Jenny opened her eyes and looked around her. Where the hell am I now? she wondered. Over the past several days, Jenny had gotten more or less used to waking up in strange surroundings. Ever since she had become invisible, she had been sleeping wherever she could, mostly in the mattress department of a local department store, but occasionally in the unoccupied rooms of local motels. This morning however, was the first time she had awakened in what appeared to be an ordinary bedroom. Looking around at the mess that the room was in, she knew immediately that it must be a guy’s bedroom.

She raised a hand to rub the sleepiness out of her eyes and jumped when she saw the empty pajama sleeve approaching her face. She immediately relaxed again and felt foolish for having been startled. Even after several days, she still sometimes forgot that she was invisible.

She looked down at herself and at the pajamas she wore. She plucked at the pajama top, pulling it away from her skin and looking down inside the collar. Where did these come from? she wondered as she examined the interior of the empty pajamas.

Then she remembered the events of the night before: how she had dropped in on Ted and had spent the night at his place. How he had lent her his pajamas and bathrobe. How he had volunteered to sleep on the couch so that she could have his bed. She smiled invisibly. Ted was such a nice guy, she thought. She was lucky to have him for a lab partner.

She looked at the clock. 7:32 a.m. She stretched and yawned widely, then sleepily pulled away the blankets. She reached for Ted’s bathrobe, which she had lain across the back of a chair nearby. Might as well get up, she thought as she pulled the robe onto herself and rose unsteadily from the bed.

And immediately wished she hadn’t. Her entire body was wracked with aches and pains of all sorts and varieties. The soles of her feet were almost raw, her stomach growled furiously from neglected hunger pains, every muscle in her body felt as though it had been strained to the breaking point from her ceaseless activity of the past week.

Oooooh, she thought. Maybe I’d better take it easy for a while! She painfully tied the sash of the robe and took hesitant, painful steps to the door of the bedroom.

In the next room meanwhile, Ted hurriedly bustled about as he cleaned out his cereal bowl & coffee cup, buttoned his shirt, combed his hair and in general went through all his other early-morning activities, but at an extremely frenetic pace. Damn, I gotta get going, he thought, or I’m gonna be late! Normally, Ted didn’t like to hurry; under normal circumstances he got out of bed early enough in the morning to allow sufficient time to do everything without hurrying. But Ted had gotten to bed so late the previous evening, what with Jenny dropping in on him unexpectedly, followed by their long talk, with Ted again trying to persuade Jenny to listen to reason and return to the lab, and Jenny refusing just as adamantly. After which Ted allowed himself to get suckered into sleeping on the sofa. And then, on top of it all, Ted found it virtually impossible to sleep on that sofa. He was cold and uncomfortable all night long, there was no room for his long legs, and now his neck and back were killing him. Then, just when he felt as though he were finally about to drop off to sleep, the early-morning light of dawn streamed through the windows, reminding him that it was time to get up. He swore as he tossed aside the blankets and moodily began his morning routine to prepare for class.

He quickly ate breakfast and dressed and was just now finishing up the last few chores before heading out the door, when invisible Jenny emerged from the bedroom. Even though Ted had ‘seen’ her only the night before, he still jumped when he saw the empty bathrobe and pajamas walking through the doorway. It was such a creepy sight, it spooked Ted to no end and may have been one additional reason why he’d found it difficult to sleep the night before. Yet at the same time, he also found the sight strangely compelling…

"Morning," Jenny’s sleepy voice greeted him. The bathrobe raised its sleeves as Jenny yawned and stretched again.

"OH!—Ulp, uh, g-g-good morning." Ted answered, trying to keep a nervous stammer from his voice. Get a grip man, he told himself. He had to keep reminding himself that, no matter how eerie she now looked, this was still Jenny.

"Um—Um…did-did you sleep well?" he said, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah," she said, sounding as though she were still barely awake. "’n’you?"

"Oh, swell," he lied. With effort he pulled his eyes away from the empty bathrobe standing before him. He finished rinsing out the bowl and coffee cup, replacing them in the cupboard. "Um---Um---Listen," he said. "I hate to bail out on you, but I’ve got an 8:00 class and I’ve gotta run."

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Jenny answered groggily. She turned and headed for the sofa and again yawned widely.

