Things Not Seen

Both Bobby and Alicia see themselves as invisible: Alicia, because her friends disappeared when she became blind, and Bobby, because he really is invisible. It takes a willingness from each of them to reach out to the world that enables them to discover that they really can be seen.

Bobby goes through life feeling invisible to the people who matter to him. His parents make decisions for him without consulting him; they’re busy with their careers and often seem to hurry past without paying attention to him. Popular kids at school ignore him, and, aside from a few people, he largely gives up on making more friends. He hangs back and deplores the people who don’t care enough to know him.

Then he becomes literally invisible, and his problem intensifies. Now others can’t see him at all; even if they could, they’d be entranced by and seek to exploit his strange power. They still wouldn’t pay attention to him as a person. For a while, Bobby enjoys spying on people who normally wouldn’t give him the time of day. He becomes fascinated by how people behave when they don’t know they’re being observed. Free to stare at them all he wants, he notices little things about them.