By Paul Cwick

Greg sat on the bench in the shopping mall, gloomily sipping at a cup of weak tea. He didn’t really want to be there. And yet he was afraid to leave, too. He’d been sitting on this damned bench for hours now, his mood getting progressively gloomier. This was one of the few times in recent months that he’d had a chance to be completely alone, to ponder his unusual situation, with its unique problems. And the more he pondered the situation, the more hopeless it appeared to him.

It’s just no good, he thought. Any way you look at it, it’s just no good. I can’t take this anymore. I gotta get away from her, she’s driving me crazy. I thought I could put up with it, but I can’t. I thought she would change, but she’s obviously not going to. The invisibility I could almost put up with, but all the other stuff…

The "other stuff" that Greg was thinking about was the increasingly erratic and cruel behavior of his invisible girlfriend, Cathy. His life had been completely disrupted some months ago by her discovery of invisibility. He was shocked when she first told him about it, then angry when she refused to share her invisibility with him. Then hurt by the cruel pranks she began to play on him while she was invisible. Then humiliated when she began to play these pranks in public. Then he began to feel threatened by her increasing bossiness in their relationship. Now he was beginning to feel truly frightened.

Frightened because at this point, he really couldn’t see any alternative other than to break up with her. In the back of his mind, perhaps he’d known all along that this would someday be inevitable, yet he tried to avoid it for as long as he could. He had made every last effort to make the relationship work. At one time he had thought that, with enough patience, persuasion and love, he could get Cat to change, to make her stop doing these things to him, to get things back to the way they were before. Now he was no longer so optimistic. He really cared deeply about Cat, or rather, he HAD cared about her at one time; now, however, he wasn’t so sure anymore. There was a time when he thought he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Now he could barely tolerate her presence. He wasn’t exactly ready to start hating Cat exactly, nor did he want to. So perhaps, he thought, the best thing would be for them to just make a clean break of it now, to get away from each other before things got any worse between them. Or at least, maybe have some kind of trial separation or something. For a while, at least, so that they could each have some time alone to think things over.

It wasn’t even the invisibility per se that was putting him off. Sure, it was a shock when she first revealed it to him, and it took a long time for him to get even REASONABLY used to it. And it was true that he wasn’t particularly happy about her being so selfish with such a unique power.

And he’d about given up trying to find her potion, too; at this point, he didn’t even care about that so much anymore. After seeing what it had done to the woman he loved, he wasn’t sure he wanted such a power even if he could have had it.

No, what was really getting difficult for Greg to deal with was the things Cat did to him, the mean, hurtful things she did that seemed to defy all logic, things she did for seemingly no other reason than to be cruel. He had almost driven himself mad trying to understand the possible reasons she could have for doing these things. And trying to reconcile these cruel things with the kind, loving things she did at other times was equally baffling. But by now, he had about given up trying to understand Cat altogether.

It was that stunt she pulled at the Triathlon Club that had really torn it for Greg. That was really the last straw. Up to then, he was willing to be patient. But after that…well… He couldn’t say for sure that all love died at that moment, but he could definitely say that after that, it was on life-support and sinking fast…

The trouble was, how the hell was he going to even MENTION a breakup to Cat? She’d been getting increasingly "clingy" these last few weeks, even more than before, and that was bad enough. Plus, with that temper of hers, there was no telling what her reaction would be. He’d been meaning to bring the subject up to her for days now, but he just couldn’t. He couldn’t do it while she was invisible, because he was afraid. It was difficult enough as it was just talking to an invisible person, let alone talk about such a touchy subject. Not being able to see her face, he could never tell what her mood was at any given time. He never knew whether she was happy, sad or angry. Not until she acted. And by then, it was usually too late.

He’d never realized before just how much interpersonal communication depends upon small visual cues in a person’s body language and facial expression. But not having these clues to go on anymore made Greg feel very awkward and uncomfortable when talking to Cat and only reminded him of his disadvantaged position in their relationship. Which was yet another problem.

