Tiffany’s face, which had been moving ever closer to Ted, suddenly withdrew and pulled away from him. Ted blinked. It seemed as though Tiffany had suddenly, without warning, pulled her chair away from him and then deliberately toppled it over, depositing herself soundly on the floor. Her backside made contact with the floor with a solid thump, and Tiffany howled accordingly. She reacted immediately, struggling to get to her feet, shouting and cursing.

"WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON HERE?" she bellowed. "WHO’S THE SMART-ASS WHO PULLED MY CHAIR OUT? HUH?!? HUH?!?" She looked around her, with a look of savage fury on her face, as though challenging all those within earshot, the innocent as well as the guilty. To her surprise and puzzlement, however, there didn’t seem to be anyone nearby who could have pulled the chair out from under her.

Ted reacted with stunned immobility for only a moment, before he started to rise from his chair to offer assistance to Tiffany. Almost immediately, however, he was forced back into the chair by a strange, unseen force. Before he could move again however, the two cups of chilled coffee suddenly floated up from the tabletop where they’d been sitting untouched, and drifted over to a point in space just above Tiffany’s head. Tiffany stared up at the floating cups with widened, terror-stricken eyes for only a fraction of a second, before one by one, each cup promptly upturned itself, depositing its contents all over her. One cup emptied its thick, viscous brown liquid directly onto her head, thoroughly saturating the scarf she wore and her hair underneath it. The emptied cup then casually tossed itself aside, as the other cup drifted down to the level of her neck. The collar of her blouse suddenly drew itself away from her chest, leaving an opening wide enough through which the other cup could deposit its contents down the front of the blouse. Tiffany squalled loudly as the cool ersatz coffee soaked her through to the skin. The entire sequence of events took place in mere seconds.

Ted again started to rise from his chair to offer assistance, when again he was forced back into his chair by the same strange, unseen force that felt like a pair of hands pressing down on his shoulders. It was at that precise moment that he finally realized what was going on and who was responsible for it.

Tiffany finally managed to regain her feet, and as she rose, sputtering, fuming and trying to wipe the liquid from her eyes, her back suddenly arched, accompanied by the sound of a soft thud, followed by several more.

"HEY!!" she bellowed, wheeling about as though to face an opponent in the ring. "WHO’S—OUCH!!! WHO’S DOING THAT?!? OW!! OUCH!! WHO’S DOING THAT?!? WHO’S KICKING ME?!?"

The thudding sounds repeated several more times, as Tiffany repeatedly spun around, this way and that, trying to confront her attacker and avoid the kicks which continued to strike at her backside, seeming to come from everywhere…and yet from nowhere.

By now, the other coffee-shop patrons had begun to notice that there was a disturbance of some kind going on at the table in the back corner, and several of them approached the table to see what was the matter. They were greeted by the sight of what appeared to be an extremely agitated, sopping-wet, coffee-stained girl, spinning around like a whirling dervish, screaming and cursing loudly, apparently throwing some kind of tantrum. At the table nearby sat a thin, unusually-pale young man with thick glasses, sitting motionless, staring in shock at the spectacle before him. When it became evident that the young man wasn’t about to offer any assistance to the troubled girl, the other patrons advanced to help her instead.

Just as they started to advance however, they saw another sight, one which literally froze them in their tracks. From the back of a chair (which now lay on the ground) there floated up a large, heavy leather purse. The patrons stared in wonder and amazement as the purse hovered in space for a moment before it began to swing itself in wild, violent arcs, striking the head and shoulders of the agitated, coffee-stained girl, who now screamed hysterically.

She broke away from the table running, trying to escape who or whatever it was that attacked her, but the flying purse pursued her, continuing to beat her repeatedly about the back and shoulders as it flew. The crowd of patrons was so shocked by the frightening sight before them that they immediately drew back from the girl as she passed, parting like the Red Sea before her. The flying purse continued a short distance further, then sailed directly at the back of the girl’s head, striking it dead-center and bouncing off, falling harmlessly to the ground. The girl ran in terror to the exit, bolted through it and out into the night.

