"Melanie," Rosenbaum said, "he stated that you would eventually believe in that moment. Do you?"

"Sure. After the second time I saw him, I really started to come around. It was that or else consider the possibility of being insane. Do crazy people know they’re crazy? I don’t think so. So I figured that it had to be real."

Melanie sat calmly in the chair, composed, blue eyes studying the psychiatrist.

He studied back. "Did anyone else ever see this man?"

"Hell no. Like all good hallucinations, he’s invisible to everyone but me. I found that out the second time I saw him…"

*****

I was in the shower. I have this great shower curtain—a celestial pattern that says "Twinkle twinkle little star" all over it. I used to just have this bubbled glass door, but I got to be really uncomfortable with it after a while…I mean, I really gained a lot of weight… Anyway.

I was minding my own business, soaping up my hair, and the next thing I know, someone’s singing outside the shower. Jareth.

"Twinkle, twinkle little bat, how I wonder what you’re at, up above the world you fly—"

I opened up the curtain, saw him standing in the bathroom, and freaked, though not quite as badly as I had the first time.

I started screaming.

My mother opened the door. Nothing quite like Mom to the rescue, you know? Well, she was expecting to see me being hacked into pieces by some drain-crawling monster, I’m sure, and there I was standing in an empty bathroom, yelling about nothing at all. Nothing she could see anyway.

"What’s going on?" she demanded.

"I…It was…you don’t…he…"

"She can’t see me," Jareth said lightly.

"She…huh?"

"Can’t see me."

The implications here were obvious. If I was the only one that could see him…maybe that meant he was a hallucination. Which, since I hadn’t imbibed any mind-altering chemicals, also meant that I was possibly insane.

My mother was not amused. "Mellie, what’s the matter?"

"Spider," I blurted out. "Scared me. Sorry."

She shook her head. "Was that all?"

I nodded.

"Geez, Mellie. Is it gone?"

"I guess so."

Jareth nodded approvingly. "That’s right. Just act naturally."

I gaped at him, shocked and dismayed. I wasn’t to the point where I could be angry yet.

Mom shut the door and left me alone. I stayed looking out of the shower at Jareth.

"What are you doing here?" I finally whispered.

"Just checking up on you. Can’t a Goblin King check up on his Listians?"

It was a line straight out of your average visitations, and I got cold suddenly, cold all over under the hot shower water. "No," I answered. "No, you can’t because you’re not real."

"Your lack of faith is becoming more disturbing by the minute."

"Don’t you understand that if she can’t see you, it means I’m crazy??"

"That is the talk of a non-believer if I ever heard it. There’s a perfectly good explanation for why she can’t see me."

"There is?"

"I don’t want her to." He leaned on the sink, his elbows on the porcelain, legs stretched out. Relaxed and elegant as ever. And here I was, naked in the shower.

I closed the curtain and stood under the water, the shampoo running out of my hair. "Alright. Maybe you’re real and maybe you’re not. I don’t care."

"Yes you do."

I ignored that. "But if you are, you could at least have a little decency and leave me alone while I shower."

"Why? Are you really so modest?"

"Yes!"

The curtain suddenly opened and he peered curiously into the shower. I clamped my mouth down over my first-impulse squeal of offense and slammed the curtain shut.

"You’ve nothing I’ve never seen before," he said loftily, his voice drifting over the curtain. "You needn’t be so prudish."

"But…I’m…" I was frustrated and irritated with him. He was baiting me. "I’m not! It’s just I don’t want you to see me."

"Why not? What’s wrong with you?"

"In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a whale," I hissed.

He peered back through the curtain, paying my furious glare no heed. "I hadn’t," he said dryly. "Whoever told you that you were?"

"No one." I shut the curtain again.

"It’s that lout boyfriend of yours, isn’t it?" he said.

Now this had gone too far. "What did you just call Brian?"

"He’s really a dreadful person."

"He is not!"

Jareth was silent.

I finished my shower and turned off the water, figuring he must have left. But when I peeked out, there he was, leaning on the sink still, eyes downcast, thoughtful.

"What?" I demanded. "What is it? Why don’t you leave?"

"Because," he said. "I’m trying to help you."

"My mother thinks I’m nuts. Some help."

"I’ll tell you something, Melanie. If you were psychotic, someone would have noticed before now. If I’m your only delusion, you’re probably doing alright."

Now that made sense. I didn’t like it…but it made sense.

He leaned over, took down a towel, and handed it to me, looking absently at the floor still. "Melanie…"

"What?" I was drying off in the shower, not about to set foot outside.

"I’ll be back again soon."

I sighed relief. "You’re leaving?"

His hand came into the shower suddenly and took my hand, as if he could see me all the time through my shower curtain. He pulled my hand out and kissed it lightly. "Oh, fair maiden, never believe that I have left you alone. I shall return very soon."

"That’s what I’m afraid of."

He was gone after that for a week.

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