Imaginary Friends

In general, it seems that people with imaginary friends are thought of as crazy. I would like to dispute this assumption for several reasons.

1. Imaginary friends might be the closest someone gets to a real friend, and everyone needs a friend.

2. These "imaginary" friends might not be imaginary at all, you just don't see them.

3. It is quite possible that the person is making up the imaginary friend to trip you out. (And what a funny joke that would be.)

When I was a wee lass, no more than five or six, I found a picture in the front pocket of my favorite overalls. This picture had lots of people in it, and someone in a giant bear suit. I stared at this picture for a long time. Not knowing where it came from, I concocted a story surrounding it: they were all kids in my school class, even though I hadn't started school yet, and the giant bear was our teacher. I made up names for all of the kids, which ones were my friends, which ones scored high on all the tests, which boys I had secret crushes on.

I thought all these stories were very interesting, so I took the picture to my mom, and proceeded telling her about the "kids in my class". Apparently she thought the stories interesting too, and told everyone else in the family to gather 'round so I could tell them about my classmates.

Well that was it, my storytelling was so convincing my siblings believed that I had made myself imaginary friends. And they mocked and laughed at me for hours.

This kind of thing is infuriating to a six year old, or five, maybe even four, how am I suppose to know how old I was? I was young, let's leave it at that. So I decided the only way to get my vengance was to ham up the imaginary thing. Sometimes I talked on the phone to a dial tone telling my "friend" all kinds of interesting five year old things. When I started school it took me a long time to walk home (because I liked taking my time, and looking at everything), they would ask me what took me so long, and I would tell them I was talking to my teacher the giant bear. Who later morphed into the crossing guard.

I thought it was all very humorous conning my family in such a way. But all of this changed one day when I was in the front yard with brother B pulling me in our favorite red wagon. Mom called us in for lunch, and brother B promptly ran inside, leaving me to put the wagon away, and meander inside myself.

As I prepared to slowly make my way to the house, a little blonde girl with a little blonde doll walked by. I thought she was very pretty and was quite surprised when she stopped to talk with me. She sat on my front lawn stroking her dolls hair, while I stood by holding the handle of my clunky red wagon. I would love to have a pretty doll like that, but I kept thinking the girl would stop talking and walk away, where was her mother? Why was she talking to me like I knew her? Did I know her? When she sat the shiny blonde doll in the wagon, I decided to forget lunch and play with my new friend. I don't know how long we were out there in front of the house, but when I finally went inside I was happy to report that I had been playing with a real friend, her name was Emily, and she was real.

I thought her realness would convince my family that this one was not a hoax. But their reactions were always the same, with their looks, and their "yeah right" 's, and their telling me my friends weren't real. That was when I gave up the stories, they were turning me into a circus sideshow. As amusing as this was, it didn't seem worth it anymore. My imaginary friends became real, and they needed to be believed.