Other patrons, drawn to the scene of the commotion, began to advance upon the corner table, just as others, who had witnessed the uncanny sight, tried to withdraw from it. The result was a massive logjam of humanity in the formerly-quiet corner of the shop. A new platoon entered the fray then, as the coffee-shop proprietor emerged from a back-room behind the counter, demanding, in a loud, Teutonic-accented voice, to know just what the hell was going on around there.

Confusion and eventually panic began to grow, both from the ghostly manifestation and its immediate aftermath. Through it all, Ted merely sat, as if in shock, unwilling to believe what he’d just seen, yet realizing that he had no choice but to believe it He knew what had just happened and he knew who was responsible for it…yet knowing all this was of no consolation to him.

He was finally stirred from his immobility by the touch of a hand, gripping his arm like a vice-wrench. He glanced down and saw no hand there, yet the fabric of his sleeve was bunched up in one spot, forming a sort of concave impression of fingers, as though it were tightly gripped in an unseen fist. He flinched at the touch and at the sound of an intense, feminine voice speaking in his ear.

"Let’s get out of here!" the voice said. "Now!!" It was, of course, Jenny.

"What the hell happened?" Ted asked, knowing how unrealistic it was to expect an answer. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"Ohhhh, there’s no time to argue about it!" Jenny snapped. "We gotta move! Now!" With that, the hand gripping Ted’s sleeve suddenly yanked hard on it, insistently dragging him out of the chair and onto his feet. The unseen hand hauled him away from the table, along a side wall, avoiding the growing crowd, and back toward the coffee-shop entrance. Ted and his unseen guide had traveled only a short distance however, when the hand slackened slightly, bringing them both to a halt.

"Ohhhhh!" the ghostly voice said in helpless frustration. "We’re never going to make it to the door now! Not through that crowd!"

Ted saw what Jenny meant. The crowd, normally loud and boisterous to begin with, had now been driven to a panicked near-frenzy.

"What are we going to do?" Ted said.

"C’mere! This way!" Jenny announced, as once again, ghostly hands took hold of Ted’s clothing and dragged him away in the opposite direction. After a short distance, Ted came to a stop at a door with a large, bright-red bar across it.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Ted said. "We can’t go out that way! That’s a fire door! That’s only for emergencies!"

"So?" Jenny said. "This is an emergency!" With that, the heavy red bar of the door suddenly moved inward, as though pushed by a hand, and the door swung open. As it did, there simultaneously sounded the ear-splitting shriek of a fire-alarm.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Ted cried. "You set off the alarm! You set off the alarm!! Do you know what this means?!?"

"It means we have to move!" Jenny replied. "Come on, let’s go!!" Ted felt a pair of hands pushing against his back, propelling him out the door. Moments later, he was outside in the cool, night air of the alleyway behind the coffee-shop. The door swung shut behind him, shutting out the cacophonous noise of the terror-stricken crowd inside, allowing the wail of the fire-alarm to echo in the night air unimpeded.

Ted stood motionless, momentarily disoriented by the dark, strange surroundings. He looked all around him, totally lost.

"Which way to the car?" Jenny’s voice said, close by him, shivering slightly in the chill air.

"Umm…it’s umm.. that way…I think," Ted replied, looking all around him before finally deciding on one direction and pointing to his left.

"Well, let’s go, then!" The unseen hand grabbed Ted’s once again, and dragged him in the direction he’d indicated. He had only take a couple of steps however, before the hand released him. Sounding simultaneous with this was Jenny’s voice, howling loudly in pain.

"OWWWWWW! OWW!" she cried. "Dammit, I stepped on something!"

Only then did Ted notice the dirty, garbage-strewn ground upon which he stood. In the light from the street-lamps, the ground seemed to glitter and glisten as though covered with a multitude of precious jewels, indicating the presence of countless fragments of broken glass.

