Andrew Carter leaned back comfortably against Louis LeBeau's back. They were sharing one of the benches outside Barracks Two. The sun was warm and felt wonderful. Peter was showing Louis and the others a card trick. Andrew had seen most of them, so he preferred to doze and sun himself. Peter liked to tease him that he was like a cat. He loved to bask in the sun.

Cats. Andrew chuckled to himself. Aloud he mused, "I wonder what actually did happen to Mr. Boots?"

Newkirk perked up at the familiar name. "You talkin' about your sister's cat? The girl cat with the boy's name?" Andrew nodded.

Olsen looked confused. "What about his sister's cat?"

Newkirk grinned. "He made her disappear."

"His sister?"

"No, mate! Her cat!"

Andrew chuckled at the confused looks Olsen and some of the others were shooting him.

Olsen said, "What did you do, get rid of the cat without telling your sister?

"Nope. I borrowed some parts from my aunt's radio and some other stuff, and built an invisibility machine."

"You're kidding!"

Carter shook his head. "I needed to test it, and my older sister had gotten into my lab—"

Olsen held up a hand. "Wait, you had your own lab at home?"

"Well, yeah. My dad and my uncles helped me build it out in our backyard. They figured it was safer that way."

Newkirk chuckled as he added, "That was after he blew up his da's garage twice."

Fitz piped up, "How old were you?"

"When he built the lab or when I blew up the garage?"

When you blew up the garage."

"Which time?" All the men broke out laughing at that.

"I give up. How old were you when you built the invisibility machine?"

"I was nine."

"Jeez, Carter!"

Carter just rolled his eyes and continued his story. "Anyway, Sarah was mad at me for swiping a pair of her silk—"

This time Kinch quickly cut him off. "Don't wanna hear it, pal!"

Carter grinned goofily and shrugged. "Oh. Well, yeah. Okay, anyway. She got mad at me and got into my lab and let all my mice go. I didn't have any money to replace them, so…"

Newkirk grinned. "That's why you used her cat."

Andrew shrugged, looking sheepishly. "I really didn't think it would work. Sarah was spending the day at our cousin's house, so she wasn't home. So, I just lured her into the lab…and put her into a box. She wasn't happy, but I gave her a toy to play with, so she tolerated it."

Olsen frowned. "So, you built this contraption, and put the cat in it, and it disappeared?"

Andrew shook his head. "No, not exactly. It was sort of like a ray-gun thing. I pointed it at her and fired it. Nothing happened, so I didn't think anything about it. I figured I would try again before I let her go. I fired it a second time and let her go outside by the barn. I started messing with some chemicals for another experiment. I forgot about Mr. Boots until Mom called me for supper. I went outside and she was laying down by the beech tree. Nothing seemed any different."

Fitz looked disappointed. "So, when did she disappear?"

My sister got home a couple of hours after dinner. She and I went out into the back yard. She sat down in the grass to play with Mr. Boots. I headed to my lab to check on the chemicals I had cooking. My dad was at the picnic table with my uncle and cousins. Suddenly Sarah started screaming. By the time I got there, Mr. Boots was half-invisible. We all watched her disappear."

"What did you do?"

"Well, I made the mistake of saying I wished I could have gotten pictures."

Newkirk clapped Carter on the back. "How long were you out, mate?

The men nearly collapsed. When they had recovered, Kinch had a question. "So, you know for sure then that the cat was invisible. Whatever happened to it?"

"Oh, she stayed around for years, just like any other cat. Slept with my sister and everything. We just never could see her again. She was there, just-not visible. One day she just wasn't there anymore." He stopped, a bemused look on his face. "Of course, It was really weird watching her catch a mouse…"

Even Newkirk turned slightly green at that. LeBeau who had been enjoying the story up to that point, suddenly stood up and smacked Carter on the arm. He muttered a string of French invectives as he stalked back inside the barracks.

Carter looked confused and looked around. "What did I say?"

~HH~

Later that night, Kinch found he couldn't sleep. He got to wondering about Carter's story. It couldn't really be true, could it?

He looked over at Carter's bunk, and wasn't surprised to find it empty. Andrew was well known for his frequent bouts of insomnia. He was pretty sure he knew where to find their young genius. He slipped down into the tunnel and saw the light on in Carter's lab. He knocked quietly.

Carter looked up from the chemical he was heating over a Bunsen burner. He smiled, but never stopped working. "Hey Kinch. Come on in."

Kinch indicated the burner. "Making something good?"

"Just something I've been fooling around with. It's an idea I had for a substitute for gelignite." Kinch raised an eyebrow and reminded himself to alert Colonel Hogan to Carter's latest endeavors…soon.

Carter glanced at him. "Did you need something?"

"Just a question."

"What's that?"

"If that machine of yours worked, what happened to it? You could have ended up making a fortune from something like that!"

Carter smiled ruefully. "Well, my sister got so mad at me when she discovered I couldn't reverse what I had done, she broke it. Smashed it into a million pieces. And I never could duplicate it."

Kinch thought about that. "Wow. Too bad."

Andrew shrugged. "Maybe it was better that way. I was gonna try it on myself next."

Kinch blanched at the thought. Carter. Invisible. God help us all! Thank you, Sarah!

~The End~