Entrance:  The Visible Invisible

*Wahh, wahh* A baby was crying in the distance, the little baby was looking to his mom and dad wailing trying to get their attention. He was in no way quiet yet his parents had not heard him, or rather they had not noticed him. The baby boy was starving because he had not eaten since yesterday, and it was already noon. Reaching out and wailing louder and louder, the parents finally noticed something, a noise that was crying out in the back of their heads. They looked over to see their baby on the ground crying out in pain. Suddenly the mother dropped the knife she was using to make food for her husband, and ran too her baby. She could not believe it, how could she have forgotten her only baby. Her child. The husband was looking at his baby, eyes devoid of a emotion, and mouth agape, he was just to shocked to comprehend what was happening. They had been doing stuff around the house for quite some time now, how had they not noticed their child?

Crying while stroking their baby’s head the mom was griefing. How could she go out and enjoy herself at the movies and leave her baby behind. Again! Carol had already done this once, along with her husband John. They had gone out on a date to a restaurant and had completely forgotten their child. They found him crying in his cradle wailing, reaching out for someone. They had vowed to never, ever do this again, but she went back on that. She broke her promise.

“I’m sorry Daniel, I’m sorry my little baby. Mommy is no-good, she forgot again.”

Carol was trying to console poor baby Daniel, while John quickly woke up from his stupor and ran into the kitchen to get some baby food. He knew the baby must be hungry, what did the doctor say? An average 6-month old baby eats 3-4 times to day? Thinking about this made John’s face cringe in pain at his failure as a parent.

Carol and John were in no way bad people, in fact they were both really good people by others standards. They run multiple charities for cancer, and they both are acclaimed doctors. They are people that would never forget about their child, it really just wasn’t a possibility for them. Even if they were busy they always had space for family. At least that is what they thought, until they met me.

“Yes me, Daniel L. Roberts.”

///Five ½ Years Later///

“Come lets play some football, Yeah!”

Watching the other kids play Dan tried to intervene and ask them if he could join in on their game, he wanted them to notice him. This was Dan’s huge problem, his dilemma, his quest. He had a huge field, a massive playground, but never anyone to play with, they always just walked past him leaving him totally unnoticed. Not just kids either, it was everyone. Even his parents. His loving caring parents only ever noticed him if he begged them for their attention. This causes Dan great sadness every waking day of his life, but even as a young child his age he refuses to put his head down. In his eyes sadness is the same as defeat, and the only thing he hates more than defeat is not winning. Watching his fellow classmates play he decided to move on, just like every other day.

Mumbling to himself Dan move to his favorite oak wood tree, it was very old and rickety, but it was also home to a lot of life and energy. Dan had always been a great observer because of his lack of attention, so he especially liked this spot. He always noticed the creaking of the tree, the birds chirping, and even the insects moving up and down the bark. All these things caused Dan to love this field and tree. But Dan would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t like this spot also because he gets to see his crush Samantha easily. Samantha was a tall athletic girl with blond hair and blue eyes. Not only that she was smart too, all this traits of Samantha collided together to make Dan’s ideal girlfriend.

Sitting with his back against the bark of the tree Daniel calmly observed, he was constantly looking across the massive field. Hoping someone would look back. Daniel was waiting for the moment in which he would finally shine. Dan had been doing this for the past four years of his early childhood and the closest thing to attention he has gotten was when he punched his teacher because he was about to pee himself and he needed him to notice himself. Dan always wondered why he was so invisible, he once even questioned if he was real...he still has that question in mind.

Looking out to the field he sighed he wasn’t that much of a bland person was he? Dan thought to himself, he had dark brown messy hair, big round hazel eyes, and a big smile. He was also pretty tall for his age and fit at that! So why? Why?!?! Dan started to feel hot tears boiling up in his eyes, but he quickly wiped the tears away. He really hated  weakness, he hated his weakness, his blatant inability to be noticed.

Dan was strong for a six year old, wethered by the constant trials of being alone, and raised by his will to get smarter and stronger. But his weakness was too great and often broke him.

