Mrs. Invisible

by Christina Hagmann

  “Okay, okay,” Weston said, putting his hands up. “I’m not pushing anything. But here,” he reached into his pocket and grabbed out his card. “This is strictly business. I promise. I know how hard it is to jump back in, but I hope that just knowing that you have a position, will help you take that step.”

  Emma looked at the card that Weston had slid across the table at her. She hesitated, unsure if it was okay, then she grabbed it.

  “Thank you, Mr. Morley, I’ll keep it in mind.”

  He sighed, rolling his eyes at her but laughing at the same time. “Please call me Weston.”

  “Okay, thank you, Weston.” Emma nodded her head at him, and he reached over and caught her hand. She watched as he brought it to his mouth and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. Emma felt the heat rise to her cheeks.

  “It would be a shame if I didn’t see you again.” Weston held Emma’s hand.

  Emma’s mouth dropped open as her brain struggled before words finally came to her. “It was nice meeting you, Weston.” She slid her fingers from his grasp and inched her way out of the booth. She willed herself not to look back but thought about Jane, who would return to find her gone. She didn’t need to worry for too long.

  “Emma! Emma, wait up!” Jane called across the room. Emma turned to her friend, glimpsing Weston still watching her leave. A smile played on his lips. “Emma, why'd you leave?” Jane whined as her hand clasped Emma’s arm.

  “I’ll tell you once we get out of here,” Emma said, making her way through the glistening bodies of young women who gyrated on the dance floor. “Let’s find Charla and Denise. This is supposed to be a ladies’ night.”

  Jane squealed. “Something happened, didn’t it? Didn’t it, Emma?” She stomped her heeled feet in place before letting Emma lead her down the steps to reunite with their friends.

  Chapter 6 Back to the Real World

  Emma opened her eyes, but shut them immediately. The day was too bright. Normally, she awoke around five in the morning without an alarm. When she looked at the clock, she saw it was already eight. She thought back to last night and Weston Morley.

  After they left the club, the limo dropped them off at Jane’s and they went inside and ate pizza. They forced Emma to recount every minute of her and Jane’s time in VIP because Jane’s memory was fuzzy. The girls convinced Emma that she’d done nothing wrong. It was perfectly acceptable for a married woman to talk to a man, especially one as fine and rich as Weston Morley.

  Last night, their reassurances made Emma feel better. This morning, in the harsh light of day, guilt gnawed at the frayed edges of her mind.

  There was movement by the door, and Emma glanced over to see Trevor looking around the corner with a grin on his face, traveling bag in hand. He must have left the hotel early. She groaned and tried to pull the blankets over her head, but he was at her side in moments, pulling the blanket down.

  “Hey sweetie,” he said, ruffling her hair as he sat on the side of the bed.

  “I’m up,” Emma said but didn’t move to get out of bed.

  “No, you have time. I just wanted to tell you that I hope you had a great time last night.” Emma looked at Trevor through half open slits, ready to tell him about Weston Morley. “Whoa!” Trevor said, chuckling. “Babe, why don’t you take it easy today? No chores, just rest. Doctor’s orders.”

  He smiled again, then leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Before Emma could say anything, Trevor stood. “I’ll see you tonight, love. I’ve got to go into the office.” He patted the covers over her leg and turned to leave.

  Emma watched him disappear through the doorway, surprised that he’d asked no questions. She rolled over, trying to go back to sleep, but her brain was playing tricks on her and making her feel a guilt that shouldn’t be there.

  She finally got up and moved to the living room.

  Emma nestled into the corner of her sofa with a fuzzy blanket and a hot cup of coffee. Though she didn’t know why, she had carried Weston Morley’s card down with her and had placed it on the coffee table. She also had the book that she had been trying to get into. Emma loved to get lost in a book, but most days she had a hard time concentrating. Her mind was always running through the things that she should do or things that had happened throughout the day. Today was no different. Her mind kept running back to the night out and the conversation she had with the intriguing Weston Morley.

