypt.” “Well given we seem to be the only two invisible people around here, and you are the only boy, you are technically the Prince of something. Although I’m gonna say you are the Prince of stupidity cause who wears their school shoes with no socks.” I smiled. He returned it with a cheeky grin. “I’m sorry, guess I was a little distraught when I realised no one could see me. And you’re right. You are a genius. It took you half the day to realise no one could see you.” “Shut up you,” I laughed. “Let’s go smart girl, we can catch the bus there. We will be there in no time.” I stuck out my foot for him to trip over as he walked by, but he saw me and just jumped over. Smart ass.
He was right, it didn’t take long at all and we were back at the pools, standing in front of the small gate, where we were last visible. Dave started to walk inside, but I stopped. He grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. We walked around the edge, staying well away from the water, looking for any clues as to how this might work, but there was nothing. It was just a pool of water with sticks and small rocks all around. It was definitely deep, just like I remembered. The bottom was not visible at all. “There’s nothing here, nothing that we could have hit our heads on or anything. I don’t get it.” I looked at Dave and waited to see what he would say. He was leaning down close to the water, examining every speck of dust floating on it. “I think we should jump in” he replied. “You must be joking” “I’m serious. That’s how we got into this mess. Maybe that’s how we will get out of it.” “No way in the world! What if it just makes it worse?” “How could it get any worse? No one can see us. It will be fine.” “Nah-ah. There is no way I am going back in that water. It ruined everything.” He looked up from the water, grabbing my shoulders again to look at me. “Lizzy, I will not let anything happen to you. I promise. I think this is the only way that we can return to normal. Please will you do this with me?” I stared at him. He has the most striking blue eyes. I never noticed them before. They made me want to believe everything he said and even some things that he didn’t say. “Ok. I will do it, but don’t let go of my hand.” “I would never,” he replied, and I knew he wouldn’t. We both turned and faced the pool. No point delaying the inevitable. We leapt.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Owe my head, what is that noise. Wait, where am I? I’m in my room. I’m in my bed. Wait, am I back, did it work? “Mum! Mum!” I ran down the stairs, three at a time. “Hey mum, where are you?” I ran into the kitchen. My mother looked up. “Shouldn’t you be dressed Dave, you’re gonna be late.” “You can see me?” “Um… yes. Are you feeling alright, you look a little white?” “Yea I’m fine. I’m more than fine. This is awesome!” “It’s just the usual ham sandwich and apple… but I’m glad you appreciate it.” “Thanks mum.” I grabbed the lunch, and ran back up the stairs to put on my uniform. Stuff wearing socks, Liz seems to find it funny anyways. “Bye mum!” I yelled running out the door. I can’t wait to see Liz. I can’t believe it worked.
I was already at the school which was lucky because class had started. I ran into the classroom. Everyone looked up, I looked around. Everyone could see me. Everyone was staring at me, except for Liz. “Where is Liz?” I stood at the door. I looked at Ms McHaver. “Where is Liz?” I said again. She looked back at me. “Who are you talking about Mr. Jackson?” “Liz!” “Liz who?” “Liz, she’s been in this class all year. She sits right there.” I pointed to the seat in front of Sarah which was vacant. “There’s no Liz in this class Mr Jackson, are you feeling alright?” “There is a Liz she sits right there!” “Please don’t raise your voice or I will have to ask you to leave.” “What are you playing at?” “Excuse me?” she was beginning to lose her temper with me, but I didn’t care. Not in the slightest. I spoke even louder. “Why are you lying? Liz has been sitting in that desk the whole year, hasn’t she Sarah.” I looked at Sarah angrily. She looked scared. “I don’t know what you are talking about Dave” “Stop Lying! She’s your best friend! Liz!” “Mr Jackson please leave this classroom immediately. Come back when you have calmed down!”
I was frantic. Where is Liz? I was holding her hand. I didn’t let go, I know it. Why isn’t she here. Why is everyone pretending like she doesn’t exist. “Liz!” I started screaming her name, running around the school. I ran out to the gate, to the bench we had sat on yesterday when we were both invisible. “Liz! Liz please. Stop messing around, come out!” The hot springs. She must be at the hot springs. Oh god, what if she hit her head. I told her to jump in. It’s all my fault. I have to find her. I ran to the bus stop. It took forever. Every second that ticked by felt like I could be losing Liz. I ran from the bus up to the hot spring. “Liz! Please Liz, are you here?” She’s not here. She’s not anywhere. Where is she? “Liz!” I leaned over the water, trying to see the bottom. There is nothing but twigs and small rocks. “What have I done? What have I done to you Liz?” I sat down at the edge. I couldn’t stop the tears. They burned my eyes. I lost her. I left her. I promised I wouldn’t let go. “I’m so sorry Liz. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Wait, what was that? I looked up from the edge of the water. A ripple… is that from something falling into the spring? I looked up there was trees hanging over head. Something must have fallen. “SPLASH!” A huge tidal wave of water leapt out of the pool and drenched me. A big rock. That was a huge rock! Where did that come from? I looked around. I was the only one here. “SPLASH!” Another huge rock flew into the water. I backed away, tripping over my bag. Wait, my bag. It’s unzipping. I turned to run. But something stopped me. I turned back around. My notebook was sprawled out on the ground, my pen floating in mid air above it, sprawling huge letters across the page. “DAVE IT’S ME. HELP!”
“Liz?” “YES ITS ME. PLEASE HELP ME. NO ONE CAN SEE ME!” “Liz, I don’t know what to do, everyone can see me. I didn’t let go of your hand. No one even knew who you were at school. I don’t understand!” “PLEASE!” “Liz, I don’t know what to do. What should I do? Have you tried jumping in the water again?” “I’VE JUMPED IN ABOUT THREE OR FOUR TIMES NOW. IT’S JUST WATER. I DON’T WAKE UP AT HOME. I’M JUST HERE. NOTHING HAPPENS. ” “I woke up at home, and everyone can see me. I don’t understand. It should have worked for both of us.” “I’M SCARED.” Her last words haunted me. I was scared too, scared that I would never see her again, scared that no one would ever see her again. I took a step towards the note pad and sat down next to it. She was right there, and I couldn’t even see her. Tears were streaming down her face, and I couldn’t even see to wipe them away. I couldn’t see to look her in the eyes and swear I would figure this out, and that I would not leave her here like this.
I looked down at the paper, and grabbed the pen which was now laid lifelessly on the page. I wrote in huge letters, “I will not leave you. I am jumping in.” With that I jumped up and leapt in. If she could not be visible again, then I would be invisible with her. I was not going to leave her alone. I was not going to break my promise.
Thanks for reading.
Travelbug
