Yellow Mama E zine

Being Transparent

 

by John A. Tures

 

          “You know you only got on this Greece trip because of a lie,” Cassie snapped.

          Alex groaned as he and his childhood friend strode past yet another series of historical ruins that day. He thought she would be impressed that he used Artificial Intelligence to write the essay that won the schoolwide contest, which gave him a free trip to join his fellow high school seniors in Athens that summer.

          “I used my smarts to…”

          Cassie waved her hands in frustration as they trailed behind their fellow Americans on their class trip. “You mean you used some programmer’s intelligence to do it.”

          “But then you and I wouldn’t have visited the Acropolis together, or Delphi, or all of those islands, broadening my educational horizons,” he responded.

          “I like you when you’re honest, being yourself,” she admitted as they left the remains of the ancient Agora for the Athenian open-air shopping market in the city’s center.

          Being yourself, Alex mused. Who wants that? All I ever do is try, try, try… “Average Alex,” they called him. He got B’s and C’s on his report card and was a benchwarmer on the basketball team. He longed to be seen as special. I want to get ahead, just once.

          Buzz and Daphne, walking ahead of them, were a different story. Buzz was headed to Duke on a four-year scholarship, while Daphne would follow as head cheerleader and leader of student government. If only she knew I existed, much less how I long for her, he thought.

          A loud crack ended his daydreams of her, as Cassie’s fingers concluded their snap, inches from his eyes.

          “Hey ‘Aristotle,’” she giggled. “Enough of your deep thoughts. You almost walked into another statue. Check out this.” She pointed to a basement sandwiched between two trendy Euro-wear shops.

          “What’s that?”

          “It’s where I can get my fortune told,” Cassie beamed. “C’mon!”

          He shrugged and ambled down the steps behind her to the lower level. “How do you know that’s what they do there?”

          She pointed to an app on her phone, which translated the Greek for him.

          The room beyond the door was teeming with antiques. They came to a thick black curtain, just past a narrow path surrounded by piles of old stuff in the middle of the room.

          “It says to enter,” Cassie pointed to the sign above that her phone had helpfully deciphered.

          “One at a time,” an old woman’s voice croaked.

          Cassie advanced confidently, while Alex stepped toward an old wooden table next to him with a pamphlet. It was in Greek, of course, but thankfully, he remembered the name of Cassie’s app. It looked like a menu of cool things you could do, or even be. Hypnosis, Levitation, Invisibility, the Ability to Speak with Animals, or Travel Through Time were just a few options.

          But what would make him the most powerful? He longed for something that would make him special.

          Several minutes later, Cassie emerged from the dark room with a satisfied look on her face.

          “Hear what you wanted?” he began, though he sensed the answer.

          She nodded enthusiastically. “Want to go next?”

          “Oh yeah!”

          She seemed surprised by his newfound zeal as he parted the curtains. Inside the gloom of the next room sat the old crone in a chair. He could see little more than her face, as she was draped in shawls and a dress from ancient times.

          She gestured at him, indicating that he should sit at her gnarled table.

          “Are you a gypsy?” he sought to break the silence.

          She slapped him, shocking him as much from her speed as her decision to strike him. “I am not Roma! I am Greek from Peloponnesus.”

          “Oh,” he managed, clutching his stinging cheek. “I saw that you can give me a gift.”

          “Do you have payment?” Her voice sounded like something from an old record his grandparents once played.

          He held out a few Euro notes and coins. “I also have a credit card.”

          She snatched the money with that amazing agility. “You will pay the rest later.”

          He wasn’t sure what that meant, or how much that would be, but he didn’t dwell on it too long. “I want to be…invisible,” Alex announced.

          “You mean you will become…transparent. This I grant you,” she rasped.

          For a second, he felt strangely warm, like the sun crept into the room for just a minute. “Thanks…I mean…efcharisto!”

          She waved him off. “Goodbye, Alexander. I will be seeing you later.” The old woman added a toothy grin as he looked surprised that she somehow knew his name.