  She wasn’t thinking about how devastatingly handsome he had been. She was thinking about how he had looked at her and had seen right through her. He had seen how badly she wanted to get back to work.

  Emma didn’t talk about that with anyone. When anyone asked, she would recite her go to line about how raising a child was the most rewarding job. She didn’t want people to think that she didn’t love being a mother, and while she was grateful that she had the opportunity to spend time with Liam, she couldn’t quench that agonizing thirst for discovery and hard work. It was the drive that forced her to work hard though high school instead of goofing off. It was the drive that made her want to be the best at everything. That drive paid off when she became valedictorian of her high school.

  When she went to Berkley, that same drive propelled her into fevered research with some of the top scientific minds in the nation. That’s what drew her to Trevor, and she knew it was the same for him.

  What she didn’t understand was why Trevor thought she could just turn it off. He was the one who taught her to relax, and now he was busier than ever, leaving her home with their son.

  Emma jumped up and clanked her coffee cup down on the table, sloshing the milky liquid onto the shiny surface. She refused to sit around all day thinking about the past.

  Snatching up Weston’s card, she padded out of the living room and turned down the hall. At the end of the hall was a narrow set of stairs that led to the lab. Emma descended the steps and when she reached the door at the bottom, she punched in the key code.

  The lock clicked, and Emma pushed the door open. She bit her lip, hesitating, before the memory of what Weston said flashed through her mind. She walked through the doorway and pulled the heavy door shut behind her.

  Scanning the room, Emma breathed in the stagnant air, surprised she’d nearly forgotten what a lab smelled like. This lab was mustier than some. For the last two years, Trevor spent much of his time at Axion Labs, doing top secret, government contracted work.

  Before they contracted Trevor with Axion, he’d had some breakthroughs with his nano rockets and that was why they pegged him for his latest research, whatever it was.

  Some printouts sat on the counter of the lab. Emma picked them up and perused them, unsure what the calculations meant. She moved over to the computer. Trevor was never as careful with their home lab as he should be, but that was because he trusted his wife. Emma felt her stomach fizz, probably with the leftover pizza from last night.

  Her hands hovered over the keyboard before hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete and punching in Liam’s name and birthday. She was in.

  Emma clicked open files and inspected them, searching for something that might help her understand what “totally trippy” new project he was working on. She looked at files dating back five years and ignored them. They couldn’t be what she was looking for.

  Then Emma saw an image that was downloaded last year. She clicked it. It looked like some kind of suit. Sleek, like lycra, but silver like it was made of some kind of metal. She tried to zoom in on it, but the quality was too poor for her to see what it was. There was no name on the image, just a series of letters and numbers: NAN009.

  Scanning through the files, she saw another document marked with the same name. She opened it. Jackpot.

  Emma scoured the document, unaware of how much time had passed and no longer nervous that she would get caught in the lab. Her curiosity got the better of her.

  Emma read the beginning of the report, which chronicled experiments from three years ago for what Emma could only describe as science fiction. It a
ppeared Trevor’s work with nanites led him to believe that, with the correct application, human invisibility was possible. Emma’s jaw dropped. Trippy, indeed.

  She read on. Some ideas were unfamiliar to her, but some she recognized from her years at Berkeley, from work that she herself had done.

  Now, Trevor was using some of these ideas to cultivate his own formula. Emma looked at the table where there were about fifty different test tubes with labels. Emma took stock of the room again and noticed an air-locked closet. She moved over and gripped the handle, knowing that she shouldn’t open it because whatever was in the chamber was invaluable.

  She pulled the door open and there it was, the suit. She reached out to touch it. It was labeled NAN009. They must have created other suits like this one, but if it worked, why would they keep it in their home with civilians. Maybe this was just one experiment that led to the government contract.

  Emma pulled the suit out and felt the lightness of it. It wasn’t metal, but it was smooth. If Emma’s head was in the right place, she’d put the suit back, close the door, and get out of the lab. But Emma’s brain kept Charla’s words on a loop.

