Be careful what you say you want; you never know who might be listening. (A fable of sorts)

It would have been called an argument, except that Sheila wouldn’t let Lenny get a word in. Whatever he had to say she didn’t want to hear. They’d been girlfriend and boyfriend for six months, and were getting very close, as teenagers will. But to Sheila, he had committed the ultimate sin against her. In this, the final confrontation, they were standing outside the school after classes were over. Her voice grew in volume as her emotions took control.

“I never want to see you again!” Sheila screamed. As she finished the sentence, to her shock he began to slowly fade away. First she started to see right through him, as if he was a ghost, and as she stared and the dematerialization continued, there was, at last, just, nothing there. She was brought up short. What the heck had just happened?

“Lenny?”

“What!” he said, a bit brusquely, but she was unable to hear him.

“Where’d you go?” She was looking around a bit wildly.

“I’m right here! Geez!”

“Lenny? Stop playing!”

Rolling his eyes he turned and walked away. He didn’t know what this game was, but obviously they were through. She was unwilling to listen to his explanation that the girl she had seen him with was his cousin, Naomi. Every time he started to explain, she cut him off and refused to hear him, convinced he was two-timing her.

He looked back once, and she was still calling him and looking around her. He shook his head. She was really losing it.

It was sad, and so unnecessary.

-o0o-

That was the last time Sheila saw him. Her friends still talked about him, although once they understood she had broken up with him, they tried to avoid the subject. She saw his friends, but never him, and wondered if he had left the school. This whole disappearing act was just too odd for her to grasp. The idea that a person could just fade away while you were looking at them was beyond her comprehension, so her mind constructed a memory she could handle to replace it: one in which he had simply walked away from her.

Lenny was bummed out about losing her, but he didn’t understand why she was playing this weird game. They had passed each other in the hall many times and she never looked in his direction. It was more like she was looking right through him. Not the faintest hint of acknowledgment; not even a sneer.

As for cousin Naomi, she felt bad for Lenny, once he’d told her the story of the breakup. When she saw Sheila at the mall a month after this, she approached her to see if she could do anything to help them get back together.

“Hi, Sheila?”

“Do I know you?” Sheila asked, thinking the girl looked vaguely familiar.

“No, you don’t. I’m Lenny’s cousin. I think you might have made a mistake when you saw us together.”

“You’re…his cousin?”

“That’s right. Second cousin, to be exact. He’s one of my favorite cousins. He’s actually a really good guy.”

Sheila was flummoxed. His cousin? The blood drained from her face, and a hand covered her mouth. She had made a big error.

“Oh NO. Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Well, according to what he said to me, he tried any number of times, but you shut him down each time.”

“I—I…” There really wasn’t much to say about her stupid mistake and rush to judgment.

“Where is he? I haven’t seen him since we broke up.”

“He’s around, just like always.”

“Is he still at school? I haven’t seen him there.”

“Well, of course he’s still at school.” Naomi was starting to wonder what was up with this girl.

“I don’t know what to say. I swear I haven’t seen him anywhere.” Thinking about her dumb mistake again, she said, “Oh wow!” looking at Naomi helplessly. “I’m really an idiot.”

Naomi did not disagree.

-o0o-

The next day at school Sheila kept an eye out for him, but never saw him. They even had a science class together, and he didn’t appear to be there. His usual seat was empty.

When the class was over, Lenny, who was, of course, present in the class, walked right by her as she gathered her books, pointedly looking at her, and as usual she ignored him. Cousin Naomi had let him know about meeting Sheila at the mall, so he thought she’d be at least a little friendlier. For a long time he thought maybe she’d figure out she’d been wrong, and they could get back together. But perhaps it was just time to move on.

-o0o-

Meanwhile on another plane of existence very close to our own, two beings, Upyay and Ixnay, were arguing.

“Why don’t you take off the spell now?” Upyay asked. “It’s obvious she feels bad about misjudging him.”

“Hey! She said NEVER, ‘I NEVER want to see you again.’ I gave her just exactly what she asked for.”

“But she realizes her mistake now, and even feels bad about it.”

“True, but she needs to realize that actions have consequences. Never is a long time; a lot longer than she imagined,” he added, wiggling what would be the equivalent of human eyebrows.

Upyay shook their head and scratched behind one antenna. “What about forgiveness? Or the way prisoners get out on parole if they behave?”