As Dan started to doze off a loud whistle blew signaling it was time for recess to end and for everyone to stop their games. However Dan had been asleep and had missed the whistle. He had not gotten any sleep the prior night because his parents had been arguing the entire span of the night. As he was sleeping a faint tear streaked down his face.

While everyone was rushing out of the recess field a young girl by accidently kicked her red ball in the direction of a certain oak tree and quickly rushed over to get it. The girl got to the ball and her hands fell on her knees as she was panting, her face was bright red from running so much but she still had a giant toothy smile on her face. The very same one Dan tried to imitate, the one he knew if he got right everyone would be bound to notice him. It was Dan’s favorite smile in the entire world. It was Samantha’s smile. Unknown to him Samantha was currently right in front of him, not even noticing his sleepless figure.

Moving forward Sam went to get her red ball that she had by accidentally kicked over while playing with her friends. Eyes totally focused on the ball she did not notice the person laying right in front of herself. She slowly reached out to the ball, but suddenly she had gotten a deep premotion of danger. A chill ran down her spine, she felt she had disturbed something she shouldn’t have. Suddenly a hand shot out and caught her arm that was currently in mid reach. Grasping her forearm as hard as he could Dan woke up staring straight at his attacker. Only to find it was his crush Samantha the one he has always admired from a distance. Now that she was so close his face turned beat red and he retracted his hand with his mouth opening and closing looking for the right words to tell her.

Samantha burst into tears and ran away as fast as she could. She was scared, very scared. Not even because the boy’s grip was so strong that it had left marks on her arm. No it was his eyes. They were so focused, so zoned in as if he was a predator and she was his prey. Like he saw nothing in the entire world except her, his target. But even then there was more to it, an indescribable factor, an emptiness. Samantha a young girl had a hard time comprehending this and quickly ran away, as her basic instincts had told her to do so. This was her first time experiencing true fear.

As Samantha ran away Dan tried to reach out to her and tell her what happened but found he could not. Looking at the ground in shame Daniel sighed once more. It was not Dan’s fault he was so attentive to everything around him, but he felt he should say sorry for hurting her as that is what a good kid always does. In the end he couldn’t even do that.

‘It sure is hard to keep my head up when things like this happen to me.’ Dan thought as he looked at the field for one last time before he left to go to class. Not that the teacher would even notice he was gone. He has attended every single day of school but he has never been marked for attendance in his life. He always does his best in class anyways because he wants to be a good person even if he doesn’t get any recognition because of it. Daniel tries to be a good kid because he knows that even though he is so lonely and forgotten it does not mean he should forget himself. Thinking these thoughts Daniel proceeded through his first grade school day like any other until it was finally time to go home.

Today his Mom had decided she would drive him home. This may seem like a normal thing for a mother to do, but it was actually a very bold move on her part. Carol really wanted her son to know she still remembered him, but even after all these years she still finds it hard to remember to pack him a lunch. This causes Carol no small amount of trouble when she sees her son. She knows that even though he is always smiling he must be crying on the inside. She so desperately wants to comfort him but never succeeds.

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Even though these acts of parenthood were meant to be nice Dan really hated them. Not because they were mean, but because they often didn’t work leaving him deserted. Not only does he feel stranded and lonely after mom doesn’t show up to pick him up but he also has to walk home! It is not a short walk for a six year old either it is at least a mile and a half! Dan waited for another half hour before he knew for sure his mom wasn’t coming. Dan still liked to hope even though he inevitably knew what was going to happen. Dan slumped his shoulders and started his journey home.

It took Daniel an hour before he got home, and the journey was very straining on his legs leaving him very exhausted. Luckily the road home only had one intersection and was scarcely populated. Dan was a very mature child for his age and did his best to get home without any problems, but he had gotten lost along the way and it took him much longer than usual to get home. When he entered the house the first thing he heard was the T.V. blaring throughout the house and two people laughing at some crappy T.V. show. As Dan rounded the corner of the entrance his face started to crumple up and snot started to dribble down his nose. Just barely not crying Daniel creeped over to his room as silent as he possibly could go. Finally making it to his room door he slowly opened it and entered his room. Dan felt a deep regret lingering as he closed the door, he regretted not wanting to make a scene when he got home, he regretted not begging for his parents attention. But even with this regret lingering he knew that even if he begged for their attention now, they would still forget about their grievances later. As such was the life of Daniel the six year old.

