An Invisible Friend

Making a Friend

Presented below is a scheme of conversation between a boy and his invisible friend. I have to say … my own childhood conversations ( telepathic ) with my invisible friend was not as wordy as that presented below. It consisted of cues and hints … that will come and go … but provided the kid I was … with a tip on issues … in the world I was growing up in.

 

The current conversation … draws from my experiences … and understanding of this phenomenon … and is presented … ' as is where is ' … in the way my insights bring me to the issues.

 

 

( A young boy stands by a tree with a catapult aimed at some birds on the branch. The stone goes over the heads of the birds and they take off. But he is not disappointed. )

 

 

Friend :  That was quite good … you almost got one.

 

Boy : Yeah! ( he nods ) … I missed a little … ( picks another stone )

 

Friend : I bet you are going to get one now …

 

Boy : ( shyly ) … Yeah! I can … maybe …

 

( He scouts the tree for other birds … but there are none . He waits … )

 

Boy : ( After a pause ) … Some people are really good … they can hit it straight …

 

Friend : Suuuuure! … anybody can! … but you have to get some practice … then you'll get better …

 

Boy : Yeah! ( and he nods ) …

 

( Boy practices with catapult at a tin can target … and hits it at the first shot.)

 

Friend : That's fantastic! …

 

Boy : Yeah! …

 

Friend : So … was there something you want to ask me ?

 

( Boy reacts like the friend knows his thoughts )

 

Boy : Yeah! … How come I am so happy all the time? Other children … they are not like that.

 

Friend : Because you are a nice boy …

 

Boy : Okay … and you are … my friend … and you are very nice also … and very smart.

 

Friend : The world is full of people who are nice and smart.

 

Boy : So you are all these things that make people happy … and you want me to show it to others?

 

Friend : ( inaudible ) … Yeah!

 

Boy : ( smiling ) Yeah! … okay … I understand …

 

“ It's your father “ says a female voice … that the boy identifies as a girl he grew up with. But he identifies the term father with a larger concept than his own father. Someone else that the boy identifies as Hercules grows enraged with the girl for interfering. Just then … someone the boy identifies as a swamp thing … dashes in and like a Hades … carries off the girl … into the earth.

 

For a moment there is an unearthly stillness … as if the wind had stopped blowing … and the birds stopped singing. And then … it all came back again … with a dream-like vision … of the world around him. But when a bird alights on the tree … the boy … cannot bring himself to shoot it with his catapult. He is struck by the beauty of the world … and the bird on the tree and he's silent in communion with it.

 

A sudden focus arises in his mind … and he figures he has been too long at play. He sticks the catapult into his back pocket and heads for home. He is drawn to the focus in a curious way … and takes his older brother's copy of King Arthur … to take a look at the pictures again. The book is written with the olde style of English that he cannot understand.

 

His mother walks into the living room and is surprised to find him sitting there with a book … with that faraway look on his face.

 

“ Are you allright?” she asks with concern in her voice … “ Are you having a fever? “ … and she places her palm on his fore head to check his temperature.