The perils of Invisibility
A James and Cindy Vignette.
Tap Tap Tap.
Cindy blinked, and looked at the window. There was nobody there.
Then it came again.
Tap Tap Tap. She frowned. Cindy put her ebook down, got off her bed, and then walked over to the window, lighting one hand on fire, just in case. The eleven year old raised the window, making certain that Mom hadn't found out how she'd disabled the alarm built into the window.
"Hey Cindy!" The empty air said.
"James? Do you know how close you came to invisible boy flambé?" Cindy paused,
"and how'd you get invisible? I thought your mom made your uncles promise no more experiments on you."
"Yeah. She did." The air said, "Bummer to, I mean, so I spent a day being intangible." The air paused, "But this wasn't them…it's me, sort of!" Then there was a rustle, and James appeared. "Mom's battlesuit could do the stealth, but I found some of the fabric Uncle Wade had first tested, and I managed to make it work. It's a one way pattern of light guides, so that it bends the light in just the right way!" He finished, clambering into her room and closing the window.
"Neat!" She paused. "What's the problem with it?"
"Um…he said that it didn't handle heat well. That was when mom was fighting your mom and well…" He pointed at her still ignited hand. James paused, "Or that it was vulnerable to lemon pudding. You know what Uncle Wade's handwriting is like."
"Almost as bad as Dad's." Cindy agreed. "So that-"
"Cindy, honey, can I come in?"
"OMIGOSH!" Cindy gasped. "Hide!"
"Where?"
"In the corner, use the fabric, hurry!" James quickly huddled into the corner and vanished behind his invisibility fabric. "And keep quiet!" she said as she ran to the door, opening it to see her mother standing in the corridor, looking puzzled at the (seemingly) empty room.
"Yeah mom?"
"Were you talking to someone?" Cindy looked around and inwardly sighed, her computer was still on. Good.
"Yeah, a study buddy from Japan."
"Oh. You have the safe-filter one."
"Yes."
"The age verification?"
"Yes."
"DNS and location verifier?"
"Yes." Cindy said.
"Oh good. You never know what type of people you can run into on the internet… like boys."
Oh Man. Cindy sighed. "Mom, it's not a big deal. Besides, what about James?"
"He's not a boy, he's James." There was a sudden rustle from the corner. Cindy fought down a desire to snicker.
"Well that's good that your not busy, because I need to talk to you. You've been a very good child...," Shego said, in her housedress and abruptly sat down on the bed and motioned for Cindy to sit next to her. Cindy cautiously did so, wondering what was next. "But you're a growing girl and that means changes…"
Oh no. She thought. Not that. Mom must have heard about Dad's attempt to explain the birds and the bees to her. He'd worldgoogled the keywords "facts of life" and "doing it" trying to find the right words to use, and didn't get out from under the bed until mom had threatened to vaporize him.
He should have used safesearch. Cindy thought, but this was going to be really annoy-
Oh no.
"oh no." She whispered.
"Now Cindy, it's perfectly natural to be worried about things like this."
No it's not…because you didn't have your best friend sitting invisible in the SAME ROOM.
"Um…maybe we could talk about it-"
"Oh baby, no time like the present. Besides, it's not like there's anything embarrassing," her smiling (and utterly clueless) mother said, "You never wet the bed, and well, after the first few times you set it on fire, Drew figured out how to have plasma proof blankets." There was another rustle from the corner…or maybe someone trying not to laugh. Cindy glared at the empty corner, her eyes beginning to glow slightly.
If you laugh and she hears you we will both be grounded forever…if you don't laugh and she doesn't hear you….
"Now," Shego said, "We can talk about some of the other changes tonight, but today, I have a special treat for you!"
"Oh?" don't be humiliating, don't be humiliating, don't be humiliating… Shego pulled out a holo-pad and touched a button on it bringing up a catalogue image…
Cindy gave a strangled gasp/choke.
"Oh, I know it's a change, but it's about time, and besides, think how fun it will be picking out your very first training bra." Shego paused. "Did you hear anything? It sounded like someone was snickering.