Daniel plopped down on his bed burying his head in his pillow and cried for as long as his little body could possibly handle. Finally when his face was red from tears he looked up at his nightstand where his favorite superhero action figure rested and said “At least you won’t forget me ‘Super-SS Average Joe’. Right?.” Feeling slightly uncertain if he would Daniel put his qualms to rest and fell asleep.

Just like every other night…

Waking up the next morning to his alarm clock Daniel slowly groaned while getting up to change into his other clothes. He never had actually took off the ones from yesterday because he had been too depressed.

Daniel has a method for getting clothes every single day, and it is extremely self reliant. Every weekend he has his mom wash all his clothes at one time, and after that he dries them because his mom always forgets. Then he puts them all in a bucket like mommy does and he throws them in a corner where he later searches for all the stuff he needs. If the mess is too big and he can’t find the clothes he needs he just goes to school in his old clothes, but that is a very rare occasion. As a  good person is always clean, or at least that’s how it is in Daniel’s eyes. If you are wondering why Daniel does not use the washing machine by himself it is simply because he is too afraid of it. When Dan was three his cat Snuffles jumped in and died in it because his mom had realized too late. This left him severely traumatized towards all washing machines. He can just barely handle the drier as is. 

Daniel after getting dressed went downstairs and saw that no one was there as usual. This is because his parents are very busy people and work most of the day starting from 6am to 5pm. Being a doctor is truly straining on them. Dan looked in the cabinet and found no bread to make toast with, so he started on a yogurt in the fridge. Then he laid down for twenty minutes before it was time to go to his bus stop.  

Dan waited alone at his stop today because it was raining out and all the kids were with their parents. Looking down the road gloomily Daniel wish he had brought his umbrella. It stayed like this for ten minutes before the bus finally showed up. Coming to creaky stop Dan entered and he went to school.

It was mid morning and school was picking up pace. Today they were learning the difference from ‘there, their, and they’re’ and Daniel was paying his full attention because this had been confusing him for ever. However mid-sentence the school phone had started beeping and the teacher started talking.”No Daniel Roberts isn’t here today...yes...I’ll check anyways…Listen up class! Daniel Roberts, is Daniel here today.”

‘How stressful’ Daniel thought while raising his hand. “Oh, so you are here Daniel. Daniel go down to the office Mr. Davidson wants to see you.” said Mr. Coo looking slightly surprised that Daniel was in fact in school.

Looking down Daniel got up and he started hearing whispers from around the class. “Have you seen that kid?...Was he in our class?...I swear on my heart I’ve never seen him before, have you?” Hearing this Daniel grimaced and continued to the door looking down in shame. How had these people not noticed him? He had been in their class for more than half a school year already. Looking back at his classmates he wasn’t mad just very, very sad. In his heart he knew it wasn’t their fault. This is how it has always been, the world must simply not have enough attention for Daniel.

Making his way to the principal's office Daniel saw that no one was currently in the office so he went in and took a seat. Daniel is a very independent person so he did not even hesitate when going inside like a normal child would. Also he saw Samantha coming down the hallway and he was too embarrassed to talk as is so he had rushed in. He had been brooding so much that he had forgotten what he had done to Samantha. Sitting in a chair in the office now Daniel was praying to the God’s that Samantha would not enter with her parents. Looking to the door anxiously he had forgotten the principal, fortunately Mr. Davidson the principal had not even noticed Daniel.

Looking at the door for a long time now Daniel’s eyes were strained to the maximum limit until finally he saw the door creak open. Time turned slow then for Daniel, he saw the foot enter first then soon following after he saw a face...his father’s face. Daniel let out a sigh of relief and his tiny muscles relaxed after being tense for so long. But then suddenly another trio of feet entered the room…’SHIT!!!’

