September 28, 1999

How I became invisible:

I work as a vending machine repairwoman. That's right, repairWOMAN. Men don't hide behind "person," so why should I? Anyway, on the day it all happened I went about my regular routine. It was a hot day, so I wore a cropped t-shirt and cut-off shorts. I was supposed to get off at 2 that day, but a weasel co-worker named Tyrone Daly called in sick just so I couldn't enjoy a rare short workday.

I went into this falling-apart Laundromat around 2 to work on some raggedy relic that should have been retired years earlier. When I was finished the owner asked me to work on a change machine he was having problems with. It was a brand new machine, and a brand that usually doesn't have problems. I couldn't ask what was wrong because the owner got a page and ran out just as I was opening up the machine.

Just as I was figuring out what was what, it started pouring outside, along with thunder and lightning. In one minute the sound level went from "empty church" to "war zone." I figured the power might go out so I started closing up the machine when all of a sudden, everything went white for about ten seconds, then just as suddenly everything went black. I had evidently passed out, because the next thing I remember was waking up lying on the floor with pieces of ceiling tile on me. I looked down and where my legs were supposed to be I saw what looked like ghost legs covered with dust. I held up my hands and couldn't see them!

I went over to the sink in the back of the Laundromat and rinsed the dust off my hands and face. The image I saw in the mirror above the sink was a wet-faced ghost with dusty hair.

The change machine I was working on had disappeared. I later found out that every vending machine made by that company, Ganymede-Universal, had vanished. All of them. All over the world. Evidently that thunderstorm or whatever it was wasn't a regular storm.

Ganymede-Universal and all its employees seem to have disappeared also, so no one knows just what is going on. When I said that I hadn't made myself known to anyone, I meant that I hadn't told anyone about my invisibility. The day all this happened, I ran out to my truck, hightailed it home, and holed myself up in my apartment for almost two days before venturing outside, with much makeup and trembling. To this day, I still haven't told anyone.

I did play a trick on my friend Stacy. She lives next door, so it's fairly easy to get into her apartment while invisible. I went in behind her one night when she came home from work and watched while she took some ground beef out to cook herself dinner. She said it was a shame that dinner couldn't cook itself, so when she took a break I thought I would oblige. I made sure not to make any noise until her "self-made" meatloaf was in the oven.

Once the meat was cooking I purposely rustled some aluminum foil. She came into the kitchen to see what the noise was, saw the meat in the oven and foil floating in mid-air, and panicked. She screamed and ran from the apartment, leaving the door open. I felt kind of bad about it, but it was hilarious just the same. Fortunately she left the door open, so I just turned everything off and went over to my apartment.

I quickly got dressed and made up and went outside to where Stacy sat on a bench, shaking and sobbing. I convinced her that she had prepared the food herself and didn't remember it. I hadn't counted on her being so hysterical, so I had to clean it up so I'd feel better.

It feels really strange to be sitting here, writing this all down, watching the pen scribbling on the page all by itself.  Actually being invisible feels so strange to begin with.

But I have to admit, it's kind of arousing to see my clothes standing and moving around in the mirror "by themselves." At first, I avoided looking at myself as much as possible, but lately I've been modeling in front of the mirror more and more.

I suppose I'll have to come out of hiding soon, once I
figure out what I'm gonna do.


Read my next journal entry.
Back to Main