Friends (Imagined)

While it was with incredible ease I told my late grandfather that the empty house at the corner had a family of donkeys living in it, or informed my parents matter-of-factly that my friend lived in a certain house along the two hour journey from Port Dickson to KL when I was around four years old, doing it these days is not as fulfilling, and nearly impossible. I suppose despite how much of a loner you are or think you are, after you've had real friends, imaginary ones just don't make the cut anymore.

A couple of weeks ago, imaginary friends became a topic of conversation between the sister and I, as we watched a movie where the existence of imaginary friends was significant enough, but not in the true sense of course, because these imaginary friends were of a more sinister nature.  She opined that  if kids (hers or mine, in the future, if and when they exist) started talking about imaginary friends, we had better pay attention.

It reminded me of another story another friend told me when I was back in school. Apparently, there was this lady who chided her two or three year old daughter for having an imaginary friend and told her to make some real ones or something, when the girl turned back to her mother and told her that her 'friend' asked her to ask her mother " Why did you kill me?"

The lady was pretty horrified because she had once aborted a baby some time ago, and somehow things like that never leave you in peace forever.

Of course if you were to analyse the story, the 'facts' can be pretty questionable, for instance, if the baby was indeed aborted, it would have been done way before term, so how could it have a normal conversation with it's sister? Or was it just a mental connection? And at the same time, do spirits of the deceased grow old? (Not, according to movies and books regarding the paranormal) So many questions and no real answers. Nevertheless, it did send some chills down my eleven year old spine.

Looking back, it'd say that I never actually had conversations with those imaginary friends of mine, although I did talk to myself quite a bit by pretending I was two different people. They were somewhat always beyond reach, though, like the kid who lived somewhere between Port Dickson and KL, I could have never met her as we only passed by her house on the journey by bus. Or even the imaginary sister I created to entertain my younger sister who was fashioned after one of my mom's younger cousins who was very pretty. They were never 'real', even to me, they were just a prop for me to share stories with others, just like I am doing now.

So, did you have imaginary friends? That said, I'd love to hear stories of your (whoever who is willing to share, that is) childhood imaginary friends. 

Note: Picture was flicked off the Internet and modified with paint
Edit: I was an only child until the age 5