Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop had said good night. For a moment the brothers lay silent in their beds.
Then Arthur yawned. “Good night, Stanley. Pleasant dreams.”
“Pleasant dreams? Hah!”
“Hah?”
“Those robbers today, they had guns!” said Stanley. “They could have shot me by accident and nobody would even know.”
“I never thought of that.” Arthur sat up. “Are you mad at me?”
“I guess not. But …” Stanley sighed. “The thing is, I don’t want to go on being invisible. I was really scared today, and I hate carrying that balloon, but when I don’t, people bump into me. And I can’t see myself in the mirror, so I don’t even remember how I look! It’s like when I was flat. It was all right for a while, but then people laughed at me.”
“That’s why I blew you round again,” Arthur said proudly. “Everyone said how smart I was.”
“If you’re so smart, get me out of this fix!” There was a little tremble in Stanley’s voice.
Arthur went to sit on the edge of his brother’s bed. Feeling for a foot beneath the covers, he patted it. “I’m really sorry for you,” he said. “I wish—”
There was a knock at the door, and Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop came in. “Talking, you two? You ought to be asleep,” they said.
Arthur explained about Stanley’s unhappiness.
“There’s more,” Stanley said. “Twice my friends had parties and didn’t invite me. They sometimes forget me even if I do keep waving that balloon!”
“Poor dear!” Mrs. Lambchop said. “‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ as the saying goes.” She went to put her arms around Stanley, but he had just sat up in bed and she missed him. She found him and gave him a hug.
“This is awful!” Arthur said. “We have to do something!”
Mr. Lambchop shook his head. “Dr. Dan knew of no cure for Stanley’s condition. And little about its cause except for a possible connection between bad weather and fruit.”
“Then I’ll always be like this.” Stanley’s voice trembled again. “I’ll get older and bigger, but no one will ever see.”
Arthur was thinking. “Stanley did eat fruit. And there was a storm. Maybe … Wait!”
He explained his idea.
Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop looked at each other, then at where they supposed Stanley to be, and at each other again.
“I’m not afraid,” said Stanley. “Let’s try!”
Mr. Lambchop nodded. “I see no harm in it.”
“Nor I,” said Mrs. Lambchop. “Very well, Arthur! Let us gather what your plan requires!”
“Everyone ready?” said Arthur. “It has to be just the way it was the night Stanley got invisible.”
“I’m wearing the same blue-and-white stripey pajamas,” said Stanley. “And I have an apple. And a box of raisins.”
“We can’t make a real storm,” Arthur said. “But maybe this will work.”
He stepped into the bathroom and ran the water in the sink and shower. “There’s rain,” he said, returning. “I’ll be wind.”
Mrs. Lambchop held up a wooden spoon and a large skillet from the kitchen. “Thunder ready,” she said.
Mr. Lambchop showed the powerful flashlight he had fetched from his tool kit. “Lightning ready.”
Stanley raised his apple. “Now?”
“Go stand by the window,” said Arthur. “Now let me think. Hmmm … It was dark.” He put out the light. “Go on, eat. Whooosh!” he added, being wind.
Stanley began to eat the apple.
Water pattered down in the bathroom into the sink, and from the shower into the tub.
“Whooosh… whooosh!” said Arthur, and Mrs. Lambchop struck her skillet with the wooden spoon. The crash! was much like thunder.
“Lightning, please,” Arthur said.
Mr. Lambchop aimed his flashlight and flicked it on and off while Stanley finished the apple.
“Now the raisins,” said Arthur. “One at a time. Whooosh!”
Stanley opened the little box and ate a raisin.
Still whoooshing, Arthur conducted as if an orchestra sat before him. His left hand signaled Mrs. Lambchop to strike the skillet, the right one Mr. Lambchop to flash the light. Nods told Stanley when to eat a raisin.
Patter… splash went the water in the bathroom. “Whooosh!” went Arthur. Crash! went the skillet. Flash!… Flash! went the light.
“If anyone should see us now,” Mrs. Lambchop said softly, “I would be hard put to explain.”
Stanley looked down at himself. “It’s no use,” he said. “I’m still invisible.”
“Twist around!” said Arthur. “Maybe the noise and light have to hit you just a certain way!”
Twisting, Stanley ate three more raisins. The light flickered over him. He heard the water splashing, Arthur whoooshing, the pounding of the skillet with the spoon. How hard they were trying, he thought. How much he loved them all!
But he was still invisible.
“There’s only one raisin left,” he said. “It’s no use.”
“Poor Stanley!” cried Mrs. Lambchop.
Arthur could not bear the thought of never seeing his brother again. “Do the last raisin, Stanley,” he said. “Do it!”
Stanley ate the raisin and did one more twist. Mrs. Lambchop tapped her skillet and Mr. Lambchop flashed his light. Arthur gave a last Whooosh!
Nothing happened.
“At least I’m not hungry,” Stanley said bravely. “But—” He put a hand to his cheek. “I feel … sort of tingly.”
“Stanley!” said Mr. Lambchop. “Are you touching your cheek? I see your hand, I think!”
“And your pajamas!” shouted Arthur, switching on the light.
A sort of outline of Stanley Lambchop, with hazy stripes running up and down it, had appeared by the window. Through the stripes they could see the house next door.
Suddenly the outline filled in. There stood Stanley in his striped pajamas, just as they remembered him!
“I can see my feet!” Stanley shouted. “It’s me!”
“I, dear, not me,” said Mrs. Lambchop before she could catch herself, then ran to hold him tight.
Mr. Lambchop shook hands with Arthur, and then they all went into the bathroom to watch Stanley look at himself in the mirror. It hadn’t mattered when he was invisible, Mrs. Lambchop said, but he was greatly in need of a haircut now.
LShe made hot chocolate to celebrate the occasion, and Arthur’s cleverness was acknowledged by all.
“But false storms cannot be relied upon,” Mr. Lambchop said. “We must think twice before eating fruit during bad weather. Especially by a window.”
Then the brothers were tucked into bed again. “Good night,” said Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop, putting out the light.
“Good night,” said Stanley and Arthur.
Stanley got up and went to have another look in the bathroom mirror. “Thank you, Arthur,” he said, coming back. “You saved me from being flat, and now you’ve saved me again.”
“Oh, well …” Arthur yawned. “Stanley? Try to stay, you know, regular for a while.”
“I will,” said Stanley.
Soon they were both asleep.
The End
