9752873896523593

And then Erin and Zack dropped onto the floor on their knees, looking dazed and confused,
staring at the pieces of shattered mirror that littered the floor around them.
“You’re back!” I cried happily. “It’s really you!”
“Yeah. It’s me,” Zack said, climbing unsteadily to his feet, then turning to help Erin up.
The mirror was shattered. The reflections were gone.
Erin and Zack gazed around the room, still shaken and dazed.
April stared at me in total confusion.
Lefty remained outside the doorway, shaking his head. “Max,” he said, “you should’ve caught the
ball. That was an easy catch.”
Erin and Zack were back. And they were okay.
It didn’t take long to get everything back to normal.
We explained everything to April and Lefty as best we could.
April went home. She had to baby-sit her little sister.
Erin and Zack—the real Erin and Zack—helped me sweep up the broken glass. Then we closed
the door to the little room. I latched it tightly, and we all carried cartons over and stacked them up to
block off the door.
We knew we’d never go in there again.
We vowed never to tell anyone about getting invisible or the mirror or what happened in that
little room. Then Erin and Zack headed home.
Later, Lefty and I were hanging around out in the back yard. “That was so scary,” I told Lefty
with a shudder. “You just can’t imagine what it was like.”
“Sounds pretty scary,” Lefty replied absently. He tossed his softball from hand to hand. “But at
least everything is okay now. Want to play a little catch?”
“No,” I shook my head. I wasn’t in the mood. But then I changed my mind. “Maybe it’ll take my
mind off what happened this morning,” I said.
Lefty tossed me the ball. We trotted behind the garage, our usual place for tossing the ball
around.
I lobbed it back to him.
We were having a pretty good game of catch.
Until about five minutes had gone by.
Until…
Until I stopped and froze in place.
Were my eyes playing tricks on me?
“Here comes my fastball,” he said. He heaved it at me.
No. No. No.
I gaped open-mouthed as the ball shot past me.
I didn’t even try to catch it. I couldn’t move.
I could only stare in horror.
My brother was throwing right-handed.
Scanning, formatting and