Imaginary “friend”?

“Today we will be sharing our imaginary friends with each other.” The teacher clapped her hands together, looking at her young student’s faces.

A few of them groaned and a slim hand shot up, “Mrs. McDonald, what if we don’t have an imaginary friend.”

“That’s okay Megan, you can get up and describe one of your best friends.” Mrs. McDonald told her, a fake happy smile on her face. Her cheeks were really starting to hurt from all the smiling.

“I’ll give everyone ten minutes,” she held up her hands to show all ten fingers, “to think about what they would like to say about their friend. During this time you can draw your friend so we can all see them too. Okay?”

She went to her desk and set a colorful artsy timer that would ring in ten minutes. The children, between the ages of five and six years, quickly took paper and color pencils from their desks and started to draw.

Mrs. McDonald took this moment to sit down and check her Facebook account. She looked up when she heard a few murmurs, a scoff on her face as she realized some of the children were talking to their ’imaginary friends.”

The only reason she had given this assignment was to let parents know who still believed in imaginary friends and who, like Megan, had realized that real friends are more valuable.

She shook her head and caught one of the girls looking at her. She returned the look, her fake smile barely forming before the girl looked back down at her paper.

Mrs. McDonald rolled her eyes and continued to scroll through her feeds, commenting and liking when a post caught her attention.

Too soon the timer was buzzing and the children were frantic to finish their drawings.

“Okay children, who would like to go first?” Mrs. McDonald laid her phone on the table and looked at the hesitant faces.

“Robbie, why don’t you go first?”

A shy redheaded boy stood from his seat and shuffled forward, his drawing clenched in his hands. He faced the class and held his picture chest high, his pale cheeks making his freckles stand out.

“My image-in-hairy friend is a puppy.” Robbie’s drawing of a purple and red dog shook in his hands as he held it up a little higher.

“Why is your imaginary friend a puppy?” Mrs. McDonald asked, fretting interest.

“Mama is eel-are-check to dogs.”

“Allergic.” She corrected, “Do you know what that means?”

Robbie nodded his head, “She sneezes a lot when near dogs.”

“Does your imaginary puppy have a name?”

“Oscar the barker.”

“Does he bark a lot?”

Robbie’s eyes widened, “How did you know?”

Mrs. McDonald almost rolled her eyes, “What does he like to do?”

Robbie turned back to the class, “He liked to run outside and play frisbee, and he likes to roll around in the dirt, and he chases squirrel.”

Mrs. McDonald nodded and sent Robbie back to his seat. “Megan why don’t you go next.”

Megan’s friend turned out to be her stuffed animal Mashia who was a teddy bear that wore a pink princess dress and a tiara. She liked to have tea parties, play dress-up, and go shopping.

A headache was starting to develop behind her right eye, and she could feel a twitch starting at the corner of her mouth. “Ally, why don’t you go next.”

A little quiet girl stood from her desk and walked calmly to the front of the class.

“My imaginary friend is a shadow called Jet.”

She held up a picture of a shadowy black creature with fangs and claws. Mrs. McDonald shuddered as chills ran down her spine.

“Don’t be scared, he is a nice shadow, he just looks mean to protect me from my parents when they get loud.”

She lowered the drawing and turned it to look at it, as if unsure if she drew it.

“He also likes to play pretend, and he likes to watch movies with me. Sometimes he even plays pranks on my parents.”

She turned her head to the side as if listening to something, “Oh that’s right, he doesn’t like the light too much, so he stays in my shadow when I go outside.”

Another chill ran down Mrs. McDonald’s spine and she stood, “Thank you Ally, umm...is your imaginary friend here now?”

Ally looked down to located her shadow, but it was faint from the lack of sunlight. She then strained her eyes to gaze into the darkest corner of the room before shaking her head, “No he isn’t here right now, but I can feel him with me.”

Some of the other children looked disturbed, glancing nervously around the room for a monster. “That’s all the time we have, why don’t we take a recess for a little bit?”

Shouts of joy filled the classroom as scraped back and the children went to find their recess toys in their cubbies.

“Ally, I want to see you for a moment…..”