THE INVISIBLE MAN

The Invisible Man









    Jasmine walked out of her counselor’s office, her dark brown hair a sea of waves. Why had she suffered this again? How could she have been so stupid? He had only been trying to help, and she had cast away his comfort with sharp words.

    It had been just that morning, and her best friend, Jeremy, a sweet boy with brown hair and deep, brown eyes, was trying to help her through a struggle she had with her mom. A normal sixteen-year-old’s little spat with her mother. Jeremy had told her it was okay. He had told her it would all go away if she just dealt with it properly; with wisdom and patience. “How can you say that?” she had bellowed. “How can I deal with her incompetence like it’s not her fault? She doesn’t understand my life!” her breath ran out, and she sucked in, leaving a break in her sentence. “She thinks that just because I’m a child I don’t have rights!” by now, her face was red with anger and a need to get her story out.

  She carried on, and ended by just shaking her head and walking away. It seemed right to do then, but as she now looked back, she recognized how foolish she had been to her sensitive friend.

  What was more, she was starting to feel for her great friend; more then she had ever felt for a friend. And now, after speaking in such a way to sweet and innocent Jeremy, there seemed no way for a real relationship to blossom.

  Her counselor, Crystal Shurewell, wasn’t too much help, though. Jasmine had spoken to her of her stupid actions with Jeremy. Crystal had told her to tell Jeremy simply that she was sorry. I’m quite sure it’s not that easy; I’ve never had such an effortless solution with Jeremy! Jeremy….she was starting to believe he felt the same way about her as she did about him. And now? She had ruined it for herself!



Jasmine slumped lazily out of bed. The sun touched her light skin with warm, welcoming fingers. I hate going to high school! She thought. All the work and assignments, projects and stress; and Jeremy.

  She walked down the halls of her high school, her heart thudding, feeling as if there was a knot in her stomach. She would speak to Jeremy; she would apologize.         

    Squeak, squeak went her shoes. Her eyes scanned her surroundings. She looked for the familiar brown hair of Jeremy. A man brushed against her. Her heart fluttered as she saw the dark hair. Jeremy? No. Another boy. Jasmine’s eyes scanned again, and picked up, finally, Jeremy’s eye. “Jeremy!” she called. He spun around, rolled his eyes filled with an angry glint, and walked away. Above her, the bell rang with an ear-piercing shriek.

    Jeremy, her heart called out. He would never forgive her!

    She scampered off to class, the most painful lump she had ever felt in her throat, and a deep hole in her heart.

    Jasmine’s day went by without even one encounter with Jeremy. Every person she saw reminded her of him, and the hurting hole in her heart grew throughout the painful day. She struggled to pay attention and do her work. She wished something could resolve her problem. Anything, just anything; an invisible force, magic… something!



Jasmine was in a dark city alley, filth clinging to the bottoms of her shoes. She was alone, she was afraid. All of a sudden the air went cold as ice, then delightfully warm. She saw a sudden flash of light, then what appeared to be a cloud of white mist. It gathered in places, then straightened out and gracefully swerved and danced in the sky, rose and gathered like a cloud dragon.

      The mist began to gather. It pulled away after building up a good bit. It gathered again, and Jasmine curiously watched. The white cloudy mist begun to form a shape. A tower? It built up more, more detailed its features. A man? The mist stood there for a moment, like a towering man. Once it was quite still in front of Jasmine’s inquiring face, it disappeared. Jasmine gasped. The warmth of the mist-man’s presence was still there, but she saw nothing. Jasmine was baffled.

    “Listen,” echoed a voice. Jasmine backed up a step, and picked up a sharp shard of glass from the alley floor. She held it out, mostly to give herself confidence. “Where are you?” she asked. She tried to make her voice sound confident, but to do that, she would first have to be confident; her voice sounded rather shrill and shaky.

    “Listen to me!” the mysterious, echoing voice rang clear through the dark ally. A shiver ran down Jasmine’s spine. Where are you? she thought. “Listen to me now.”

The voice seemed to speak with the wind on the stone walls behind them. A sudden cold, then warm, gust of air shot past Jasmine’s body. It sent a voice;

“Flowers and trees…

Leaves today…

Let it be…

Cast it away…

Leave it at his feet…

Leave it there…

Until in sight we meet…

His words as thin as air…”

The voice spoke in riddle? What did this mean? Leave what at whose feet? Who’s voice as thin as air? Cast what away? “Who are you?” Jasmine inquired. “I,” answered the voice. “Am no one, but one of three; again, again, ask a question of me.” Jasmine was a bit confused. “What can I call you?” she asked. The wind-like voice answered; “I am what I am, I am who I am. You may call me The Invisible Man.” Jasmine could do nothing more than nod.