In spite of himself, Ted caught himself again staring at the empty pajamas and robe walking away from him. Man, that’s so weird, he thought as he watched the clothes walk away. They seemed to hover mere inches above the floor as they glided along. Finally, he pulled his eyes away, turned and walked into the bedroom. He returned shortly with his sweater and book-bag.

"Um—what-what are you going to do today?" he asked warily, afraid of what the answer might be.

"Oh, I think I’ll just hang out here for today, if you don’t mind." Jenny said, plopping herself down on the sofa. "I’m pretty tired & I need to rest for a while."

"Oh, okay." Ted smiled in relief. Good, he thought. Maybe now she’s finally had enough of this silly ‘invisible girl’ routine. Maybe now she’s ready to listen to reason. He looked at the time. Oh well, there’s plenty of time to talk about it later, he thought.

"Um," he said, slipping his sweater on, "If you’re hungry, there’s some cereal & other stuff over there. Just help yourself." He motioned toward the kitchenette area, then turned and headed for the door.

"’mmmkay, thanks." Jenny mumbled groggily.

He stopped at the door. "Sure you’ll be all right?" he said, turning back.

"Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine." The empty robe leaned back on the couch and stretched again.

"Okay then. See you later," Ted slapped his forehead when he realized what he’d said. "I’m sorry," he said. "I didn’t mean—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Jenny replied, yawning. "I’ll be okay. G’wan," she said, waving empty sleeves at Ted as though shooing him out the door. "I’ll see you later, at any rate." Her sleepiness did nothing to conceal the irony in her tone.

Ted hesitated a moment, then turned and walked out, closing the door behind him.

Jenny yawned again and stretched. Ooohhh, wow…she thought. I am exhausted!

The fact was, that even though there was still a lot of things Jenny wanted to do with her invisibility, at that moment all she wanted to do was rest. She was so freaking tired! She didn’t want to admit it to Ted, but she was really glad for the chance to take a break from her unseen antics for a while. She needed some quiet time-out, to rest & relax. And make some plans.

Well…maybe the plans could wait, she thought. There were more immediate concerns on her mind right then.

She raised her foot and gently prodded the unseen sole with an equally-unseen finger. She couldn’t see it, but she was sure both her feet must be red raw and sore. She massaged her thigh muscles and her calves. She massaged her neck and shoulder muscles. Even though she was in good physical condition, her endurance had been stretched to the limit by all her activities of the past week. In addition to which, she hadn’t been eating all that well, mostly living off of junk-food leftovers.

Painfully, she got up from the couch and lurched into the kitchen. She rummaged around in the cabinets and found a box of cereal, a bowl and some milk. She poured the cereal & milk into the bowl, and started eating. Man o man, she thought. I am starving! Sure enough, once Jenny had started eating, she soon realized just how hungry she really was. She virtually inhaled the food. For only a moment or two she marveled at the way the spoon seemed to hover in space at the end of her sleeve. But she quickly lost interest, and concentrated instead of satiating her hunger pains. By the time she had finished, she had polished off two bowls of cereal.

After she finished her breakfast and cleaned out the bowl, she turned and headed back to the bedroom. The big meal she’d had only seemed to increase her sleepiness. She flopped down onto the bed, curled up under the blankets and soon fell asleep again.

 

---

 

Meanwhile, Ted ran across the campus, hurrying to his 8:00 class. I think I can just make it, he thought. As he jogged along, he began to notice something a little out of the ordinary. Something felt different, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. Then it suddenly hit him: There were an awful lot campus cops around today, way more than usual. Ted briefly wondered what the reason might be for it, but then just as quickly his thoughts were distracted by something else.

He was just approaching the cafeteria when he came upon a group of students gathered in front, apparently arguing about something. It seemed to be quite a heated discussion, whatever it was about. Ted had just passed through the small crowd when he heard something in the midst of the conversation that caused his ears to perk up.

"Listen, I don’t know what the hell that was last night," an extremely upset female voice said. "But I’m telling you right now I sure as hell saw something! And it wasn’t just my imagination, dammit! I’m telling you, I saw a ghost!!"

Ted immediately slowed his pace, trying to simultaneously listen, while trying not to look as though he were listening, as he strolled in a large semicircle around the perimeter of the group.