  Maybe it was her brain addled by the booze, but against her best judgement, Emma removed her pajamas and slid into the suit.

  It was a perfect fit.

  Emma ran her hands up and down her body, trying to figure out what the purpose of the suit was. It didn’t seem to do anything, and she didn’t feel any different with it on.

  Emma moved around the room, feeling slinky and smooth. She even let out a laugh, but as she looked down at her wristwatch, she noticed the time. Trevor hadn’t been home early for months, but Emma didn’t want to risk getting caught.

  She logged out of the computer and swept up the reports she’d been looking at. As she moved to return them, a tiny photo fluttered to the ground. She picked it up and examined it. It was a photo of Jenny, with her wispy blonde hair, and a slight build. She looked angelic in her pose under a tree, and she had a gentle smile on her face. It was strange seeing a picture of Jenny here, though Jenny was Trevor’s lab partner, she was also his ex.

  Emma tried to slide the picture back into the middle of the pile and as she did so, her elbow caught on two test tubes. She pulled her arm back quickly, losing her balance and bringing the test tubes with her. They tumbled over the edge and poured down her stomach and legs.

  Emma screamed out in surprise, and the glass tubes finished their journey by crashing into tiny little shards all around her bare feet. Emma stood, frozen to her spot, waiting for pain or some kind of sensation to come to her where the unknown formulas had come in contact with her body. They instantly seeped through the suit and trickled down to her feet.

  What an idiot! Emma thought to herself. She ran to the shower, made for such occasions, and pulled the lever to release the water. She gasped as the freezing rain took her breath away. As she stood under the waterfall, she attempted to remove the silver suit, but it was welded to her body. She looked down at herself. Her breath catching in her throat.

  “No, no, no,” she called out, pulling at the strange fabric, but then Emma noticed that the spots the chemicals had hit were melting into her flesh. At least, that’s what it looked like. She couldn’t be sure, but it was like her skin was absorbing them or they were disappearing.

  Emma pulled at the suit as the chemicals continued to absorb. Spots the chemicals hadn’t touched were now becoming flesh colored and then disappearing into her skin. Or so it seemed, but Emma couldn’t be sure. The suit could still be there, but maybe she just couldn’t see it.

  She grabbed at the zipper by the neck, her breathing accelerating, but the zipper disappeared in her hand. She reached down, ripping and pulling at the slippery material as it vanished before her.

  She saw bare skin materializing everywhere and she rubbed at it.

  She didn’t look any different where her skin absorbed the material. There was no redness, no swelling, no wounds. Her choppy breath eased as she became used to the chill of the water. Her teeth chattered as she ran her hands up and down her now naked body.

  She stood under the spout for a bit longer, staring down at her body. She blinked the water out of her eyes. There was no way this was real.

  She stepped out of the water and reached out, grabbing a spare lab coat hanging on the wall. Her skin broke out in goosebumps as she wrapped herself up.

  She lifted the sleeve a few inches, studying her forearms. She blinked rapidly, her eyes trying to see, her brain trying to calculate what really happened.

  Her eyes traveled to the clock on the wall and because she had no answers, at the moment, cleaning up her mess seemed more important.

  She moved over to the spilled formulas and snatched some safety mitts and an extra beaker from the lab table. With a spatula, she scooped up what remained of the two formulas and put them into the beaker. She’d keep it for later, but first she held it up at eye level. Even the formulas combined looked unremarkable. It relieved Emma.

  After she had cleaned up all traces of her being in the lab, except for the two missing formulas, which she hoped Trevor wouldn’t notice, she quickly made her way upstairs to change. She put a stopper in the formula and stashed it in her jewelry box, keeping the formula just in case there was some kind of delayed reaction to it and she needed to know what the two formulas contained.

  She went to her closet and put some clothes on, unsure of where the suit went. She knew she should go to the hospital, but they wouldn’t have any clue how to handle this. She should tell Trevor, but if she did, she’d have to admit snooping around. So instead, she said a silent prayer and hoped there was nothing wrong with her.

