The Invisible Letter N
by Daniel Errico
Illustrated by Michiko Cayce
The Letter N lived in the Land of Words.
He liked to be alone, and he loved going off on his own to collect strange items.
He would go for walks through the woods, the fields, and the mountains.
He was always looking for rare items.
He carried a bag with him to collect whatever he found.
After he discovered something interesting, he would go into town and sell it.
One day he was walking along a dark path when he saw another letter.
It was a mysterious letter who was pushing a cart.
“Hello,” said the Letter N, “what are you doing out here?”
“I am just passing through. I travel from town to town collecting rare items,” said the mysterious letter.
The Letter N got excited.
“I love rare items! May I see what you have?” asked the Letter N politely.
The mysterious letter showed the Letter N all sorts of strange and wondrous objects.
There was a feather from the rare looloo bird, a stone from the Temple of Verbs, and a flower from the Lost Fields of Paragraphs.
Then the Letter N saw something bright and colorful.
It was like nothing he had ever seen before.
“What’s that,” he asked.
“That’s the invisible potion,” said the mysterious letter.
He held up a jar that was glowing green.
“Anyone who drinks this becomes invisible.”
“If I was invisible, I could walk for days and never be bothered by other people!” thought the Letter N.
“May I have some?” he asked.
“I will trade you the potion for your bag. I need a bag to help carry things to and from my cart,” said the mysterious letter.
The Letter N loved his bag, but he gave it up for the potion.
He drank it right away and became invisible!
“This will be great!” he said.
But being invisible wasn’t at all like he thought it would be.
When he walked through town, nobody bothered him, but nobody talked to him either.
He couldn’t sell his items because people ran away when they saw things floating in mid-air.
He went to see a play, but three letters in a row almost sat on him because they didn’t see him.
He was tired of being ignored.
He went back to the path and found the mysterious letter.
“I don’t want to be invisible anymore!”
“Who said that?” said the mysterious letter.
“It’s me, the Letter N.”
“Very well, but in order to change back, you need to bring me a dozen zabba melons from the top of the mountain,” said the mysterious letter.
“I can’t carry that many melons without a bag, and you have mine!” said the Letter N sadly.
“I’ll sell it to you,” said the mysterious letter.
So the Letter N paid the mysterious letter all the money that he had.
He took the bag to the top of the mountain and brought back the zabba melons.
The mysterious letter used them to make a new potion that he gave to the Letter N.
When the Letter N drank the potion, he was no longer invisible.
“Thank you,” he said to the mysterious letter as he left.
From that day forward, the Letter N spent more time around the other letters.
He became so friendly that he sold twice as many items as he used to!
The mysterious letter and his invisible potion were never seen again.
The Letter N still went walking in the woods, but he always stayed away from anything that glowed.
In the Land of Words, no one is invisible.