"That’s right," another voice said. "I thought Tiffany was full of crap too at first…until I saw it! I’m telling you, it was a cheerleader uniform! Flying down the halls by itself, and howling! And laughing! I’ve never seen anything like it! And I hope I never do again! It scared the living crap out of me!"

"All right, all right… Look, let’s not get carried away with this, okay?" a third voice said. "Let’s get a grip. I mean, I don’t know what it might have been either, but.... Well, I mean, there’s gotta be a rational explanation for it. Maybe it was just some kind of prank or something."

"Well, if it was a prank, then who do you think did it?"

"Hell, I don’t know! Maybe the special-effects guys from the film lab. How the hell should I know?"

"Did they also do this?!?" an extremely irate, green-haired girl fumed, holding out an astroturf-colored lock for emphasis. "Does this look like special-effects?"

A brief silence followed as the others pondered whether or not to answer the question.

The irate, green-haired girl continued fuming. "I don’t know who did it either, and I don’t know how they did it, and I don’t really care! But I’m telling you right now: whoever did it I’m gonna kill ‘em! And it wasn’t any friggin’ ghost, either! Somebody did this! And when I find out who, I’m gonna break their legs!!"

Ted felt a chill run down his spine as his worst fears were confirmed by the fragments of the discussion that he’d overheard. He began to realize just what Jenny had been up to the night before and as he listened, he felt a coldness in the pit of his stomach. Swell, he thought. That’s just great! That’s just terrific!

He quickened his pace, and had just rounded the corner of the cafeteria when he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. There, immediately in front of him, between himself and the building where his class was to be held, were three TV news vans, several TV newspeople, camera and lighting technicians, and a large crowd of students, some of whom were talking to the reporters.

Oh, great! Ted thought. Now what!

He tried to edge his way around the crowd, trying to avoid the newspeople and make his way inconspicuously to class. But almost as though sensing his reluctance to talk to them, one of the news reporters and her camera crew singled Ted out in the crowd and made a beeline straight for him. He saw them coming toward him and tried to slip away, but he wasn’t fast enough. The news reporter and her cameraman cornered Ted, and a TV camera and microphone were stuck in his face.

"Sir," the reporter said. "You’re a student at this college; would you mind answering a few questions?"

"Uh, I’m late for class," Ted said, trying to edge away.

"This will only take a few minutes. Do you know anything about this so-called ‘ghost’ everyone is talking about? Have you seen it?"

Caught off guard, Ted stammered, trying to think of something to say. "Um…um… No," he said at last. "No, I haven’t seen any ghost." He started to turn away, but the reporter stopped him again.

"Well, what is your opinion of these so-called ‘ghost’ sightings? Do you believe in them, or do you think it’s all just a hoax?"

"Uh, I—I think they’re…I think it’s all just a hoax. No…no, wait… I know it’s a hoax, in fact. Yeah…yeah, it’s all just a prank. I know it for a fact."

"How do you know it?"

"Well, um—" Ted struggled to think. "It’s—Well, I know it—it’s part of this project that some film students are working on. Yeah! Yeah, that’s it! That’s all it is. They’re—um—they were testing out some special effects for their film, and some people saw it and got all freaked out about it. That’s all it was. Just special-effects."

"What kind of film are they working on?"

"Um…" Ted groped for an answer. "I—I think it’s—it’s got something to do with the occult or something, that’s all I know about it. They’re—um—I think they’re making a movie about the supernatural and witchcraft and all that weird kinda junk. Yeah, now I remember. The film is a—a joint project with—um—with the psychology department to—to demonstrate how a belief in witchcraft and the—and the supernatural relates to—um—to—to the psychology of—of—" his brain wracked to come up with a conclusion. "Of mass-hysteria! Yeah! Yeah, that’s it!" He finished triumphantly. Not a bad piece of BS if I do say so myself, he thought as he tried one last time to turn away. Maybe now these stupid reporters will think it’s all BS and give it up and get the hell out of here!

"So you think that’s all these sightings are? Just mass-hysteria?" The reporter refused to let him go.

"Uh…yeah, basically. That and some tricky special-effects. That—that’s all."

"Who’s in charge of this project?"