  Chapter 7 Shopping Event

  Emma was on edge. She kept looking at her skin, waiting for a reaction. She needed to keep busy and quell the guilt that ate at her. She decided to make a romantic meal for Trevor, but when she opened up the refrigerator, there were no matching ingredients.

  A run to the store and fresh air would be good for her. She could make Trevor’s favorite shrimp Alfredo.

  She hopped in her Audi and backed out of the driveway, absentmindedly checking her mirrors. She turned up the radio and sang along as she made her way to the grocery store. She felt lighter. The monotony of shopping took her mind off of more pressing matters.

  As she pulled into the grocery store parking lot, she looked at the clock. She had plenty of time, unless Trevor came home early to surprise her.

  Emma slid out the car and pushed the lock button as she jogged to the store. She strode through the automatic doors and made her way to the produce department. As she picked up a few red peppers, checking them for imperfections, she spotted Mimi James. Ugh, she thought, not today.

  Mimi had been Emma’s biggest competition in school and Emma had heard within the science circles that Mimi had gotten her own contract from a private company, a very well-paying contract. It figured that they’d end up moving across the country only to settle in the same town. Emma watched Mimi briskly walk through the store and admired the woman’s tailored suit and confident strut.

  As Mimi walked her way, Emma ducked behind a display, struck with the need to avoid another successful woman from her past.

  A woman, standing near the tomatoes, gave Emma a strange look. Emma shot her a quick smile and peeked back at where Mimi was. Unfortunately, Mimi must have decided that she needed vegetables. She turned back and was now making her way right to where Emma was hiding.

  Emma could hear Mimi’s stiletto heels clicking slowly towards her. She realized that it was too late to stand up and pretend that she wasn’t hiding, so she squeezed her eyes shut tight to keep the world out, praying that Mimi would change her mind and move to a different aisle.

  The click of her stilettos stopped, and Emma opened one eye. Mimi stood in front of her, looking troubled.

  “I...” Emma didn’t know what to say. Mimi continued to look before reaching out toward Emma. Emma moved aside and watched M
imi’s hand as it continued its journey, and instead of grasping Emma, she picked up a tomato.

  What game is she playing? Emma asked herself. It was like Mimi didn’t even see her. Like she was pretending Emma wasn’t even there.

  “Ha!” Emma laughed aloud, shaking her head. “Well played.

  Mimi jumped back and looked around. Emma didn’t remember Mimi being this funny in college.

  “I’m sorry,” Emma finally said. Ready to apologize for hiding.

  “Excuse me?” Mimi said, looking at the man on the other side of the display. “Did you say something?” Emma watched as the man shook his head and walked away.

  “Mimi,” Emma said, waving her hand in the woman’s face. When Mimi didn’t flinch, Emma’s hands dropped to her sides.

  Either Mimi was an accomplished actress, or she really couldn’t see her.

  Emma left the produce section and went down the aisle with the pickles. There was a man studying two different jars looking for the pickles with the least imperfections.

  “Excuse me,” Emma said to the man. The man looked up from his business and surveyed his surroundings. When he didn’t see anyone, he went back to studying the pickles.

  Either he was in on this joke with Mimi, or nobody could see Emma.

  Emma looked down to her arms and saw that there was nothing there. Even her clothes were gone. But how? She wondered. This can’t be real.

  Emma grabbed two salad dressing bottles off the shelf. They stayed visible, but looked like they were floating. Emma reached out and knocked five more bottles off the shelves to see if anyone would notice.

  The man who’d been looking at the pickles turned around. Seeing no one else was in the aisle, and not wanting to get blamed for breaking the items, he speed-walked the other way. Emma stopped, and a woman in a blue smock came down the aisle.

  “What the?” the woman said to herself. Emma waited for her to ask her if she had noticed anything, but the woman cussed and began cleaning up the mess.