"Ohhhhh, here, let me see your foot! You must’ve cut yourself." Ted said, leaning over with his hands outstretched. He groped at the air for a moment or two, before he felt a cold, grimy, bare foot slip into his hands. He flinched at the touch for only a second, then closely examined the air where the sole of the foot seemed to be.

"I don’t see any blood," he announced. "I don’t think the skin is broken, but I can’t really tell. But I—I guess it’ll be all right—"

"Well, I can’t walk on this crap!" Jenny cried. "I can’t—Wait a minute! I’ve got an idea! Here, turn around."

Just then, Ted felt hands gripping his shoulders, tugging and pulling at him, spinning him around, and pulling him downwards, compelling him to hunch over.

"Here, you carry me!" Jenny said, and with that, Ted felt something suddenly leap onto his back. Arms grabbed him about his neck and shoulders, and long, slender limbs encircled his midsection. Instinctively, he reached out his arms to take the unseen legs, so that he carried his unseen companion piggy-back. The unseen hands tugged at the shirt of his collar, like an equestrienne pulling on the reigns of a horse.

"Come on, come on, let’s go!!" Jenny said impatiently with each tug.

"All right, all right!" Ted replied, as he jogged down the alley in the direction of the parking-lot, trotting along in a ludicrous, hunched-over gait, under the weight of the unseen burden on his back.

By the time they reached the car, Ted was nearly out of breath. Hurriedly, he set Jenny down, opened the car doors, and he and Jenny quickly hopped inside. The keys jingled as Ted’s trembling hands struggled to fit the key into the ignition and start the engine. Once the engine caught, Ted floored the gas-pedal, gunning his way out of the parking-lot as though the devil were after him. All the way down the street he drove with the pedal to the floor. The little car’s tiny engine huffed, puffed and chugged away the best it could, but it was insufficient to meet Ted’s needs; he wanted to put as much distance as possible, as soon as possible, between himself and the coffee-shop. On the way, he passed two police-cars, with lights flashing and sirens blaring. They passed him at high speed, and seemed to be headed in the direction Ted had just come from. Ted gripped the steering-wheel tightly with both hands, to keep them from shaking.

"Omigod, omigod, omigod…!" Ted repeated, over and over and over again, as the full weight of the evening’s events began to cave in on him all at once. "Man, this night is a disaster!! A nightmare!! What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?"

"Oh Ted, will you relax!" Jenny said from the empty seat beside him. "Geez, you always make such a big deal out of everything."

But Ted wasn’t listening. "I’m gonna be busted, big-time! Sounding a false fire-alarm, starting a freaking panic & stampede… Oh man…I can see it all now: ‘Honor Student Expelled for Starting Riot…Will likely serve jail time… Harsh penalties expected….Will Likely Serve Quadruple-Life sentence without possibility of parole…’ Oh man…oh man… My parents are gonna read all about it…and are they gonna be pissed!"

"Ted come on, willya? Nobody’s going to read anything. Nobody’s gonna know you had anything to do with it, all right? Now will you relax??"

But Ted still wasn’t listening. "Forget M.I.T.," he went on. "Forget Columbia, Forget Stanford; none of them’ll touch me now… It’s over for me; it’s all over…this is it for me; it’s over!"

"Ted—"

"I’m all washed up…! I’m a failure, a total, complete failure! A failure at 21! God, I’m never going to hear the end of this, never! I’ll never live this down, not in a hundred thousand million years! My parents are gonna kill me, they’re gonna bury me, then they’re gonna dig me up again and hold this over my head for the rest of my life, ‘til I’m a hundred and one and I’ll never hear the end of it! They’re never gonna let me live this down, never!! Never, never, never—!"

"Ted, stop it, just stop it!" Jenny said, grabbing Ted by the shirt-sleeve, shaking him, as though to bring him to his senses. "It’s over, all right?" she said. "Just get over it and forget about it."

"Forget it?!?" he half-cried, half-laughed, as he glanced quickly at the empty car-seat next to him. "It’s easy for you to say!! Nobody saw you! But what about me—?"

