The Invisible Enemy by Marthe Jocelyn Read Free Book Online Page B

sure.
    We live in a kind of house called a loft, which is like an apartment except it’s mostly one big room with only a couple of half walls and doors. This is especially inconvenient when a person wants privacy or if a person has something to hide, which usually means the same thing.
    Jane was on the bottom bunk, dressing her doll, Nonnie. The top bunk is mine.
    “You share a room?” said Alyssa, at a normal volume.
    Jane’s eyebrows pulled together. This is what I mean by no privacy. If I was going to keep Alyssa hidden, I needed a miracle. Because Alyssa was too full of herself to be quiet. And Jane’s wily brain sticks to secrets like Velcro.Harry squirmed out of my arms and started barking again.
    “Oh, shut up!” said Alyssa.
    Jane looked at me with an alert shine on her face. “You did another trick, didn’t you, Billie? You vanished someone like you did with Harry.”
    Her eyes flitted right and left of me and settled where Harry was sniffing, at what must have been Alyssa’s feet.
    “Who’s there?” Jane commanded in a stern voice. She groped forward like she was playing blindman’s bluff. I heard Alyssa step back, her heel grinding a Playmobil doctor. Harry scampered away in alarm, whining a little.
    I grabbed Jane’s wrists and looked her straight in the eye. I was torn between admiring her cleverness and wincing from the horrible pliers of panic that pinched my skull whenever the Blabbermouth bumped into news.
    “Jane,” I said. “Janey-Jane-Jane. How about this: We’re going to play a game. Let’s pretend we have a visitor from, ah, the Forest of … Twinkenteenies, and she’s a powerful sorcerer and—”
    “And she’s invisible!” cried Jane. Harry barked, almost like applause.
    “Yeah. She’s invisible. Her name is Toady-Breath and—”
    That got me a kick behind the knee.
    “And she’s invisible because she’s here on a Secret Adventure, and her very life will be threatened by Dark Powers if we reveal her whereabouts.”
    “And then what?”
    “Oh, um, well, we better be nice to her, don’t you think? We better serve her some fairy food. Will you go get her a snack?”
    “Yes, yes! I’ll get the food! I’ll get Oreos! Fairy Frog Sorcerers love Oreos!”
    She zoomed to the kitchen to find a snack. Harry bounded after her, nipping at her sneakers and barking joyful yaps.
    “I’m not here to play some dumb fairy game with your kid sister, Billie. I’m really tired of all this. You’ve had your bad, little joke. Would you just do your stupid magic tricks or whatever? So I can reappear and go home?”
    Go home? I suddenly saw a movie fast-forwardingin my imagination. Invisible Alyssa telling her mother why she wasn’t there. Mother thinking she was hearing voices. Alyssa grabbing mother and shaking her to prove her story. Mother disappearing. Father tearing at his tufts of hair and calling the cops. Flock of cops arriving, dragging me off to jail wearing handcuffs.
    “Go home?” I murmured.
    Clearly, Alyssa could not go home in this condition. The full reality of our predicament washed over me. I was stuck with my invisible enemy.

13 • Cornered
    W hat were you supposed to be doing after school today?” I asked Alyssa. “Won’t your mother be wondering where you are?”
    “I usually go home on the school bus. My mother gets home from the office around six.”
    “You just hang out alone?”
    “Yeah, you know, I have a snack, watch TV,tell her I’m doing homework. Oh!” She sounded dismayed for a second. “I’m supposed to check in or they dock my allowance. I should phone now. Where’s your phone?”
    “Jane!” I called. “Bring the phone, would you? I need to call somebody about homework.”
    “You should get a phone in your room,” said Alyssa.
    “No kidding,” I said.
    Jane came in with a plate of cookies and graham crackers in her hands and the remote telephone receiver tucked under her chin.
    “Mom’s pouring lemonade,” she said as she