I’ve never had an imaginary friend before. I’ve heard they do much good to one’s mental state, though. I have really bad insomnia which results in morning sickness nearly every day. I know some of my friends had an imaginary friend and they encouraged me to think of one for myself and socialize with them like a diary – maybe they’ll help the stress to go away.
The problem? I didn’t believe in ghosts – and it’s hard to socialize with someone that you don’t believe in existing, right? The whole imaginary friend situation is built on one’s imagination – I don’t lack it, but I just didn’t think talking to air was going to be very interesting or helpful.
Yesterday, though, I finally made an imaginary friend – more like a ghost friend. I was talking with a friend I met on the Net, let’s just call her Kali. We were talking with web-cam. It was pretty late, but I couldn’t sleep, so I used it to my advantage to chat with Kali. Suddenly she went silent. When I asked what’s wrong, she quietly told me not to move. I obeyed, wondering why she’d ask something like that. She stared at the cam for a little before telling me, “I saw a human shadow on your left.” I turned in the direction, confused. I think I caught a flash that disappeared in seconds. I thought it was just a lamp shadow, but Kali insisted, “I know what I saw.”
The weird thing is, a ghostly thing had happened to me that day, when I was walking home in the dark and I felt a presence similar to this one. I asked Kali how the shadow looked like, she described it as “A little boy with hands on his head, like, pulling his hair, you know?” Shortly after, we stopped talking and I went over my couch to check. There was no one there, but the presence was hard on me.
I realized I believe in the shadow that second. I don’t know why. Maybe because of the stress or maybe because I wanted to believe in him, I called out, “Are you here?” It sounded a little strange, then I sat down and said, “Do you want to be friends? I do.” Yes, straight-forward, I know, but I didn’t know how else I shod approach a ghost. I took silence as a yes and asked again, “What’s your name?” Naturally, he didn’t answer. “Shy, no? Okay… I’ll just nickname you Jamie, then.” I smiled at nowhere and introduced myself. Then I decides to go to bed. Before leaving, I whispered him goodnight and closed the door. Today, I made some tea – for us both. I didn’t know if he was there – I put his cup down and told him he could drink it, but not yet since it’s hot. I drank mine, leaving a little bit since as always I felt sick, and surprise surprise. In Jamie’s cup, half of the tea wasn’t there anymore, or so I thought judging by how much I put in there.
I don’t know if I’m going crazy or not. But I finally have someone to talk with without hiding anything. Maybe imaginary friends aren’t so imaginary after all?
