Vanishing Act, page 12
“Elementary, my dear Watson,” I said, bowing to Kristy again. “I think that if I’d realized this a tad earlier, I might not have single-handedly wrecked our canoe and our chances to build a successful tree house.”
“Good,” Kristy said, rubbing her hands together. “Now, let’s do a little RISK matchmaking, shall we?”
Everyone agreed, and together we matched ourselves up in such a way that we counteracted one another’s RISK factors. Not all the matchups were as obvious as the Kristy and Anthony combo, but we figured it out. There were seven of us, thanks to this year’s inclusion of Hudson, and only six girls in the Swallowtail cabin, which meant that Zeke and Murphy were both paired up with Abby, who did something with mental telepathy. I’m not sure exactly what, but she seemed pretty confident that she could help them navigate their way over the ropes even if one of them struggled with an X-ray vision impairment and one of them decided to time travel unexpectedly. Hudson was paired up with Molly, but I wasn’t sure what the theory behind that was. Maybe he could levitate her to safety if she turned into a dog? I was about to ask when I felt a hand tap my shoulder. I turned to see a girl standing there expectantly. She had long straight black hair pulled half back underneath a baseball hat, a small upturned nose, and beautiful almond-shaped eyes that were staring right through me. I felt my heart sink. I knew what it meant when someone looked through you instead of at you. I was invisible again. I glanced down at myself, expecting to see a whole lot of nothing where my legs were supposed to be, but to my surprise, there they were. A quick check of my hands and arms revealed that they were still blessedly visible as well.
“Excuse me one second,” I said to the girl, and grabbed the nearest White Oak guy available. It turned out to be Gary.
“What?” he snapped, turning from where he’d been having a conversation with Gabby.
“Quick,” I hissed. “Is my head gone?”
“You’re all there, at least from the visibility standpoint,” Gary said, pulling his arm from my grasp. “Mentally is yet to be determined.”
“Great, thanks,” I said, turning back to the girl, who was still looking at me as though she could see through me. “Sorry about that,” I said. “I don’t think we were properly introduced before. I’m Hank. Inconveniently invisible member of the White Oak cabin at your service.”
“I’m Amy,” she said. “Come on, let’s go get ready.” With that she turned and headed over to where a set of stairs had been built leading up to the platform where the ropes course began. Everyone else was already ahead of us, chatting with their new partner as they made a strategy for traversing the ropes together. I took my place beside Amy, who was standing almost too still as we waited our turn. There was something odd about the way she carried herself, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“So,” I said as we waited our turn to be harnessed up, “what’s your RISK factor?” In any place other than Camp O, that question would have been rude. RISK factors were one of those things people weren’t really supposed to ask about. People noticed you were different, but they either pretended like they didn’t see it, or they just avoided interaction altogether.
“It’s kind of hard to explain,” Amy said without turning her head.
“Most of them are,” I said.
She smiled. “Good point. Well, you could say that I’m blind as a bat, but that wouldn’t really be accurate.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling like an idiot. So that was why she’d been looking right through me. It wasn’t because I was invisible; it was because she couldn’t see me. I suddenly felt like a giant putz. I glanced down at my very visible hands and wondered which was worse, to not be seen or to not see? I glanced around at the vivid green of the forest, the blue-gray sky peeping out between sun-blasted branches, and I immediately knew the answer. That was something that Camp O was good at: making you appreciate your own blessings. So often I’d wished away my invisibility, but I’d rarely wished that I could trade it for someone else’s RISK. Although there had been a moment when I’d considered trading Hudson, but that hadn’t lasted past the cabin combustion episode. Sometimes the hand you were dealt in life was dealt to you for a reason, I thought. I looked back over at Amy and searched for something clever to say.
“I bet you’re glad you’re paired with me and not Zeke,” I finally said with a jerk of my head to where Zeke was currently strapping on a harness while a very disgruntled Mr. Stink stood nearby.
“X-ray vision impairment, right?” Amy said.
“Yeah,” I said. “He’s got an amazing service skunk. Do you have a service animal?”