          In the waiting room, Cassie was scrutinizing a necklace. Become invisible, he thought. The mirror on the wall showed him still to be there. Wait…what had the Greek woman said? Be transparent, he thought. To his delight, it worked.

          He crept around until he was practically standing in front of Cassie. Nothing. She could see right through him. Yes!

          She turned toward the curtains. “Alex? Are you almost done? I want to shop some more!”

          “Hey, Cassie.”

          She shrieked, dropping the jewelry. As she knelt to pick up the valuables, he whispered the counter-spell he saw on the pamphlet.

“Alex! You scared the heck out of me,” Cassie gasped. She eyed him suspiciously but then shook her head. “Get what you want as well?”

          “Oh yeah, Cassie. I think things are going to change for me.”

          The blue evil eye from the necklace that she retrieved from the floor watched him carefully.

 

          Along the flea market were racks of clothing, even a Giannis basketball jersey.       

          “Become transparent,” he whispered.

          That’s why nobody saw him magically swipe the basketball uniform, which thankfully turned invisible as well when he snatched it. But a cyclist careening through the market nearly slammed into him. Then he realized the guy on the bike couldn’t see him. He’d have to be careful. Still, as he considered his prize, this newfound power was worth it.

 

          He walked past another stall or two, pulling on the Giannis jersey, and reappeared. Cassie spun around and eyed him suspiciously. “Where’d you get that?”

          “This?” he replied confidently. “I got this back in the U.S. before we came here.”

          “You can’t steal that! Put it back!” she whispered angrily.

          Wait, what had he said? Did he really admit to stealing? He reluctantly sauntered back toward the stall, turning invisible at just the right time when he got back to the rack with the jersey.

          Across the narrow cobblestone lane, he saw Daphne, the girl he longed for, trying to decide which scarf to buy while Buzz focused on metal swords. She’s so pretty, Alex thought. She would be impressed if she knew I could turn invisible. If only I could kiss her and reveal my superpower to her. Then she’d see that I’m so much better for her than Buzz. Still invisible, he slithered over to her, then secretly crept in, and puckered his lips….

          “What the hell?” she shrieked.

          Buzz dropped the saber and dashed over. “What happened, Daph?”

          “Somebody…kissed me!”

          “On the cheek? Maybe it was the wind,” Buzz offered.

          “No! It was on my mouth! And it wasn’t some breeze!”

          “It’s crowded in the market. Maybe someone accidentally bumped…”

          “It wasn’t some accident. Some jerk stole a kiss from me!”

          Alex hid behind the mirror. Though pleased with this new skill, he was upset that the valedictorian was freaked out by his romantic gesture.

          “What happened to her?” Cassie asked as Alex emerged back on the street while Buzz tried vainly to calm down his girlfriend.

          “I have no idea,” was his only reply.

          Whack!

          Now his other cheek was stinging. “What was that for?”

          “You just admitted to sneaking up and kissing Daphne when she couldn’t see you!” Cassie’s shriek was thankfully lost in the commotion, or Buzz would have hit him even harder.

          “No, I didn’t say that.”

          Her hand flew to his other cheek, but he caught her wrist this time. “What gives, Cassie?”

          “You just doubled down on making out with the prom queen and bragged about it.”

          “I…”

          What was happening? He stalked inside a nearby café so Buzz wouldn’t overhear them. “I thought I said I didn’t know what happened,” Alex rubbed his cheek.

          “And what you really said was that you got to lock lips with the hottest girl in school,” Cassie revealed. “It’s like you can’t lie anymore.”

          “But Daphne didn’t see whose lips touched hers,” he pointed out.

          “And why is that?” she countered.

          Oh no. “I have no clue,” he tried.

          “So you’re unable to lie, and you can turn invisible. It’s like you’re ‘being transparent’ in more ways than one. Did the old woman give you both gifts?”

          Sigh. There was no point in lying now. “Yeah. I guess so.”

          “Was it worth it, Mr. Always Stretches the Truth?”