      Jasmine shrieked as her alarm-clock went off. Her bones were stiff, and she was almost too warm and comfortable to move. Anyways, she stretched her cramped arms and legs. Was that a dream? Jasmine thought. She rubbed her face. That had seemed too real! She jumped up off her bed, and something cold fell off her Body. She picked the dirty, smooth, cool see-through material. Jasmine’s eyes widened. “Glass!” she exclaimed out loud. “It was real,” she mused. She started thinking about The Invisible Man’s mysterious riddle-like words. What did they mean? She understood the “cast it away,” but she didn’t know who this person was whose words were “thin as air,” at whose feet to cast her troubles to. Jeremy? No, likely not. He wasn’t going to help; it’s him she needed help about.

    That day was Saturday; no school. She wouldn’t have to deal with Jeremy. She would have the whole day to simply ponder on her nightly experience. I’ll talk to my counselor, she decided. And that she did; a rather cheery visit, but Crystal couldn’t decipher The Invisible Man’s words. It was simple, Jasmine knew, very simple; but who were these people she was to look to?

    “Do you have a religion?” her counselor had asked her. Jasmine was a bit taken aback. “Well, no,” she had replied. Her counselor nodded gravely. She sat back in her chair. “Then you don’t know the father?” (In this world, either you did or didn’t believe in God, no other religions.) “No,” Jasmine had answered. “I don’t believe that sort of thing.” Her counselor looked thoughtful. “Okay,” she had finally answered.

    What did religion have to do with anything? It wasn’t important! In Jasmine’s opinion, people just believed in something because they felt there was no “glue” to hold their lives together, and they needed something to do with their lives, and because they didn’t understand the earth’s creation. Why should she do it?

      She pondered on this for quite some time, when she decided on a conclusion. She could try it, she supposed. Why? Well, perhaps she could use a little more light in her life. Perhaps those people who believed had reason to.

      So Jasmine asked her mother (who’s name was Stacy): “Mom?”

      “Yes, dear?” she replied, her light skin by dark brown hair facing Jasmine.

      “Why don’t we believe?” Jasmine’s mom looked momentarily confused.

      “Believe what?” she asked. “In God?” Jasmine nodded.

      “I always have,” her mother answered. “I just never helped you to. Would you like to come to church?” Jasmine nodded. There was a gleam of something like happiness in her mother’s eyes.

        “That would be great.” And so, arrangements where made to find a church and go the upcoming Sunday. What was it called? thought Jasmine. Her mother had told her. Church of Christ- no, Town’s Church of Christ. She wondered what it would be like, being at a church. What did they do there?



Jasmine dreamed again. She was in the same filthy, dark stone ally. This time, though, the voice said: “I, who is me, comes to know that you see.” She must have been going the right way in life- doing the right thing!

      One morning, after going to church for her first time, (which was more than she had expected; she believed she may have felt something like a connection from thespeeches), she felt a voice whispering in her head. Believe! Or at least, she thought it was a voice. It echoed like a rumble, a vibration. It was difficult to tell if it was sound, a thought, or feeling.

    Jasmine stepped out to the edge of the street, two leaves playfully chasing each other in the wind. She waited for the bus, since she hadn’t a license yet. It rumbled up, and she walked across its black rubbery floor, the black seat numbers swiftly passing across her sight on the right of its yellow surface. Thirteen, 15, 17... 19; her seat. She sat on its brown leathery surface, and waited for the bus ride to end. Yet she loved bus rides, so soothing. Trees passed the windows (or rather, she passed them, though it seemed otherwise), one thing she enjoyed.

    Jasmine arrived at high school, a new feeling of courage in her heart. Today she and Jeremy would make up; the dreams- they seemed to say so! She strolled along with her head held up high. And there she was, gong along normally, accept for the fact that she felt so courageous, when a dream, bright and real as day, flashed through her mind: wind wisped across the school floor. “What?” Jasmine asked herself. “I’ve never dreamed in the day. Why are you calling me, Oh invisible man?” She felt the same feeling of cold, then great warmth. “Hello,” came the voice. “It is time, you, it is you knew.”

      “Knew what?” Jasmine barely dared ask. The voice was ever so steady and wise as it said;

      “My names.”

      “Names?” Jasmine mused. The voice seemed to nod, if it would have had a head.         

      “Names.” Jasmine wondered what sort of thing she would find out.

      “I,” said the voice. “Am of many names. I am God’s Love, and I am God’s Wisdom. Those are two of my names.” It paused. “My names are many. I come in many forms, you see; and I am not one. They even call me God’s Grace.” Jasmine was awestruck. God- He was the sullution! He was the one who would help her through tough times; He was the one who would help through all.

      Jasmine gasped. Well, then! Her dreams where reality for sure. She kept on toward class. Jeremy, she thought. She bumped in to someone in a flurry of brown hair. JEREMY! She saw, and it was Jeremy. Joy filled her heart as she saw the look in his sweet eyes. “Jasmine,” he began, a look of true remorse in his eyes. “I’m so sorry I blew up before…”