"Huh?" Ted asked, as though the question startled him.

"Who’s in charge of this joint project between the film and psychology departments?" the reporter repeated. "Do you know the person’s name?"

"Um, I think her name is," Ted tried to think of a name, any name, any name at all that could not be traced to the college’s film department. "Claire." he said finally, plucking a name out of the air.

"Claire what?"

"Uh—I—I don’t remember her last name."

"So this Claire is the one making a movie about witchcraft."

"Uh, that’s right."

"And all these ‘sightings’ are just part of this movie? And that’s all?"

"Uh, yeah, that’s all it is."

"Well, thank you very much, sir." Ted took this cue to quickly slink away.

"And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen," the reporter turned back to face the camera as she concluded her report. "The campus ghost." She intoned dramatically. "Is it for real? Or is it a hoax? Or is it all part of ‘The Claire Witch Project?"

***

Jenny woke up from her nap at exactly five minutes before 2:00 in the afternoon. She took a look at the time, and bolted out of bed. Jeez, she thought. I didn’t mean to sleep this late!! She tossed aside the covers and went into the bathroom to wash up.

The long nap actually did Jenny a lot of good. She didn’t realize just how tired she really was, but now she felt invigorated, re-energized, completely refreshed. She was still sore and achy in spots, but other than that, she felt more or less like her old self again.

She came out of the bathroom after washing up, took one look at the bed, and immediately started to make it. It’s the least I can do for him, she thought.

After making the bed, Jenny began to wander around Ted’s apartment. Hmmmm, what to do, what to do… she thought. She was still pretty tired, and didn’t yet feel like going out anywhere. But she was bored. She needed something to do. She looked around the tiny apartment, trying to find something to read, hopefully some magazines, but there didn’t seem to be any. She looked over the bookshelves, but she was disappointed to find only textbooks. She looked high and low for a magazine, a cheap novel or two, anything at all that she could read, but Ted didn’t seem to have anything there to spark her interest. What the heck does he do for fun? she wondered.

Finally, in desperation, she plopped herself down on the sofa and picked up the TV remote control. I never thought I’d be this bored, she thought as she switched the TV on. She noticed how the remote seemed to just hover at the end of her empty sleeve as she held it. She rolled her sleeve up, to greater enjoy the effect of her invisible hand holding the remote, and tossed and flipped the remote around a few times. She chuckled, delightedly. Wow, she thought. This is just so cool!

She surfed the channels for a while, before finally settling on the news. Might as well see what’s going on in the world, she thought. I’ve been a little out of touch the last few days…

"And now on the local scene," the news anchor said, "Panic broke out on the Doehner college campus last night, after a student reported being assaulted by a ‘ghost.’ Details are sketchy, but the incident, as described by witnesses, is remarkably similar to other so-called ‘ghost sightings’ that have been reported around various parts of the city over the past week. Inez Velasco has the complete story."

The TV screen then switched to an intense young woman, holding a microphone, and standing in front of a building that Jenny immediately recognized as the girl’s dormitory building

"The normally-quiet town of Doehner has recently been subjected to a series of mysterious disturbances over the past week," the woman said. "The most recent of which took place here, at the girls’ dormitory on the Doehner college campus. The incident occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. last night when, according to witnesses, objects were seen to fly around the rooms and hallways by themselves, ‘ghostly’ noises were heard, and several items of personal property were said to be damaged or destroyed by what one student described as an ‘unseen presence’ or ‘entity.’"

Jenny leaned forward, as she listened in rapt attention.

"Earlier, similar incidents on campus were believed to be part of some elaborate hoax or college prank," the reporter continued. "And although some students maintain that this latest incident is a hoax, the matter is now being taken very seriously by college authorities. The matter is currently under investigation by campus police, although there has been some discussion as to whether city and county law-enforcement should be involved as well. No final decision has been made on this yet, however. In the meantime, Doehner students will be resting very uneasily tonight, afraid of another visit from," the reporter paused dramatically. "‘The Ghost of Doehner College.’" She paused again, for a much longer time, then broke into a broad, beaming smile. "And now, back to you, Dan—"