"All right then, then don’t forget it! But let’s not talk about it any—"

"But what did you do it for? What in the hell did you do it for?" he asked repeatedly, by now close to tears.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Jenny replied irritably. "I didn’t do nothing! And I don’t wanna talk about it!"

"But why did you get so mad??" Ted persisted. "Coming to this stupid place wasn’t my idea, you know! I thought you wanted to come here! Didn’t you? Or did I miss something?"

"No, Ted, you didn’t miss—"

"Well then, what is it? Are you mad at me? Did I do something? What’d I do? What’d I do?!?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Jenny shouted. "You didn’t do nothing! I’m not mad at you, I’m just—Ohhhhh, I told you: I don’t wanna talk about it!!"

"Jeez, that poor girl! She’s gonna have nightmares over what you did to her!"

"’Poor girl’ my foot! Look, Ted, I don’t—!" Jenny began, her voice rising in volume, before halting in mid-sentence. When she next spoke, her voice was quieter, more controlled, but no less intense. "Look, Ted, I just don’t like her, that’s all; I just don’t like her. I already told you that, so I don’t know what you were doing with her in the first—"

"Wait a minute!" Ted said, actually listening to Jenny’s words for a change. "When did you tell me? And who the hell is she, anyway? She acted like she knew me, but I’ll be damned if I know who she is!"

Jenny hesitated for a moment. Then: "That was Tiffany Nelson."

Ted’s eyes blinked, then opened wide as comprehension set in. Immediately, he stomped on the brakes, bringing the little bug to a screeching halt.

"Hey!" Jenny cried. "What’re you stopping for?"

Ted turned, wide-eyed, to face the empty car-seat beside him. "That was Tiffany? The same girl you picked on last night??"

"Yeah…! So…?" Jenny answered, in a tone of voice which seemed to ask: So what business is it of yours anyway?

"Oh, man…!" Ted sighed as he turned to face forward again and gently stepped on the gas pedal, impelling the little car forward again. He continued to glance nervously at the empty passenger seat in silence for several minutes, until he felt it was safe for him to proceed. "She…she must’ve really done something to get under your skin, huh?" he said at last. "I mean, to pick on her two nights in a row? What the heck did she ever do to you, anyway?"

"Nothing, she didn’t do nothing!! And I wasn’t picking on her, either! I was just— Ohhh, I TOLD you! I don’t wanna TALK about it!!" Jenny snapped with finality.

Ted sighed. "All right, whatever…" he said, resignedly. What’s the use? he thought. She just doesn’t get it…! She starts a friggin’ riot and doesn’t even care! She just wants to ‘forget it’…! Unbelievable! Un-be-friggin’-LIEVable!!

Ted and Jenny remained silent for the remainder of the short drive back to the apartment, neither one speaking a single word to the other. Ted merely drew repeated long, deep breaths, trying to calm himself and not have an accident as he drove.

Jenny, meanwhile, silently pondered her own actions of the evening. Try as she might, she couldn’t avoid Ted’s question: Why did she get so angry? Of course she hated Tiffany’s guts, but that couldn’t have been the only reason for her sudden outburst of anger. So what was it then? Could it have been…because Tiffany was shmoozing up to Ted? Was that it? Was Jenny…jealous?

No, no, of course not… Jenny quickly told herself, shaking her head and folding her arms. I don’t care anything about Ted …not really… She bit her lower lip, deep in thought, then thrust it out in a silent pout. It’s nothing like that at all…it’s just…No, no, he means nothing to me, nothing at all… I just don’t like it, that’s all! I just don’t like Tiffany nosing around that way… She’s up to something, that’s what… Sure as hell…!

After what seemed an eternity to Ted, they finally arrived back at his tiny apartment. He parked the little car, shut the engine and gently rested his head against his hands on the steering-wheel, with his eyes closed. He let out a prolonged sigh, then fell silent. He remained silent for so long that Jenny wondered if he was crying.

"Ted?" she said quietly.

No response.

"Ted? Hey, are you okay?" She gave him a light little nudge on the shoulder, as though to awaken him.

