I turned to find Patrick grinning at me. Red-headed, just under six feet, with a slightly crooked nose from a sucker-punch he’d received as a teenager, Patrick had a clean-cut look that often fooled people into underestimating him.

I pointed. “I promised you an alien.”

“And an invisible one. I will accept no less.”

I stepped back and gestured with a sweep of my hand. “So unwrap it.”

Patrick looked from the pallet to me then back again. Doubtless this wasn’t going quite the way he’d expected. With a sardonic smile, he sidled up to the burrito and found the loose end. Taking a corner of the tarp in both hands, he gave a quick tug upward. “Ungh.”

“Yeah, sorry, it’s pretty heavy,” I said. “Here, I’ll give you a hand.”

We both got a grip on the tarp, and with a “One, two, three, heave!” unrolled it.

To reveal: nothing.

“Cute,” Patrick said. “Funny. How’d you do that, anyway? It really looked like there was something—”

Patrick’s comment cut off as he apparently realized that the weight of the bundle was a contradiction, with nothing but tarp visible. He moved crabwise toward the end of the tarp, feeling with a foot as he went. And came up against something.

Patrick gave me a frankly freaked-out look, then prodded more with his foot, hopping around the invisible object as he progressed. Finally, he looked up, the freaked-out expression even more pronounced. “Wow, uh … this isn’t a practical joke, is it?”

“If it is, we’re both victims. Any thoughts?”

“Me? I just got here. Oh, and I brought flour.” He pointed behind me to a plastic shopping bag. “I think I can guess what you have in mind. And I’m guessing we don’t want any awkward questions?”

“Not sure there are any other kind in this situation.”

“By the way, nice dents on the truck. Did you do that?”

“That’s Chewbacca’s fault,” I replied. “And also how he ended up wrapped in a tarp.”

Patrick’s eyebrows went up. “Come again? Chewbacca?”

“It’s got fur. I think. And it’s tall, and heavy. And the torso’s too long. I keep going back and forth between Chewbacca and Bigfoot. I guess I’m waiting to see if it’s wearing a bandolier.”

Patrick laughed and picked up the bag containing the flour, then placed it on the ground beside the corpse. I couldn’t help noticing a slightly shrill note to the laugh. My friend wasn’t as blasé about the situation as he let on.

“Whatever’s making this thing invisible also worked on the dust I tried sprinkling onto it. So, I’m not sure how well this is going to work. But we have to start somewhere.”

Patrick pulled out his phone and waved it. “Let’s get a video of the whole process. Maybe we can pause it and get a better look.”