Jenny switched off the TV. "Oh, give me a break!" she said aloud in disgust. She tossed the remote aside and got up from the couch. Jeez Louise, I was only having a little fun, she thought. That’s all. And everybody has to make a big federal case out of it…

She looked around the tiny apartment again, trying to find something with which to occupy herself, when her eyes fell upon a paper sack tucked away in the corner. She smiled; she had almost forgotten that Ted had packed up the clothes and personal belongings she had left behind in the lab and brought them home with him. She walked over to the bag and picked it up. Well, I’m getting sick of these pajamas, she thought. If I’m going to hang around indoors all day, I might as well get dressed and be comfortable. She carried the bag into the bedroom, untying the sash of the bathrobe and unbuttoning the pajama top as she went.

She plopped the bag down onto the bed, and slipped off the pajama top and bathrobe. The bathrobe then floated over to a nearby chair, where it laid itself gently across the back of the chair. The pajama top bundled itself up in mid-air, then likewise floated over to the clothes hamper near the bathroom door, as the empty pajama bottoms strolled along underneath. The lid of the hamper floated up, and the rumpled-up pajama top dropped itself inside. The drawstring of the pajama pants untied itself, and the pants dropped to the floor, then likewise floated up and dropped into the clothes hamper.

Jenny walked over to the bag on the bed, opened it and looked inside. She was a bit surprised at what she saw. She had expected her clothes to be in a jumbled mess, but instead they were neatly folded. He folded them? she thought briefly. She gave the matter no further thought as she reached in and began pulling out her clothes, shoes and purse.

She was just about to begin dressing when she hesitated for just a moment. She brought her blouse to her nose for a moment and took a sniff. Her clothes had been freshly laundered. A funny feeling went through Jenny as she realized that Ted must have cleaned, pressed and folded her clothes for her. Why in the world did he do that? she wondered.

Oh well, no matter, she thought as she slipped into the bra and panties, her miniskirt and blouse, and finally into her shoes. She had some difficulty at first, trying to locate a sleeve with an unseen arm or trying to match a shoe with an unseen foot, but she managed. Initially, she gave no thought as to the strange sight she presented, as she knew she was alone, with no one to see or stare.

But as she dressed, she became curious as to what she looked like. She walked over to the full-length mirror fastened to the bathroom door. She looked herself all up and down in the mirror. After several days of invisibility and many adventures, it still gave her a thrill to see her own reflection when she had some clothing on. Looking at the miniskirt and unbuttoned blouse in the mirror and knowing that she was in there, somewhere, excited and delighted her.

She had curious, mixed feelings about her reflection. On the one hand, it looked kind of spooky to her, kind of creepy. It wasn’t hard for her to imagine how scary it must be to other people to see such a sight. In fact, she had no difficulty imagining how she might react herself.

Yet at the same time, her reflection excited her. Knowing that it was herself inside those empty clothes, and that she was the one in power now, with the ability to disappear completely any time she wanted to, simply by undoing some buttons or zippers…it gave her a thrill just to think about all the possibilities that now lay before her.

She moved closer to the glass, turning this way and that, admiring herself from all angles. She bent over, marveling at the seemingly empty interior of the blouse. She turned her back to the mirror, looking over her shoulder at her reflection. She pulled the blouse down from one shoulder and giggled at what she saw. Oh wow, she thought. I can see the inside of my bra! This is just so wild!

Jenny turned to face the mirror again, pulling the blouse back on and buttoning it up. It was a bit tricky at first to match buttons with button-holes when she couldn’t see her fingers, but at eventually, habit took over and she finished the task automatically. She buttoned the cuffs of her sleeves, then held them up to the mirror, marveling at how they appeared to be empty. She raised the hem of her skirt, and danced and whirled about, laughing at the way the empty shoes skipped and danced about the floor beneath the floating skirt.

She also made an interesting discovery: her clothes now fit a bit loose on her. Apparently, all the running around and the irregular meals of the past week had caused her to lose some weight. She laughed as a funny thought occurred to her, a new application of her invisibility formula. She acted out before the mirror a make-believe TV commercial as she said aloud to her reflection:

"Ladies! Try the Jenny McCoy diet treatment! Watch those unwanted pounds simply disappear!"