“Mister Davidson, we would like to talk about the fact that our daughter came home yesterday with bruises on her arm!” Samantha’s parents exclaimed loudly. Daniel’s face twisted ‘Oh no, was it really that bad.’ Daniel had already felt really guilty just from scaring Samantha but now he learned he actually hurt her and it only added to his pain. Now he didn’t even have a single chance of getting with her. Not that he necessarily knew what that meant. “Mrs. Anderson, I understand where you are coming from. But could you tell me what happened to cause those bruises, we can’t take action without reason.” said Mr. Davidson with his usual placid face. Mrs. Anderson, Samantha’s mother the spitting image of her daughter answered “This man’s boy grabbed my daughter’s arm ruthlessly and hurt her! Isn’t that a reason? Take action Mr. Davidson!” Screamed Mrs. Anderson while pointing at Daniel’s Dad. Daniel’s Dad was taken aback, his son as far as he knew was always a good child. At least as far as he knew. He sadly realized he didn’t know much. Why? Why does he always forget? Why would he injure this little girl? Was Daniel angry because He was such a bad father? At the thought of this John cringed, he certainly wouldn’t put it passed Daniel. Not because Daniel is bad, but because he is such a bad parent.

“John where is Daniel? Certainly he should be here for his own questioning.” said Mr. Anderson who was a long time friend of Daniel’s father, personally he had thought all of this situation was an accident because in his eye John could never raise a bad child. He was simply too good of a person. One would be astonished at all the charity work this man could do. To that John answered “He’s right here Tim, didn’t you see him when you came in.” John bluntly said, but in reality the only reason he noticed Dan was because he had tugged on his sleeve. Daniel really was unnoticeable. Everyone in the room was in shock that they had missed Daniel when they came in. They all vaguely remembered his blurry figure in the corner, but they had assumed it was just some blurry blob in the corner of their eyes. How could they have missed him in such a small room?

Samantha looked over to Daniel eyes afraid and quivering. When she finally saw them she tuned out all other noises and sat still. It was those eyes again. They weren’t so focused this time but she still remembered them. That emptiness, suddenly she felt afraid. She didn’t know why but she was very afraid. It was that same feeling she felt yesterday the one that made her run away. She suddenly started shivering but then broke eye contact with Daniel and looked down breaking into a cold sweat. ‘Why did we have to come here today! I should have never told mommy about my boo-boo.’ Still looking down at the ground she started to cry. Tim, Sam’s dad, had noticed and looked down at Sam and asked what was wrong but he got no answer. Sam simply bit her lip and tried to hold back the welling tears. Tim looked at his daughter aghast and tapped his wife’s shoulder because he did not know how to handle this situation.

Sam’s mom, Angela looked down at her daughter and screamed louder than ever. “What happened to my daughter?!” Sam’s face had turned completely ashen and wrought with tears one could only guess what she had experienced. Suddenly she looked over to Daniel “You! What have you done to my daughter! I have known you were no good since I laid my eyes on you! Did you hurt her again just like yesterday. You probably could’ve considering you’re so sneaky and forgettable. You’re a beast!” Thereafter she became incomprehensible she truly over reacted to the extreme, but what could you expect from a protective mother. Finally Mr. Davidson stepped in “Mrs. Anderson you are talking to a six year old get a bearing on yourself!” Mr. Davidson had lost his usual demeanor of calm and quiet and had turned also into a beast. Suddenly everyone in the room started going crazy except two people.

“I’m sorry Samantha...I-I’m sorry everyone...I didn’t mean to be a bad person. I...I really want to be good. But it’s so hard.” Said Daniel while choking all but for naught, they had not even noticed him. All except for one girl, one person had listened to his apology. Sam had heard his apology and was brought out of her stupor.

“I...I don’t know your name, I don’t know who you are, but my head tells me you are wrong, so wrong that you should not exist. Please....please just disappear. You are scarey.”

“Okay I’ll leave, I won’t come back but could you do me a favor. Please try to remember me, that would be nice.”

“Mm” Samantha nodded her head and Daniel left the room.

Hopefully this time Daniel really would be unforgotten.