"Oh, that was me! I as, was thinking how, um…happy I'll be hunting out my training bra." Cindy said, her teeth gritted.
"Oh good! And look at the brands!" Shego said, "and that one looks so cute…" She paused, "but maybe a little to mature, lets' look at this one-" Another sound of choked laughter filled the room and Cindy quickly covered for it by coughing. Shego looked at her in concern. "Cindy? Are you coming down with something?"
"Um, no…" Beyond homicidal rage. " I'm uh…just really excited." She said, as the pink fire dancing around her hands spread to her arms, and then her whole body her eyes really beginning to glow. "I'm so excited that I can't even keep my plasma under wraps!" She hugged her mom in (seeming) glee and accidentally brushed the holo tablet, which promptly fizzed and went out. Dad would be happy, she thought. Mom had never been able to control what spectrum she radiated in so easily, from plasma to IR to magnetics, Cindy could do them all.
"Oh, I'm sorry mom!" Cindy said, looking at the dead holopad. Sorry, project sorry. Not YES!
"Oh, it's okay, baby." Shego said, "I'll just pick up another one and we can look at it when we get to the store." Shego paused. "Um, Cindy?"
"Yes Mom?"
"You know that part of growing up is getting stronger."
What is she… "Yes?"
"fireproof or not, I think your bed coverlet is starting to smolder."
"Oops!" Cindy leaped up and by force of will, called the power back into her. Shego got up and fanned herself off, looking at the coverlet. It wasn't smoldering, but they both could see the heat waves rising from it. "I'm sorry!"
"Oh don't be…it seems like just a few days ago I was taking films of your first baby baths and now here you are more powerful than I was, I think, and we're already getting ready to shop for your very first training bra!" Shego sniffled. "I wonder if I should take some pictures of the outside of the store.
"Um, no mom, that's really not necessary. I think I'll remember this day without any pictures." Cindy said, her face so red it was hard to tell where plasma left off and skin began. Another muffled sound echoed, causing Shego to looked puzzled, but she was thinking about other things.
"Are you sure?"
"I…yeah, I'll remember this day for a long, long time."
"Okay…well let me get the laundry out and we'll be ready to go in about ten minutes. Meet you down front!" And with that, Shego happily left the room. Cindy turned around, and by the time she'd made the full circle and the door had closed behind her mom, she was glowing again.
"James."
The invisible boy reappeared.
"Yes?"
"If you ever….ever joke about this…"
"Me? Joke?" James looked at her as he opened the window. "I would never joke about this. In fact, I'm going to help you." He continued as he got half way out the window and waited until he was confident he would be able to clear the hedge and get out of line of sight before she could react.
"How." Cindy said, her eyes now glowing brightly, the plasma nimbus surrounding her in a pink halo of energy, concentrated at her hands.
"Why…to buy you some training wheels to go with your bra!" James said and launched himself out the window.
"Why-FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
James wasn't fast enough.
Ron was enjoying some time in the pool. Kim was off picking up the younger kids at pre-K, and James was-
EEEEEEEYYIIIIIAAAAIAIIGGGGHHHH!!!!
-flying into the pool trailing smoke from the smoldering ruin of what looked like some old stealth suit fabric. He hit the water which boiled cheerily for a moment and came up for air, spluttering. Ron looked over at his eleven year old son and raised his eyebrows.
"Do I need to know?"
"Um…not really, except that I'm not as fast as I thought I was…sometimes I really should listen to the little voice telling me to keep my mouth shut..and oh." James said holding up the charred non-functional fabric with two holes burned in it that looked suspiciously like hand prints, "It wasn't Lemon Pudding the fabric was vulnerable to."
End.
Post Script. Some who have read my angsty fiction may worry about the fate of JAmes and Cindy.
Worry not. this is a light universe, and will stay so. Nothing any heaver than what you saw in the Cartoon shall ever darken James' and Cindy's doorstep.