“I don’t need one,” Amy said. Before I could ask her to elaborate, it was our turn. Two counselors were waiting for us at the top, and I smiled when I saw that one of them was Eli. During afternoon free time the counselors were all assigned different parts of camp to manage. Some were down by the lake on lifeguard duty, others were supervising the archery station, while a few were scattered here and there helping campers in the nature center or art department.
“Ready for this, Hank?” he said, taking my hand and helping me up the last step.
“Born ready,” I said. “Is your cabin attempting this too?”
“They are just finishing up,” Eli said. “They’re a good group, just like you guys were, although they haven’t gotten in nearly as much trouble.”
“Remind me to give them a talking-to about that after I get through the course,” I said with a wink.
“Arms out,” Eli instructed, and he expertly buckled me into the safety harness while the girl counselor did the same for Amy, and I felt a bit of my nerves subside. I had a lot of confidence in my own abilities to navigate the ropes course, but I had very little confidence in my ability to help a girl who described herself as blind as a bat make her way across too. At least if I failed and she fell, she wouldn’t be plummeting to her death.
Once we were both ready, we were handed a small length of rope. I looked over at the course to see that everyone was using their rope in different ways. Emerson was floating above Gabby’s head, both of them holding on to their length of rope like their lives depended on it. Abby was towing Zeke and Murphy behind her with her rope, and I was surprised to see Mr. Stink on Zeke’s shoulder, his claws dug into the fabric of his T-shirt.
“So,” I said, glancing over at Amy. “Should I go first and you follow? Do you want to hold on to my shoulder? I can tell you where to put your feet and stuff.”
“Not necessary,” she said. “And if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to lead.” I took the remaining two steps to the edge of the platform and glanced down. I didn’t have Emerson’s barf reflex to heights, but I couldn’t say they were my favorite either. I slipped off my shoes and socks and, with a quick glance to make sure they wouldn’t take anyone out, tossed them to the ground twenty feet below. I’d done the course barefoot last year, and if I ever needed a bit more grip, it was now.
“Hey, Emerson,” I called, hoping to lighten the mood. “Think I could do the course while simultaneously juggling ten pine cones and a squirrel?”
“No,” Emerson said, his words tight as he kept his eyes straight ahead.
“What if I ditch the squirrel?” I said. “Does that change your answer?”
“Hank,” Kristy said, making my name into both a warning and a threat.
“Joking!” I said, turning to Amy. “Ready?”
“Ready,” she said, carefully securing our rope around one of her wrists so she could grasp the start of the ropes course with both hands. I watched her do this without a moment of hesitation, and I raised an eyebrow.
“I thought you were blind,” I said.
“I never said that,” Amy said as she stepped out onto the rope with a confidence I wished I felt. “I said I was as blind as a bat, and bats aren’t blind.” She made her way swiftly down the rope, and it took the tug on my wrist for me to snap out of my amazement and follow her out over the open air.
“Blind as a bat,” I muttered to myself as she navigated a bit of rope ladder with ease. I racked my brain for what I knew about bats. It wasn’t much. Now, Batman? I’d have had a better shot. I took a stab at it anyway. “So, you use echolocation?” I asked.
“Well done,” Amy said as though I was a first grader who’d just spelled the word cat correctly.
“That might be the coolest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said.
“Watch yourself here, this rope is loose,” Amy said.
I followed her warning and made sure I placed my bare feet exactly where they needed to be. We were the last ones out on the ropes, but I needed all of my focus on my feet as Amy was making her way over the ropes twice as fast as I’d planned on doing them. I realized that this whole team thing might change a lot about this summer. I glanced up from my feet for a half second to see what kind of progress everyone else was making, and let out a whoop as I saw Emerson and Gabby make it safely onto the platform at the far side. We were going to do this, I thought excitedly, and mentally added five points onto our score. Kristy and Anthony were right behind them, and I saw Kristy bounce over to give Hudson’s perfectly styled hair a ruffle with her gloved hand, and he grinned back at her. I tried to remember if Kristy had looked at me like that this summer, and then reminded myself that you actually had to be visible to get a look like that. The rope on my wrist gave a tug as Amy continued, and I refocused on my feet and hurried to catch up. The last part of the course was the trickiest. Unlike the beginning of the course, where there were some rope bridges, ladders, and netting, the end of the course was nothing but a single rope you had to walk on tightrope style while holding on to two ropes on either side of you.