"Yes. I’m all right." he said quietly, with a tiny nod.

Geez, he’s really upset by all this! Jenny thought. I don’t know why…! It’s not like any of this has to do with him…! This is just between that bimbo and me…! It’s got nothing to do with him, so why’s he so worked-up about it?

She shook her head, utterly bewildered by Ted’s current emotional state. She then gave him another playful little nudge on the arm, still trying to rouse him from his immobility. "Hey, come on," she said, doing her best to sound cheerful. "It’s not the end of the world. So things didn’t turn out so hot tonight. So what? We can always go out again some other time. So come on; cheer up, already, willya?"

Still, Ted gave no reaction or response to Jenny’s words whatsoever. He merely sat motionless, as though patiently waiting for the embalming fluid.

Jenny sighed. Unsure of exactly what to say or do, she merely sat in silence, for countless minutes, hoping that Ted would somehow snap out of it and stop carrying on so. Finally, tired of waiting, she opened her car-door and stepped outside. "Well, we’re back now, that’s the important thing..." she said, trying to maintain the cheerful tone in her voice. "Come on, come on…you’re not going to sleep in the car, are you?" She still tried to sound light-hearted and joking, to cheer Ted out of his mood, even though it seemed futile.

Finally, Ted stirred; he lifted his head, methodically took the keys from the ignition and opened his car-door, all without saying a word. As soon as he was out of the car, Jenny grabbed his hand and led him hurriedly across the small parking-lot to the door of the apartment, walking with a slight limp.

"Ohhh, I can’t wait to get inside and take a hot shower!" she said. "I feel so dirty and grimy, I feel like the inside of a trash dumpster! And on top of that, I’m freezing! Come on, come on, let’s go!" She tugged insistently at his hand, trying to quicken their pace.

They reached the apartment, and as they stepped inside, Ted reached in and switched on the light. Out of habit, he glanced up at the clock. Almost nine, he thought. God, I thought it was later than that… Oooooooh, man… What a night… What am I gonna do…? What am I gonna do…? I’m never going to get to sleep now! My nerves are shot… He heaved a deep sigh, then an idea occurred to him. Maybe… he thought. Maybe I can do some studying…yeah, that oughta relax me… It’s early yet; I can still get in a couple hours’ study-time easy…maybe that’ll calm me down and settle my nerves… Yeah, that’s what I’ll do…that’s what I’ll do… As though in a trance, he crossed over to the elderly sofa, picked up a textbook randomly from the cluttered floor, opened it and started reading, scarcely paying attention to the words on the page.

Jenny likewise remained silent as she stepped into the apartment and headed straight for the bathroom, small footprints appearing and disappearing in the ancient, well-trodden carpet to mark her path as she went. Along the way, she retrieved a fresh towel from the hall linen-closet, then went into the bedroom to retrieve Ted’s bathrobe. With these in hand, she stepped into the bathroom, shut the door, and turned on the taps.

Shortly thereafter, Jenny bathed herself under the warm, soothing jets of the showerhead, and pondered the entire day’s and evening’s strange and unpredictable events: the revelations of the TV news show earlier in the day, the argument she’d had with Ted over what should be done about her invisibility. And she thought of the disastrous trip to the coffee-shop: the conversation she’d overheard of her friends talking about her, and her own subsequent blow-up over Tiffany and Ted, and its immediate aftermath. There was no doubt about it: It had been one very long, tiring day for her.

As Jenny pondered these thoughts, lathering her thick but now-invisible hair with shampoo, she began to reconsider Ted’s earlier words, that maybe…just maybe… she ought to cool it with this invisibility stuff, and lay low for a while. Although she had initially resisted the idea, she was now beginning to wonder if maybe Ted had a point after all. Maybe…maybe she couldn’t handle such a unique power as this. It sure was beginning to look that way. Still, she resisted the notion. Okay, okay, she thought, arguing with herself. So maybe I haven’t had the greatest of luck with this whole invisibility thing. So what? That doesn’t mean I should just give it up! I can’t; not now! Not when I was just starting to have fun with it! It’s not like I can’t handle it; I can! Besides, I don’t want to let it go and I shouldn’t have to…! It means too much to me…! She vigorously rubbed herself with the soapy bath-sponge, as she silently debated with herself.

