d, which happened to
be a desk, water cooler and wall, so evenly and completely that it was
impossible to see him at all.

But even so, seeing him, however fuzzily, was a relief.

"It's a good trick," I said cautiously.

"It's not a trick," the young man said, aggrieved. "It's something I
can't help."

"Oh yeah? Well how does it happen that I was able to see you when you
came in?"

"I was exerting my will power," the young man said. "But that's
awfully tiring. I had to relax a moment or so and when I did you
weren't able to see me quite so distinctly."

I found my curiosity stirring. Maybe the guy was a crackpot or phony,
but it wouldn't hurt to hear his story. In my line, with things as
lean as they are, you can't afford to miss any bets.

"What makes you pop on and off like an electric light?" I asked. "Must
be a tiring way to go through life."

"You don't know the half of it," the young man said mournfully. "I've
only been this way for a few months, but it seems like it's been
years."

"Well, go on," I said. "Spill your troubles. Why should Mr. Anthony
have all the fun?"

"What?"

"Never mind. Shoot."

"I'm not sure what causes me to fade-out like this. I've been to a
half dozen doctors and psychiatrists and they aren't sure either. But
it has something to do with personality development, they think. The
last psychiatrist I visited told me that I had a very colorless
personality and abnormal inhibitions and frustrations. He said that my
present condition was a physical manifestation of my colorless
personality."

I shook my head disgustedly.

"That sounds about as asinine as the droolings of the average
psychiatrist," I muttered. "He didn't know and spent an hour saying
so, I'll bet."

"It's awful," the young man sighed disconsolately. "I can make myself
visible for a little while but it's awfully tiring. The rest of the
time I go around like a ghost. I blend into the background so
completely that people just don't notice me at all. It's just like not
being alive."[1]

[Footnote 1: The young man's peculiar physical condition is not as
fantastic and unprecedented as one might at first believe. Everyone
has had the experience of meeting a person who makes almost no
impression whatsoever on them. People with such anemia of the
personality are constantly being forgotten, overlooked even by friends
who know them well. Their presence in a room will be unobserved for
several minutes and, frequently,