She chuckled softly to herself, then tiring of her reflection, walked back to the paper bag laying on the bed. She pulled out her purse, and from that, she produced a hairbrush and comb. She sat down on the bed and began to brush her hair. It felt so good to do that. At that moment, she was glad she couldn’t see herself. Because without seeing it, she knew that her hair was a mess. It felt like it. It was constantly getting in her eyes, and when she ran her fingers through it, she felt nothing but knots, snags and matted places everywhere. In short, it was gross, she thought. Nevertheless, she patiently ran the brush and comb through the thick mane of her formerly-blonde but now-invisible, hair, until at last all the knots and snags had been brushed away.

When she had finished, she put her brush and comb away in her purse and sat quietly for a moment. Now that she was dressed and properly groomed, she almost felt like her old self again. Almost. She sat quietly on the bed for several minutes, thinking. Then she reached into her purse again.

She pulled out a lipstick and compact. Even though she normally wore very little makeup (she never felt she needed it) she nevertheless liked to keep some on hand, just in case. You never know when you’ll need it, she thought. She held the compact in one hand and the lipstick in the other, looking first to one, then the other, as if trying to decide something.

I wonder if I can… she thought.

Finally, as though making up her mind, she got up from the bed and walked into the bathroom.

***

Ted walked moodily down the street on his way home after his last class of the day. He was not in a happy mood. Oooooohhh, brother! he thought in disgust as he crossed the street to his apartment building. What a day! What a week! This week has been a nightmare! First Jenny disappears. Then she won’t let me in on the secret formula—why I don’t know. Doesn’t she trust me? I’m supposed to be her lab partner, for God’s sake! Then, instead of sticking around to finish the project, she just takes off, doing these crazy ‘invisible girl’ pranks, leaving me holding the bag. Then I gotta hold off the instructors with some crazy, lame-assed, made-up excuse to explain her disappearance and get her an extended leave of absence. Then when she finally comes back, I get stuck sleeping on the stupid couch! And then I gotta deal with these stupid reporters nosing around & trying to fake them out and keep them from finding out the truth.

Oooooooh, brother… Ted sighed in exhaustion. Jenny, he thought. I sure hope you’re worth all this…

Ted approached the front door of his apartment, and pulled his keys from his pocket. He opened his front door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

"Jenny, are you here?" he called.

"I’m in here," her voice called out from the bathroom.

Good, he thought. She’s still here, she didn’t go off on another one of her crazy ‘invisible girl’ stunts. Maybe now she’s finally had enough of this whole thing… A shiver ran down Ted’s spine as he recalled the events of the day, with the news vans and all. He shook his head. She’s gotta quit on all this stuff, he thought. She’s gotta listen to me. If she keeps this up, this whole thing is going to blow up in our faces and she’s going to end up in a load of trouble...

"Say, Jenny," he began as he walked further into the room. "Some things have happened today that you ought to know about. When I was on my way to class this morning---OH MY GOD!!"

Ted let out a startled squawk, and dropped his book-bag on the ground and took a couple of steps back. His eyes opened wide and he felt as though his heart had momentarily stopped at what he saw.

It was a face, a disembodied face, unattached to a body. It floated out through the open doorway of the bathroom. The face looked human, female, and vaguely familiar. Yet at the same time, it also looked decidedly inhuman as well. It was a pale pink in color, with reddish lips, yet it seemed to have no real flesh or substance to it at all. Ted could almost see through it, as though it were of frosted glass. The light from the kitchen shone through the translucent face, making it appear to glow slightly. It resembled Jenny, or rather a frightening caricature of her. It floated over close to Ted allowing him a closer view of its eerie appearance.

As it approached Ted, the first thing he noticed were the eyes, or rather the lack thereof. Where the eyes should have been there were only empty spaces, through which the other side of the room could be seen. Likewise the interior of the mouth; when it opened, nothing could be seen except the other side of the room behind it. The mouth opened and Jenny’s voice spoke from it.

"I’m sorry; did I scare you?" she said simply.

Ted stared with widened eyes at the ghostly face hovering in space before him. He had to swallow several times before he was able to speak.

"What—" he choked. "What the hell are you doing?!? Are you trying to give me a heart attack or something? What the hell is all this? What did you do to yourself?!?"