And suppose Cat didn’t want to separate? What the hell was he going to do then? How was he supposed to get away from an invisible girl who didn’t want to let go?

And Cat ALWAYS seemed to be invisible these days. It got to be increasingly rare that he ever got to actually SEE her anymore, so the opportunities for him to talk to her when he felt comfortable doing so continued to diminish as time went on.

He COULD just leave, he thought. Just walk out on her without a word. Just up and leave town, leave no forwarding address, change his name, the whole nine yards. That would probably be the safest thing to do under the circumstances. Every instinct in Greg told him that this was the sensible thing to do, but deep down inside, he just knew that he could never do it. He could never just walk out on any woman, without a word, no matter how much he may dislike her. Okay, so he was a sucker, a chump. But that’s the way he was built, and he couldn’t help it. And, to be fair, he HAD enjoyed good times with Cat in the past. So he felt he owed her that much, at least. Besides, there was that Thompson deal going on at work… It was about to go through any day now, and he couldn’t very well just walk away from that, not after all the time and money he’d invested in it…

So it was upon the horns of this particular dilemma that Greg found himself on this pleasant Saturday afternoon. He couldn’t stay with Cat, he couldn’t just leave and he was afraid to even mention the subject of separation. So what the hell am I going to do? he wondered.

He was about to broach the subject of separation that very morning, in fact. Cat had become invisible and spent the night before at his place, and as usual, was visible in the morning. Now that he was able to see her again, and they were both on more or less equal terms, he was just about to bring the subject up when Cat spoke first, talking about this crazy idea of going to the mall.

He almost laughed when she mentioned it. The MALL? What the hell did that have to do with anything? Then, of course, she added that she wanted to go there while invisible, and THEN it made perfect sense. Ever since Cat’s stunt at Jeremiah’s several weeks earlier, however, Greg didn’t particularly want to go anywhere in public with Cat again, so he declined the invitation. She insisted, though, pointing out that, once invisible, she couldn’t very well drive herself; it would attract too much attention. So Greg refused, thinking that if she had no transportation, maybe she’d just forget all about the crazy idea. He also tried again to tactfully steer the conversation around towards the subject of separation, but Cat refused to listen, continuing to insist on going to the stupid mall and getting increasingly annoyed at Greg’s refusal to drive her. Finally, she just stormed out of the room and into the bathroom, slamming the door.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, an empty dress emerged from the bathroom. Cat had once again taken her invisibility potion. As soon as Greg saw the empty dress float across the room towards him, he felt a familiar hollow sensation in the pit of his stomach. The feeling was so familiar to him by now that it was almost like an old friend. Because every time he and Cat had an argument or disagreement about ANYTHING these days, it always ended up being settled in the exact same way: Cat becoming invisible and getting her own way. This time was no exception.

The empty dress floated over to Greg, and he could tell by her body language that she was not happy. The dress stopped directly in front of Greg. An empty sleeve reached up and an unseen hand gripped his shirt.

"Now," said Cat’s quiet voice, coming from the vicinity of the empty collar. "Are you going to drive me or not?"

So what the hell was he supposed to do? What choice did he have? He drove her, of course. And on the way down, his nerves were so rattled it was a miracle he didn’t have an accident. They arrived, and since Cat didn’t want to walk across the parking lot in bare feet, Greg pulled up to the curb by the mall entrance. The car door opened and closed as Cat stepped out. Greg pulled away and parked the car, then met Cat at the entrance. Since he couldn’t see her, he just waited for her to come to him. He flinched as an unseen hand took his own and pulled him into the mall.

The rest of the day consisted of Greg being constantly dragged, pushed and shoved this way and that by the invisible Cat. "Oh, let’s go see this," "Let’s have a look at that," she would whisper in his ear, and then her unseen hands would grab at him or grab his clothes and push and tug him in all directions. He really didn’t like the feeling of being pushed around by unseen hands that way, and after a while, he began to complain about it to Cat who, as usual, didn’t want to listen to his complaints.

