Chapter 36

Even after getting Edmund's promise to keep our secret, I was a little hesitant to tell him everything. You know, like how I keep financially healthy. I figured he'd keep his imagination in check if it looked like work we all were doing was the source along with investments I'd made in the future. I really didn't want to tell him anything more about how I shift from place to place through time. I thought it best not to do it too much with him around if at all possible.

Or at least, shift out and back in split-second timing. I could always move around using my buzz shifting and literally be invisible. Although, that needed to be done sparingly. Someone aware of that capability of mine, thinking I was there, might just start flailing about like they were clearing a room full of cobwebs.

The downside of that was if they touched me, they could catch me. They too would become invisible until contact was lost and they would travel with me if I tried to shift away to another place or time. I could stop the buzz shift but that wasn't a satisfactory solution. Either way, when they touched me, they could see me. Not good.

I did learn that situation was a problem right after I turned twelve and my talent kicked in. Early on, I learned how do to the Buzz Shift. Well, discovered how to do it is perhaps a better way to explain it. I'd seen a TV show featuring an Invisible Man. 'Now that would be fun.', I thought. What I found interesting was the guy had to be naked for it to work and to be seen he had to put on clothes.

So there I was standing before my mirror and sort of puffed myself up, took a deep breath and wished myself to be invisible. But to no avail. It was just the naked me standing, looking at my twelve-year-old ... well, you know just what I was looking at.

Guys know this. Girls too but they do it with a different part of their body. Yeah, wagging.

I let that part of my body, Wag. I guess you'd call it Wagging. Puppies do it, well with another part of their body. So there I was wagging at me and as I sped up a little, I got the shock of my life. It disappeared!

Now being twelve there are a lot of things you don't know. One of them is body parts don't fall off. Everything is attached. I yelped and looked at the floor wondering where it had fallen. At the same time, I grabbed for it right where it should have been.

Obviously, the floor was empty. Body parts just don't disappear or fall off. Well the not falling off part is true but I'd just found the beginning of how to do the fading away part. And Yes, when I did that protective grab with both hands boys and men do, I could tell all the correct parts and pieces were exactly where they were supposed to be.

So, I was fairly rapidly able to put together how to work the Buzz Shift. Although my little boy mind just didn't put that one-and-one makes two, together correctly. You know, realize that I didn't have to be naked to set about invisible. We all learn don't we. Sometimes the hard way.

I have to remind you here that my father had his own thousand acres. It was not too far from the one I was developing and he had his own property manager and staff to keep things up. That's where I grew up, for the most part, in the new millennium.

Anyway, there I was, doing the 'Wag' as I called it back then. I was running around my room picking things up and putting them down wondering why they didn't disappear like me. Stupid one that I can be at times, anything I touched, I could still see but to everyone else, the item would fade-out and then fade-in when I released it. I needed to look in my mirror to get that viewpoint.

It was when I kept buzzing and picked up my baseball bat that it happened. You see I started swinging it around when I happened to look over a the mirror. No bat. No me either.

Spooked, I dropped the baseball bat on the floor. On the way down, it reappeared. Sort of the second I let go of it. Another lesson learned.

The big lesson I learned was later that afternoon. Well, I learned two of them. The first was, don't go 'Wagging' about naked. I'd shifted into the meadow, or perhaps you'd call it a large expanse of lawn. Anyway, off to one side was a nice large flower garden. One of the manager's daughters, Gertrude, was preening it; removing weeds and flowers that had gone by. We were playmates and the same age.

I decided to have a little fun. So I strolled over in my invisible naked self and moved her basket a little. She wasn't concentrating on it and after pulling up a weed, just figuring where the basket was and missed it when she dropped the handful.

It was innocent play. She'd look away and I'd move the basket a little more. What I found out was, every time I did that the basket did a fade-out and then a fade-in. More fun.

I just touched a finger to it while she was looking at the basket and it did that flash. She rubbed her eyes not believing what she'd seen. I took that opportunity to move it to the other side of where she was kneeling. Big FUN!!!

Smart wise guy that I am, or was at that time, I thought what fun if I grabbed the basket just as she reached for it. Now wouldn't that be a hoot, I thought. Bad idea of the first order.

Sure she did. She reached for it. I grabbed it but forgot one important thing. Move the basket out of the way. The next thing I know, she is eye to ... well my other eye. Right, that one-eyed trouser snake guys seem to have hanging out at the most inopportune time.

Now, she was my age and we'd played doctor a few times. OK. More than a few times. No way she didn't know it was me, all naked there in front of her. Even if she didn't look up at my face.

I was sort of stunned that she was seeing me. That wasn't my intent, nor what I expected to happen.

She did something unexpected. I was sort of riveted to the spot. But strange things do happen. She decided a bird in the hand is better than one in the bush, so she released her grip on the basket and 'Voila' I was poof.

"What the hell," she said.

Again, I forgot that important, item. Get out the hell out of reach or you will be caught. Her hand was drawn right to me, you know where. With extended fingers, she began reaching out trying to find out what was happening and obviously searching for that little lost bundle of joy which had been right there a moment ago.

Shortening a long story, she hit her mark and got a handful ... of me, right there. 'Shazam' ... I was back in 'Full Monte' view.

As we'd fiddled with each other more than a few times, I knew how nice it felt to have another hand, or hands, working over that part of my body. Right then though, I was shall we say, mortified. Now, another time and another place and I would have gone for it. You know, allow her into my playground and let her fiddle to her heart's content.

One problem. The garden was right along the main walkway from my parents' office and the adjacent parking lot. Not the place a naked boy was expected to be, especially one being felt up by a playmate. Him being all naked like.

Luckily, even though she had my jewels well in hand, she was surprised. When she decided to make sure it was me she changed her view, looking up toward my face. Well, at least where a disembodied head would be.

I will admit, we did like each other and as she looked up, there was a nice smile on her face. I did want to stay and play, but as her gaze moved upward, she released her grip on me. Zap, I was gone again.

That was my chance and I did the quickest shift I could and was not there anymore. I'd faded dead away. I decided not to try that again. You know, fool someone by being invisible. Of course, I soon found out wearing clothes was better and saved being caught naked.

I did avoid Gertie for a while and she did relate that encounter to me a while later. I side stepped giving a direct answer it saying, "Really. That's spooky."