"Oh, I was just…experimenting, that’s all." The disembodied face said as it floated closer to Ted, and he shrank away from it.

"I was bored and I didn’t have anything else to do," Jenny said. "So I thought I’d fool around with some makeup & see what it looked like." The face grinned eerily. "What do you think?" it said, as it slowly turned around in a full circle, giving Ted a momentary glimpse of it from behind.

The sight made Ted’s blood run cold; it seemed as though he were looking at the inside of a mask. He didn’t even try to conceal the look of fear and revulsion on his face.

"I don’t like it!" he said. "It’s creepy!"

"Yeah, isn’t it?" Jenny laughed, delighted. "I tried it to see if maybe I could go out in public without attracting attention. Then I decided no ‘cause it didn’t look natural. But it does look pretty cool though, doesn’t it?" she giggled again. "Too bad it’s not Halloween!"

The ghostly face hovered in mid-air before Ted; he stared unblinking at it. A sudden realization hit him.

"You—why did you— Why did you take your clothes off?"

"Well, when I realized the makeup wouldn’t work, I thought, well, as long as it looks spooky anyway, let’s just see how spooky I can make it look. So I took my clothes off in order to get the full effect. You have to admit, it really looks wicked this way!" she laughed.

Ted was momentarily at a loss for words. Jenny looked so scary, and yet her whole manner was completely nonchalant, as though she were merely trying on a new jacket or a new pair of earrings.

"Um—Jenny—" Ted began, trying to collect his thoughts and focus his attention on something other than the eerie, disembodied face. "Uh—we—we need to have a talk."

"Oh, okay. What about?"

Ted wanted to tell her about the repercussions of her little escapade the night before: the news vans, the increased number of campus cops, and all the rest. But try as he might, he just couldn’t say anything to that ghostly face; the words just wouldn’t come.

"I—I can’t talk with you when—when you’re like that. Could you wipe that stuff off?"

Jenny didn’t answer, but merely sighed.

"Please?" Ted said.

"Oh, all right!" Jenny said, disappointed. The face turned and floated away from Ted, into the bathroom.

"And put some clothes on, for God’s sake!" he called out to her.

As soon as the floating face left the room, Ted felt his nerves ease up just a bit. He walked over to the couch and flopped down onto it. He held his forehead in one hand and slowly, gradually, he allowed his breathing and heart rate to slow down to a more natural rhythm. As he did, he gave some thought as to what he would say to Jenny.

A few minutes later, Jenny’s blouse and miniskirt floated out from the bedroom.

"Is this better?" her voice said from above the collar.

Ted blinked twice. "Um—yeah, that’s much better." he said at last. Jenny still presented an eerie sight, but it was one which Ted felt at least a little more used to by now. At least talking to Jenny’s empty clothes was better than talking to a ghostly, mask-like face floating around the room. And in any event, it was better than talking to the air. At least now he could see her…sort of.

"Well, what’s up?" Jenny said as she sat down on the couch next to Ted. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Well, um—" he began. "I—I don’t know if you’re aware of it or not, but—but on campus today, there were a couple of TV news vans and a whole bunch of news people running around, asking everybody questions."

"What kind of questions?"

"Questions about—about your little escapade last night."

"Oh…yeah…that…"

Yeah, that! Ted thought.

"I know," Jenny replied, raising an empty sleeve dismissively. "I saw ‘em on the news this afternoon, they were talkin’ about it."

"And it’s not just news people; the campus cops were out in force today. Man, you’d think they were expecting a riot or something, there were so many of them. And I think I saw a couple of city cops on campus as well."

A silence followed before Jenny spoke again. "And?" she said.

"And—and a whole bunch of students were standing around talking about some kind of ‘ghost’ or other. Some of them were talking to the reporters about it and probably the cops too, and..." Ted paused a moment, looking quizzically at Jenny’s empty clothes. "Say, just what the hell did you do last night, anyway?"

"Nothing, nothing," Jenny said, waving an empty sleeve. "It was no big deal, I just played a little practical joke on this one girl I know, that’s all. Jeez, the way you & everyone else are carrying on, you’d think it was the end of the world or something."

A long silence followed before Ted again broached the subject.

"Well, don’t—don’t you think you’d better…you know, kind of quit on this stuff for a while? Kinda lay low ‘til some of this blows over?"

