Anto had started to see straight through Atik about fifteen months after he married her. Before that, she was clearly visible, solid and tangible, and was quite a sight to behold. Sure enough, a number of men did take notice of her.

But of all those men, Atik preferred Anto the most. So after one-and-a-half years of going steady and feeling each other out in close proximity, they got married. And then Atik started to fade.

It didn't happen suddenly, but in stages, layer by layer.

First, it seemed Atik started to lose the skin on her cheeks. In the place where Anto used to see her blush, he eventually began to see whatever was behind her.

At first, Anto did not notice this change. But then one day when he got back from the office, just as he was about to kiss Atik, he was surprised to see his own face there, seemingly floating on his wife's cheek. Atik was standing in front of the dressing mirror in their bedroom and Anto had caught the reflection of his own face in the mirror, cast through Atik's see-through cheek.

"What's wrong, Mas?" Atik asked, seeing his bewildered expression. Anto didn't reply. He ran his fingers over her cheek, where it was transparent. It felt normal, like touching skin. But it looked like nothing was there. Anto turned Atik to face the mirror and hugged her from behind. Anto saw Atik's cheeks colored by the light-blue shirt he was wearing.

"What do you see?" Anto asked. Now it was Atik who was puzzled.

"Ya my own face, Mas. What's wrong, sih?"

And so Anto realized that Atik did not see what he was seeing, or actually, not seeing. He also realized he had no idea how to explain this to her. Maybe it was just his eyes, tired from a long day at the office.

"Oh, nothing. You are beautiful, that's all," he replied, hoping Atik wouldn't be alarmed. He tightened his embrace from behind. His wife smiled.

"Ahh, you're such a flirt." She looked pleased. Atik reached for Anto's arms and drew them closer, circling them around her breasts.

And then Anto saw two dots. On the back of her hands, one each, was a dot as big as a one-thousand rupiah coin. The two dots were also transparent; he could see right through them. Gosh, Anto thought to himself, my eyes must really be tired.

After dinner, Anto made love to his wife, with the lights turned off. He exhausted himself on purpose so that he would sleep deeply. Surely everything would go back to normal tomorrow, he thought as he drifted off, after a good night's sleep.

But in the morning, Anto still saw those see-through spots on Atik's hands. He spied even more transparent points dotting Atik's feet when she brought him a cup of coffee from the kitchen, walking barefoot. He stared through his wife's feet into the floor. And as he lifted his head, he was greeted by his wife's sweet smile, flanked by transparent cheeks. Anto didn't know what to make of it. But he kept everything to himself.

In the days that followed, Anto observed how the transparent spots on Atik's body expanded, growing bigger and covering more and more of her. They crept across her skin from the back of her knees, the inside of her elbows and under her armpits, spreading to other parts of her body.

One evening, Anto took his wife out for dinner at a mall. "For a change", he told her. It was true that they hadn't eaten out for some time in the garish, brightly lit, bustling mall. But what Anto really wanted to do was to see how other people reacted when they saw his wife - or didn't.

But as they walked along the corridors of the mall, not a single person gave Atik a double take. No startled stares. No whispers or discreet gestures pointing at her. Everything appeared to be normal for everyone else, while Anto saw that his wife seemed to be disappearing before his very eyes.

At the restaurant, Atik ordered chicken mie, noodles in chicken broth. Anto asked for mie yamin with dumpling soup. They both ordered iced tea and no sugar. While waiting for the food to arrive, Anto studied his wife's face which, by this time, only had a pair of eyes, two eyebrows, two nostrils and a mouth, all suspended in thin air surrounded by her soft wavy locks. Even as Anto stared, her hair began to disappear slowly, strand by strand.

"What is it, Mas?" Atik asked, reaching for Anto's hand from across the table. Anto looked down to see her neatly manicured nails, polished a soft pink, floating towards him to land on his arm. They were not attached to any fingers; none that he could see.

Anto stared at those beautiful nails on his arm and the soft indentations those invisible fingertips made on his skin. He could feel her touching his arm.

"I notice that you've been staring at me lately and more often," she said. "Just like you're doing now."

Anto forced a smile. The lips floating in front of him also smiled as he stared at the diners beyond where his wife's face should have been. And then the corners of her disembodied lips also started to fade and disappear.

Anto quickly turned to study the row of plastic plants beside him. They were aglaonemas in the unnatural green shade only plastic can have, stuck in plastic pots filled with styrofoam.

He tried to recall how Atik looked the first time they met. What he remembered was that it was a happy moment. He kept on trying really hard to picture her face in that moment. But he couldn't.

Until the noodles were served, Anto still could not remember.

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