The "Invisible" Man

Not until trying to find a photo of this item did I realize that I've been mispronouncing its name for decades. I was talking to my brother about that early memory of the floating green skull and he brought up another incident. One that I get mocked for. I had an obsession with skeletons and skulls and had assembled a model of The VISIBLE Man (which I happily called THE INVISIBLE MAN up until two minutes ago). As the box boasts: "From skin to skeleton... assemble, remove, replace all organs!"

I assembled a lot of models in my early years, and I think my chief complaint was that the builder was expected to paint them. I realize that's a lazy point of view and probably means I should have spent my time doing something else. Or maybe I was just too young to get the paint job to look like the way the instructions or box cover expected me to paint it. I remember asking my mother to paint the blue and red veins on the outer clear plastic shell of my visible man. She used a brush that was WAY too wide and my visible man had veins the width of intestines up and down his arms and legs. And I remember I painted all of the organs the same color - pink.

Regardless of his horrible paint job, he was super cool and stood on a dresser at the foot of my bed. I think I popped him out of his plastic skin a thousand times and treated his innards like a tiny pink puzzle. I cringe at the memory of it, but I actually think I took it places. I have foggy memories of it on my lap in my dad's car. UGH. A chill-inducing "Can I take the invisible man, mom?"

This is the part that I'm mocked for (yeah, not the car bit): I had a really bad fever one night as a kid and it was the only time in my life I hallucinated. I saw a human-sized hand reaching around the bedroom door. See-through. A full-sized Visible man hand. Bones and veins and all. It was rigid and straight with fingers extended, and then it slowly moved back into the hallway.

In the morning, the fever broke and I'm sure I said something like "I saw the Invisible Man last night in the hall!"
And I bet my dad made a wise-crack asking how I saw an invisible man.


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