          “We’ll see,” he snarled as he stalked out of the café.

          Only Cassie knew his secret. Time to make this super ability pay off, he thought as he approached a bank. Maybe riches would give him the fame he longed for.

          It was child’s play to dart inside, past a customer, through the sliding doors, all while being transparent. He evaded the security guard, vaulted a big desk, and found a table with several stacks of Euro notes, which also turned invisible as soon as he grabbed them. Success!

          But a nearby teller, whose back had been turned, now saw that the money on the table was gone. She pushed an alarm. It was time to skip out of this financial institution.

          As he got near the door, a bank manager cried out to the security guard. “Lock down the bank. Secure the door!”

          “What happened?” The security guard wanted to know.

          They were both surprised to see a teenager magically appear and confess to the crime.

          Alex gasped in shock at his unexpected admission. Both men looked at each other as Alex bounded past the sliding doors. “Get the thief!” the manager commanded as he followed Alex.

          Cops joined the chase. Alex was thankful he was an athlete, as he did his best to keep ahead of the lumbering officers. As Alex rounded a corner, he had just enough time to mutter the words and disappear. But then, a policeman on a motorcycle nearly plowed into him.

          It was too much. Now it was time to head back to that palm-reading place to see if he could undo the damage.

          Near the old woman’s place, he reemerged in his non-transparent form. At the doorway, Cassie stood, arms folded, waiting for him. “I thought I’d find you here. Had enough, Mr. Invisible?”

          “Yeah” was all he could say, completely breathless from the exertion of the chase, stumbling down the stairs, past the waiting room, and through the curtains.

          The old woman regarded him suspiciously. “So, you want to give up your special gift?”

          “Definitely,” he gasped.

          She held out her hand. “Give me all of the Euros you stole from the bank.”

          How did she know? Reluctantly, he handed over all of the cash.

          She touched his forehead and muttered some words in Greek, a kind of chant, and he felt a moment of cold inside him.

          “Now, go, and do not come back,” she ordered him.

          He staggered back into the waiting room, where Cassie stood at attention, eyes widened.

          “Let’s go,” he croaked. She grabbed his shoulder and helped him up the stairs.

          Outside, the noisy police search for the robber was still going on at the other end of the market, though they were thankfully far enough away. He tried turning invisible to see if he had been cured. Nothing happened. Thank God, he mused.

          “Let’s get back to the hotel,” Cassie offered, directing him toward the motorbus for their travel group. “By the way, what’s all that commotion back there at the market?” she asked, indicating the police sirens and crowd noises.

          “I don’t know,” Alex stated flatly.

          “You robbed a bank?” Cassie exclaimed in shock.

          He clapped his hand over his mouth and looked back at the fortune teller’s place, hearing her cackling inside his head.

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       Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and raised in El Paso, Texas, John A. Tures began writing sports for the El Paso Herald-Post. In college, he worked for a radio station. He worked his way through graduate school in education outreach for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He earned his doctorate in political science at Florida State University, analyzed data on foreign policy in Washington DC, and is now a professor at LaGrange College in Georgia. He writes columns for a number of newspapers and magazines and has published several short stories in various genres, from thrillers and mysteries to nonfiction and flash fiction. 

       He thanks his family for their patience in listening to these stories and for Sharon Marchisello, Ann Michelle Harris, and his sister and mother for their editing help.

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        Sophia Wiseman-Rose (aka Sr. Sophia Rose) is a Paramedic and an Anglican novice Franciscan nun, in the UK.  Both careers have given Sophia a great deal of exposure to the extremes in life and have provided great inspiration for her.  

  She has travelled to many countries, on medical missions and for modelling (many years ago), but has spent most of her life between the USA and the UK. She is currently residing in a rural Franciscan community and will soon be moving to London to be with a community there.  

       In addition, Sophia had a few poems and short stories in editions of Black Petals Horror/Science Fiction Magazine

      The majority of her artwork can be found on her website.

  https://www.artstation.com/sophiaw-r6