“Sorry, Up,” said Ixnay. “You know I’m kind of a black-and-white thinker.”

Upyay floated away and thought about this long and hard. It just wasn’t right for young Sheila to be punished the rest of her life. Coming up with a solution of sorts, they flicked a little spell modifier at Sheila, which would, if activated, nullify Ixnay’s spell, and then sat back to watch. (“Sat” is kind of a misnomer, as these beings had nothing on which to sit.)

-o0o-

Ever since Naomi told her the truth about what she’d seen, Sheila had spent a lot of time feeling bad about herself. Why didn’t she let Lenny explain when she could? She really needed to learn to control her temper. Now it didn’t seem like there was any chance at all of reconciliation. It had been months since she’d seen him. His number had even vanished from her phone, as she found when she went to text him. She had considered going to his house to see him, but the thought was too daunting. She also spent quite a lot of time thinking how much she had liked—no, loved him, and had thrown it away. She did miss him.

Every time she asked anyone if they had seen him, they always said yes. Once or twice someone said, “Well yeah, he’s right there.” They’d point somewhere and she would see everything but him.

It took her quite a while to figure it out, but when she remembered what she had said that fateful day, she realized that, as impossible as it seemed, she had gotten her wish. Everyone else could see him, plain as day. So he must actually be there. She wanted to see him now! How could she reverse that one little word: never?

-o0o-

Sheila confided in her friend, Martina, all about this chain of events. She asked if Martina could somehow get Lenny to come to a picnic table in the little park next to the school. When classes were over she’d meet them there and explain to him what had happened, even though she would be unable to tell he was present. Martina was quite skeptical about her story, but agreed to the plan.

Lenny wasn’t very anxious to meet with her after the awful way she’d been snubbing him, but Martina was very persuasive, and the three of them found themselves sitting at the picnic table after school.

“Is Lenny here?”

Martina said, “Yes, we’re both here,” as she and Lenny both rolled their eyes.

Sheila then spoke. “Lenny I really need to tell you something.”

“Look more to your right,” whispered Martina.

Lenny rolled his eyes again.

“Oh, sorry. Lenny, I know this sounds totally nuts, but that day, when I said ‘I never want to see you again,’ as I finished that sentence you faded from view right while I was looking at you. You were just… gone, and I have not heard you or seen you once from that day on. I’ve looked for you everywhere, but even if people point you out, I see nothing.”

Lenny was looking at her skeptically. “This sounds like total BS,” he said. He was watching her closely, and what he said never registered in any way.

Martina also observed this, and noted there was no acknowledgement of any sort.

“Sheila, did you hear what he said?”

“He said something? No! What was it?”

“Well, uh, he said it sounded like total BS.”

Sheila felt like crying. “I know it does, Lenny! But it’s the truth. I cannot tell you’re here right now. I can see Martina just fine, but to me it looks like just the two of us are here.”

A thought occurred to her. “Give me your hand, please.”

(On another plane there was a quiet “Yes!!” from Upyay.)

He reluctantly put his hand in hers, causing her to gasp.

“Oh my god! I can feel you! It’s so weird, when I don’t see anyone.”

“Well, duh.”

He had to admit she was good at this game, and was going to pull his hand away, but she grasped it tighter.”

“Wait!! I thought I heard you say something! Say something else!”

“What do you want me to say?”

She was getting very excited, and wouldn’t let go of his hand. “I’m starting to see you, Lenny! Like you’re materializing or something! This is like a miracle!”

He faded in enough for her to make eye contact with him, and her eyes filled with tears.

“I can see you!! I am SO happy to see you again! And I’m SO sorry for jumping to conclusions about you and your cousin.” Her voice dropped. “And for not giving you a chance to explain. Can you forgive me?”

This was such a convincing performance that Lenny found himself doubting it was play-acting.

“You’re serious about not being able to see me?”

“I swear to you that you just slowly faded from view that day, and I never saw you or heard you from then until this moment.”

“Weird.”

-o0o-

“Why’d you have to go and do that?” Ixnay whined to Upyay, looking down at the girl and boy getting back together.

“There was no reason for her to feel bad forever about an impulsive wish. I think she learned something from this about controlling her temper, and that’s the important part.”

“Yeah, whatever. Sometimes I wish we didn’t have to work together!”

Upyay smiled. “That’s life.”

The End.