As Jenny pondered these thoughts, in the back of her mind was a vague, growing feeling of guilt. Over what exactly, she wasn’t quite sure. Maybe it was because of the way she’d been acting lately, snapping at Ted over the least provocation.. Had she always been this irritable? She didn’t think so… Or maybe she felt guilty over the way she’d ignored her friends over the past several days, even forgetting about them entirely. Or maybe it was the way she had inadvertently dragged Ted into the middle of her war with her hated enemy. Or maybe it was all these things combined. Or maybe something else entirely different, something Jenny didn’t even want to think about…

Ohhh, it was all so darn confusing, she thought, as she rinsed the lather from her hair. It simply pained her to think about it all. She was too darn tired to think about it anyway; the day, indeed, the whole week, had been so eventful, so overwhelming, she almost couldn’t even think straight anymore. And so, she decided that she simply wouldn’t think about it anymore, and that was that. Besides, she could always worry about all that junk later; there was plenty of time to sort things out the next morning or the next week, or the week after or whenever…

Yet, try as she might, Jenny still couldn’t ignore the issue. In spite of herself, she just knew that, somehow or other, she had to at least try and undo some of the damage she’d done, and as she dried herself off with the towel, she resolved to do just that. When she had finished drying herself, she wrapped the towel around her wet hair, and slipped into Ted’s bathrobe. Thus reasonably-dressed to avoid a chill, she then emerged from the bathroom.

She stepped into the tiny living-room and looked over at Ted, who, true to form, sat hunched over on the time-worn sofa, his nose buried in a textbook.

"Umm…say, Ted…?" she began, approaching him cautiously.

"Yes?" Ted looked up and jumped at the sight of his empty bathrobe standing there before him. He still couldn’t get used to the sight and it creeped him out to see it.

A short pause followed before Jenny answered, startled as she was by Ted’s unexpectedly jittery reaction. "I’m—I’m really sorry about the way things turned out tonight," she began. "I—I really didn’t want any of this to happen, but…well, I just…" she trailed off.

Ted blinked in surprise. Well, that was a curve-ball! he thought. It was literally the last thing in the world he expected to hear from Jenny. It was the first time he’d ever heard her, if not exactly take responsibility for her actions, at least acknowledge some of their consequences. He felt the need to say something in response, but couldn’t quite think of what to say. "Yeah, well…um…I—I know, I—I guess…um…" he trailed off as pitifully as he’d begun.

A long, awkward silence followed. Jenny couldn’t quite tell what Ted’s reaction to her words had been, and she suddenly felt distinctly uncomfortable, and even vulnerable just then. Instinctively, she raised her arms and folded them in front of her, in an unconscious defensive posture. "You know, I’m really not such a bad person …not really…" she went on, in a very small voice.

"I know, I know…" Ted said. What the hell else could he say?

"I mean…I’m really pretty likable…once you get to know me," She raised her hands to her upper arms, and began to rub them, as though to warm herself. "A lot of people like me and…well…you like me, don’t you?"

Ted blinked. Was he hearing correctly? Apparently. "Well, yes!" he replied, hastily. "Of course I like you, Jenny."

"You really do, don’t you?" Another short pause. "I mean, you’re not—you’re not still mad at me or anything…are you…?" She said, her voice getting even softer. "We’re—we’re still friends…aren’t we?"

"Of course, we are; of course we are," Ted replied automatically. He couldn’t begin to imagine what was going on inside Jenny’s head just then, but whatever it was, she evidently seemed to be feeling very insecure just then, in need of reassurance. Ted struggled valiantly to think of something to say to comfort her, but continued to draw a blank. He’d never felt comfortable in situations like this, involving people’s feelings, and he felt especially uncomfortable dealing with this one.