We were only about fifteen feet from the final platform when three things happened almost simultaneously. The first was that the thick rope that hung ten feet above our heads, the rope all our safety ropes were attached to, suddenly broke in half. I stood there in disbelief as it fell past my face to dangle uselessly below us. The second was that my feet, which I’d been staring at intensely almost this entire time, disappeared. But it was the third thing that really threw me for a loop—when the rope underneath my invisible feet disappeared too.
I let out a yelp of surprise, fully expecting to go plummeting to the ground, and froze with a death grip on the still blessedly visible ropes on either side of me. My stomach plunged and then righted itself a second later when I didn’t fall. I looked down again at the disconcerting view of nothing beneath me and had to immediately shut my eyes. It wasn’t until my eyes were shut that I realized that I felt the rough texture of the rope beneath my bare feet. The rope wasn’t gone. It was just invisible. I was still processing this when I felt a tug at the rope tied around my wrist and opened my eyes to the image of Amy moving along through thin air like nothing had happened.
“Um, Amy?” I said as my stomach did an uncomfortable flop. There must have been something in my voice because she immediately stopped and looked back at me.
“What?” she said.
“The rope?” I said, trying to keep the nervous quaver out of my voice and failing. “It’s not attached anymore.”
“The safety rope?” she said, and I saw her narrow her eyes as she tried to make sense of what I was saying.
“Yeah,” I said, frozen in place. “Like the one that keeps us from dying if we slip. That rope.”
“That’s not good,” she said. “I advise you not to slip. We’re almost there.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said. “But that’s not all. The rope we’re standing on is invisible too.”
“Oh?” she said. “Why?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “But it disappeared at the same time that my feet did.”
“Your feet disappeared too?” Amy said. “I can still see them and the rope perfectly.”
“Interesting,” I said. “But not exactly helpful.”
“Well,” she said after a moment. “Then just follow my lead.” She started walking again, but I didn’t move, even when the rope around my wrist connecting me to her gave a painful tug. I glanced over at my arm to see that it too had disappeared. I didn’t need to ask anyone to know that I was completely invisible again.
“You okay up there?” I heard someone call, but I didn’t dare look down or even respond. I felt like my voice was stuck, and I wasn’t sure exactly how to unstick it. Instead I just shook a head that no one could see.
“You can do this,” Amy said. “Just hold on tight to the rope on either side. You don’t need to see your feet or the rope to know it’s there.” I barely heard her. It almost seemed like her voice was really far away, and I felt my legs start shaking as I held on to the rope on either side of me with a death grip. My shaking didn’t improve matters in the slightest, as it made the single invisible rope we were standing on start to vibrate alarmingly. It suddenly occurred to me that if I fell, I was going to take Amy down with me. She had the rope tied around her waist, and my weight would probably drag her off. I needed to untie it, but to do that, I was going to have to let go of one of the ropes, and that wasn’t going to happen.
There was some sort of excited yelling and some screaming coming from below us, but I wasn’t really paying attention. My heart was hammering so loudly in my ears, it made it almost impossible to hear anything else. There was another tug on my wrist as Amy tried to make progress while attached to her human anchor. That tug broke through my panic, and I forced my brain to stop hyperventilating for a second so I could think. I had to move. I couldn’t live the rest of my life on this invisible rope. For one thing, I really had to go to the bathroom, and wetting my pants on the ropes course wasn’t really something I wanted added to my reputation. I moved my feet forward a few inches and then a few more. At this rate, we’d make it across by the end of the summer, I thought dryly.
