Voices

2. Mary Anne

My parents always liked the classic name, Mary Anne. However things do not always go as planned and they had two bouncing baby girls. They settled for a compromise and named me Mary and my sister, Anne. Like the sad tale of all twins, one of us was always in the limelight. To make it simple, it was never me. Anne was pretty, Anne was popular, and Anne got the love. I was pale and introverted. I've never liked people and the feeling was always mutual. However, I was never alone. The lonely nights were never spent in a solitary way, for they spoke to me. The voices.

They spoke to me when no one ever would. I was a stranger to my parents and an acquaintance to Anne. They were never there and I never asked them to be. The voices were all I needed, their words like honey and their ways full of compassion. They never stayed the same though. New ones would come and old ones would go, but they all made me happy. I was special, of this I was sure. No one heard their sweetness but I. My mother, oh dear mother, while she lived, called them imaginary friends. Nevertheless I have never taken her belief to heart for I knew in ways she did not that they were real and they were my only friends.