And Jenny’s invisibility certainly didn’t help matters, either. It was weird, but…even with knowing the physical processes involved, and even after this length of time had passed, he still couldn’t get used to the idea of talking to an invisible person. It felt weird to talk to the air or to empty clothes that way; it just felt so wrong, so absurd somehow. At times, it almost felt to Ted as though he were talking to himself, and he felt stupid.

Another long, awkward silence followed, before an idea finally occurred to Ted: He decided to change the subject altogether. "Um—you, um..." he began, cautiously. "So you’re— um, you’re—" he began, dropping his eyes to the ground. "You’re done with your shower then, right?" he finally managed to get out.

"Yeah, yeah," Jenny replied with a light wave of her empty sleeve, her familiar easy, self-confident tone returning to her voice. "I’m done and there’s plenty of hot water left, if you want it. Um—" she paused again "I…I’d like to make a quick phone-call …if that’s okay… I mean, I hate to keep bugging you for favors, but—"

"Oh, that’s—that’s all right," Ted replied, feeling just a bit more at ease now. "Just so long as you don’t call Canada or something."

"No, no, this is just a local call." She looked around the tiny, cluttered apartment. "Where’s your phone?" she asked.

"It’s um—it’s in here," Ted answered as he rose from the battered sofa and stepped into the hallway, the empty robe backing away from him as he passed, then following him.

"It’s in here…" Ted repeated, stepping into the bedroom and pointing to a large pile of dirty laundry in the corner. "Ummm…I think it’s buried under there…somewhere… But I’m not sure…"

"Okay, thanks," Jenny said, from the empty robe behind him. She was glad at the moment that her invisibility hid the look of disgust on her face as she looked at the pile of laundry.

Ted stepped aside as the empty bathrobe glided past him and over to the pile of soiled laundry in the corner, where it bent down and proceeded to rummage through its grimy depths, searching for the telephone that ostensibly lay buried beneath it.

Realizing that he was again staring at the curiously curvaceous contours of his bathrobe as it crouched down in the corner, Ted tore his eyes away and walked over to the dresser and pulled out a drawer. "Well, now that you’re through, I’m going to take a shower." He rummaged through the open drawer for a few moments, then retrieved a set of pajamas, the last fresh set in the drawer.

Jenny continued to plumb the smelly, grimy depths of the dirty laundry in search of the phone, until at last, she located it. Pulling it from the tangled mass of soiled, fragrant underwear and socks, she carried it over to the bed, where she sat down with it in her lap

Ted turned and left the room, and as he left, he glimpsed the telephone receiver floating in the air at the end of a bathrobe sleeve, while the other sleeve moved in circular motions above the old telephone’s rotary-dial, which whirred away by itself, as an unknown number was dialed up. He felt a slight shudder run down his spine as closed the door behind him.

"Hello?" Jenny said into the phone, after a few moments. "Hello, Connie? Hi! It’s me, Jenny! Yeah, I know… I mean, I had a feeling you guys were probably wondering what happened to me by now. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner…I meant to call you, I really did, but…well, I had to leave kind of in a hurry… No, no, everything’s okay, I’m fine… really…" She paused a moment, listening. Jenny stretched out on the bed, resting her towel-wrapped head upon the pillow.

"Well, it’s—it’s kind of a long story… And it’s a little hard to explain over the phone…" She raised an unseen hand to her face to rub her eyes, and started at its unexpected touch. She still couldn’t get the hang of coordinating her hands and fingertips when she couldn’t see them; she kept misjudging the distance and, more than once, almost poked herself in the eyes.

"Yeah…" she went on. "Yeah, it’s one of those things where you kind of had to be there to really understand… But I’ll maybe tell you guys all about it later on…someday…" Her voice trailed off for a few moments, then perked up again. "So how’ve things been with you?" she said. "Uh-huh…uh-huh… Really? Are you serious? Oh, she didn’t! She did? Oh, woww…"

As she continued to talk with her friend, Jenny’s mood gradually began to improve, and a smile soon spread across her unseen features.