Jenny let out an impatient sigh. Though he couldn’t see it, Ted could tell by Jenny’s body language that she was leaning her head back and probably rolling her eyes as well.

"Ted, don’t let’s start that again, all right? I swear, you never give up, do you?"

"Jenny, I’m just trying to tell you, people are going to start catching on, you know? Or if they haven’t, they soon will if you keep this stuff up. I mean, sooner or later, someone’s gonna put two and two together, and figure out not only what’s going on, but who’s responsible for it as well!’

Jenny didn’t say anything, but let out another annoyed sigh.

"It’s not gonna be that hard to figure out, you know!" Ted went on. "I mean, look at it this way. Okay, one day, all of a sudden, you disappear, you turn up missing. You don’t show up for class, your friends all of a sudden don’t hear from you, they don’t know what happened to you. Then all these weird things start happening all over the city. Things that look like they’re being done by a ghost. Or by an unseen force. Or maybe by an unseen person!"

"I don’t want to hear this!" Jenny said.

Ted ignored her and went on. "Now, sooner or later, it’s bound to occur to somebody to notice that the time these things started coincides exactly to the time you turn up missing. And when somebody starts asking questions about your disappearance, what will they learn? That you’re a chemistry major. That you were working on a project involving the refraction of light. Now it’s not that hard to imagine somebody making a connection somewhere along the line. I mean, the possibility of an invisible person running around, doing all these weird things is bound to occur to someone. And then what? Now I ask you: what do you think is going to happen then?"

Although Ted didn’t spell it out, he had no trouble imagining what would happen: police, newspapers, agents both foreign and domestic, in short, everybody and his brother all getting in on the act, trying to get their hands on Jenny and her invisibility formula.

And God only knew what would happen to Jenny. Ted had seen and read enough science fiction to easily imagine Jenny being held prisoner as a guinea pig in some top secret underground government lab someplace out in the boondocks somewhere, with all kinds of quacks and kooks in white coats running around, doing the most ungodly things to her to try to learn her invisibility formula.

Ted paused as he considered these consequences. Jenny was silent, and Ted took her silence as a sign that she had (finally) gotten his point and was at least listening. He went on.

"Tell you the truth," he said, "I’m a little surprised no one’s caught on already, in fact."

"Oh, nuts!" Jenny said, annoyed. "You just don’t want me to have any fun, that’s all! You’ve been against me right from the beginning!"

Ted’s mouth dropped open. "Jenny, I’m not against you—" he began.

"Yes, you are!" she countered. "I’ve hardly even had a chance to enjoy myself with this, and right from the beginning, you’ve been against it and trying to spoil it for me!"

"That’s not true, I’m just trying to tell you—"

"It is true! You’ve never wanted me to enjoy invisibility, never!" She was silent for a moment, then spoke more quietly. "You’re just jealous of me, that’s all. You’re jealous because I’m invisible and not you!"

"Jenny—"

"So just because you don’t get to be invisible, you keep trying to keep me from enjoying it! It’s not fair! You’re not being fair!"

"I’m just trying to tell you, you need to start thinking of the consequences. You need to—"

"Oh, I don’t want to hear it!" Jenny said, as she got up from the couch. She began to pace about the room and continued to speak, although it sounded to Ted as though she were as much speaking to herself as she were to him.

"You just don’t understand! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I’m going to enjoy it." she said. "All my life, I’ve had other people telling me what to do all the time, and I’m sick and tired of it!" She paused for a moment. "Now I have the power to make my own decisions, and do what I want to do for a change!"

She stopped in her pacing, then suddenly turned to face Ted. She bent over close to him, and instinctively he shrank back as the empty collar approached his face.

"And what I want to do is to have fun, do you understand?" Jenny’s voice said from the air. "And you’re not going to stop me or talk me out of it."

The empty collar, only inches from Ted’s face, spooked him. He continued to stare at it in silence for uncounted seconds. Finally, Jenny straightened back up and walked away towards the bedroom, stopping at the doorway.

"And I don’t want to hear any more about it." she said, closing the door behind her.

Ted sat alone on the couch.

"Oh, Jenny, Jenny…" he softly whispered. "What am I going to do with you?"