"Where are you?" I whispered.
"Right here in front of you."
"If you're a mahout for pink elephants, I don't want to see you," I
said. "Go away."
"Please," the young man's voice was plaintive, "I need your advice.
I'm in trouble."
"That's too bad," I said, edging toward the door.
"Please listen to me. There's nothing to be afraid of."
"From your viewpoint, no," I said.
"If you'll look carefully you can see me," the voice said. "That's
what bothers most people. I mean not being able to see me."
"How stupid of them to be bothered by a little thing like that," I
said, trying not to gibber. But in spite of my common sense I did peer
closely at the area the young man had occupied and I saw a very
remarkable thing.
* * * * *
I saw the vague, indistinct shape of the straw-haired, blue-eyed young
man standing exactly where I had seen him the first time. But the
effect was so uncertain and shadowy that I was hardly able to trust my
eyes.
The young man seemed to blend into the background, which happened to
be a desk, water cooler and wall, so evenly and completely that it was
impossible to see him at all.
But even so, seeing him, however fuzzily, was a relief.
"It's a good trick," I said cautiously.
"It's not a trick," the young man said, aggrieved. "It's something I
can't help."
"Oh yeah? Well how does it happen that I was able to see you when you
came in?"
"I was exerting my will power," the young man said. "But that's
awfully tiring. I had to relax a moment or so and when I did you
weren't able to see me quite so distinctly."
I found my curiosity stirring. Maybe the guy was a crackpot or phony,
but it wouldn't hurt to hear his story. In my line, with things as
lean as they are, you can't afford to miss any bets.
"What makes you pop on and off like an electric light?" I asked. "Must
be a tiring way to go through life."
"You don't know the half of it," the young man said mournfully. "I've
only been this way for a few months, but it seems like it's been
years."
"Well, go on," I said. "Spill your troubles. Why should Mr. Anthony
have all the fun?"
"What?"
"Never mind. Shoot."
"I'm not sure what causes me to fade-out like this. I've been to a
half dozen doctors and psychiatrists and they aren't sure either. But
it has something to do with personality development, they think. The
last psychiatrist I visited told me that I had a very colorless
personality and abnormal inhibitions and frustrations. He said that my
present condition was a physical manifestation of my colorless
personality."