"How else am I supposed to show you where I want to go?" she would say.

Later, when Norma Stiles showed up and said ‘hello,’ Greg was so rattled by then from being pushed around all day by invisible hands, that he jumped a bit when Norma first spoke. He was just starting to relax and talk with her for a moment or two (and Greg REALLY wanted to talk to someone, anyone!) when Cat suddenly grabbed him by the back of his jacket collar and dragged him off again in another direction. Without her saying a word, Greg could tell that Cat was starting to get angry again, so he put up no resistance.

Until Cat let go of Greg ever so briefly to go look at something in a store window, and then he immediately lost her. He looked around, instinctively. Even though he knew it was useless, since he couldn’t see her, he had hoped he might spot some tiny visual clue as to her whereabouts. He looked and looked, and even reached his hands out, feeling around for her, even calling her name in a loud whisper, but it was useless. He got some strange looks from people, but he was used to that by now.

He didn’t know where she had gone, what she was going to do or when she would be back. He stood there, waiting for the longest time, waiting for her to come back and take his hand. After a while, he finally realized that, wherever she had gone, she obviously wouldn’t return any time soon. He sighed, bought a cup of weak tea (which was about all his queasy stomach could tolerate anymore these days) and sat down on a bench near a small alcove in a corner where the telephones, restrooms and drinking fountain were located, and simply waited for her. Sooner or later, she was bound to find him, and when she was ready to, they could go home.

And there Greg sat for the remainder of the day. By now it was late afternoon, and he was tired, bored and disgusted with everything. He didn’t know where Cat was or what the hell she was doing all this time, but when he noticed more mall security guards in the place than was usual for a Saturday, he somehow had a feeling that Cat wasn’t exactly sitting around twiddling her thumbs.

Greg watched the last of the mall security guards disappear around the corner and he was just about to take a sip from his tea when suddenly his face was slapped hard by an unseen hand, spilling the tea all over his lap and the floor. He let out a squall and a curse, immediately jumping to his feet and backing against the wall by the telephones. His eyes stared in blind terror and he trembled all over. All heads in the immediate area turned to see what the commotion was.

"What the hell was that for?!?" Greg almost screamed.

An unseen hand gripped the front of Greg’s shirt, yanking him forward. "Keep your voice down, damn you!" Cat whispered angrily in his ear. Quiet though her voice was, there was no mistaking the controlled fury of the tone. "I won’t have you making a scene in public again!"

"What are you mad at now?" Greg whispered angrily.

"I’ve been looking all over for you, that’s what! Now come on, we’re going home!"

Cat released her grip, and Greg struggled to collect his wits. With a trembling hand, he pulled out a handkerchief and tried to dab at his drenched clothes. He had no idea what the hell Cat was angry about this time (but then he rarely did) but he knew better than to argue with her when she was in this mood. "Going home!" he muttered. "It’s about time!" Cat grabbed his wrist, dragging him into the hallway which led to the exit. Despite the crowded conditions of the mall, the exit hallway was completely deserted.

"Come on! Come on! Let’s go!" Cat hissed.

"All right, all right, I’m going!"

"Will you hurry up? I don’t have all day."

"All right already, willya!! What’s the big rush?"

"Look Greg, I’m in no mood! It’s getting late, and I just want to go home!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Greg said, slowing his pace. He paused a moment. "I think I know why you’re in such a big hurry. What time did you take your potion this morning? Around nine o’clock, right?"

"So?"

"So it’s almost five now. You’ve been invisible for almost eight hours. Which means it’s almost time for the stuff to start wearing off right about now, isn’t it?"

Cat was silent.

"It IS almost time, isn’t it?" Greg said.

Cat remained silent. Greg went on.

"Which means, if I don’t drive you home, you’ll be stuck out here in public without your clothes. Wouldn’t that be a shame…"

"Look Greg, don’t play games with me! I’m not in the mood!"