“How you doing there, buddy?” someone said practically in my ear, and I jumped in surprise, the ropes swinging violently as I heard multiple people gasp. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one nervous about how this was all going to play out. I tore my eyes away from the trembling rope to see Emerson floating beside me, a rope tied securely around his waist. I hazarded a quick glance at the ground to see Gary holding the other end of the rope, a look of grim determination on his face. The two-second glance was enough to make my head spin, and I looked back up at Emerson. He had his eyes squeezed shut, and he was flailing about in front of himself, searching for something. I’d seen him do this maneuver a few times before, the most notable being when we’d floated him up into the trees to recover a compass on our initiation night last summer.
“What are you doing?” I said as his searching fingers found the rope attaching me to Amy.
Emerson ignored me, his eyes still shut, and held up the rope. “Is this the right one?” he called.
“That’s it!” Anthony yelled back.
“Cool!” Emerson said, and with his eyes still squeezed shut, he began carefully looping the rope around his own wrists with some kind of complicated hitch knot. I watched this performance, feeling equal parts parts impressed and frustrated with my best friend.
“What are you doing?” I said again. “If I fall, now you go down too!”
“No,” Emerson said, eyes still shut. “If you fall, I still float, so I’ll make sure you get to the ground in one piece.”
“Are you sure?” I said.
“No,” Emerson admitted, “but worst-case scenario, I’ll slow you down so you’ll just break your legs and not your neck.”
“Well, that’s something,” I said as something inside me loosened. “Thanks.” My voice was hoarse. I knew what this was costing Emerson. He hated heights with every particle of his being, and anytime he floated he took the risk of floating away.
“Told you we’d save you,” Emerson said, his eyes still shut. “Now, will you move, please? I’m all for saving your life, but I also really don’t want to throw up in front of everyone again.”
“Right,” I said. “Sorry.” I took a step, an actual step this time, not a tentative shuffle. “Would it make you feel better if I puked first?” I asked.
Emerson seemed to consider this for a second and then shook his head, eyes still shut. “No. Move.”
So I did. Now that I had Emerson as my backup, I wanted off this rope, and I wanted off this rope now. Amy moved ahead of me, and I followed, attempting to place invisible feet exactly where they needed to go on an invisible rope. It felt like an eternity, but it was probably only a minute or so later, and I felt the fabulously stable wood of the platform under my feet. I fell onto it gratefully and kissed it like a sailor kissed dry land after surviving a shipwreck.
“Easy there, or you’ll be pulling splinters out of your lips for a week,” Amy said, and I glanced up to see her watching me. I’d forgotten that I wasn’t invisible to her, and I quickly got up and brushed myself off. I turned back to look at where we’d just come from and blinked in surprise to see that the rope I’d been standing on two seconds earlier was no longer invisible.
“Hey,” I said as I quickly pulled Emerson down from his floating position by my head. “When did the rope show back up?”
“Huh?” he said, opening one eye as his feet scrabbled an inch above the wooden platform. I yanked him down the last few inches just as Zeke popped his head up and slid me Emerson’s vest. I hefted it onto Emerson’s shoulders, and he buckled it on gratefully.
“What did you do to the rope?” Zeke said.
“Me?” I said. “You think I did this?”
“Yes,” everyone chorused, and I blinked in surprise.
“Well,” I said, “only one way to find out.” I turned to the left, where another rope setup left the platform, and headed out into the trees. Before I could think better of it, I tentatively placed a bare foot on the rope. It disappeared. I quickly yanked it back and then glanced over at Zeke and Emerson, who both looked just as shocked as I felt.
“Well, that’s new,” Zeke said. It was then that I noticed the sounds of the cheers and whoops floating up from below us. I glanced over the edge of the platform to see the rest of our team watching as well as the kids from the Red Maple and Monarch cabins. I threw my arms out and bowed, because that’s what you did when you were receiving a standing ovation. Since I was invisible, the effect wasn’t quite as good as usual, so I grabbed Emerson’s arm and held it up in the air in triumph. The cheers below redoubled.