"It’s a tempting thought, isn’t it?" He paused, as a smile began to spread across his face for the first time in weeks. "I’m just picturing you standing here in this crowded mall dressed only in your birthday suit. And with all these mall security guards running around, too! It’d be awfully tough for you to explain, wouldn’t it?"

"Greg, don’t push me!"

"Oh, and you’d be so embarrassed! You’d be totally humiliated, wouldn’t you! Wouldn’t THAT be a shame! Maybe then you’d realize how I felt when you humiliated ME all those times!"

An unseen hand roughly grabbed Greg’s shirt. "Now look, you…!" Cat hissed, then paused. Then she released her grip.

A long silence followed. Seconds grew into minutes. Little by little, bit by bit, Greg’s smile began to diminish as the silence dragged on. Finally, Cat spoke again.

"All right, Greg. Play your little game. Have your fun. Because I can play the game too. Only I have an ace in the hole that you didn’t know about." She leaned over close to him, and whispered in his ear. "I wasn’t going to tell you this, but it so happens I have a secret emergency stash of my potion with me right now. I had a feeling you might pull something like this one of these days, so I started carrying it around with me, just in case. If you force me, I’ll have no other choice but to take another dose right here and now."

Greg laughed. "You’re bluffing!" he said. "What kind of fool do you take me for? You don’t have any emergency stash with you, you’re just making it up!"

"Am I?" she replied. "Think about it. You know I can now make a concentrated form of my potion. You know I can carry it in a vial no larger than your little finger, right?"

"Yeah, so what? You couldn’t possibly have it with you. Where could you hide it? Where could you…" Greg speech faltered.

"Think about it." Cat said.

The expression on Greg’s face now turned to one of disgust as the answer occurred to him. "Ohhhh!" he said. "You can’t be serious! That’s disgusting!"

Now it was Cat’s turn to laugh. "Still think I’m bluffing? Now look, Greg. You’ve got a choice. You can either be reasonable and drive me home right now and let me turn visible again, in which case I might be willing to forget about this whole thing. Or…"

"Or what?"

"Or you can be a smart-ass and force me to take another dose and stay invisible for several hours more. During which time I’ll probably have to…punish you! Think it over." She paused a moment. "Now what’s it going to be?"

Greg hesitated. She HAD to be bluffing, she just HAD to! She wouldn’t do something like that…or would she? As he thought about it however, Greg had to admit that, where Cat was concerned, there was probably very little that she WOULDN’T do. Still, he couldn’t be sure… Did he really want to risk it?

"And while you’re making up your mind," said Cat. "Let me just remind you that all those mall security guards over there could easily work in my favor too. I could just as easily make YOU the center of attention, if you know what I mean."

Unseen hands tugged at Greg’s shirt, pulling it until he thought it would tear. Greg looked down the hallway to see even more guards scurrying around in the mall.

"I did it before, you know." Cat said. "And I can easily do it again. And with all those guards out there, you might not get away with it so easily this time. Or maybe it doesn’t have to be your shirt this time. Maybe it could be something else."

Greg felt a strange sensation. He looked down and saw the belt of his pants beginning to undo itself. "All I’d have to do is scream, and they’d come running." Cat said.

"All right, all right! I give!" Greg said. "I’ll drive you home now!"

The belt re-buckled itself. "That’s more like it. Now let’s go." The unseen hand gripped Greg’s wrist, and once again pulled him toward the exit. They were almost to the door, when Cat suddenly stopped again.

"Oh, and one more thing, before I forget." she said.

Suddenly, Greg’s face was struck again by an unseen hand, only much harder this time, and it struck his face at an odd angle, catching his nose. Greg howled in pain and blood gushed from his nostrils.

"That’s in case you get any smart ideas again. Consider that a warning. Next time I might not let you off so easily."

"My God, I think my nose is broken!" Greg cried.

"It’s not broken. But it might be if you don’t get your butt moving!"

Greg pulled out his handkerchief and held it to his nose with one hand, trying to stanch the flow of blood, while his other was taken by Cat, leading him to the car.

It’s over, Greg thought. It’s definitely over now. This settles it once and for all.

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