Imaginary Friend

Madelyn Srow - My 'Best Friend'

My legs reached the floor as I take in my surroundings. Brown carpet with pink walls. A small single bed with a Cinderella dooner cover, a huge dollhouse which lay next to the second story window, displaying the whole street. A mini table that stands in the middle of the room with nothing but two tiny chairs, a cardboard cupcake stand, and tiny plastic croissants waiting to be chewed 0n.
And a little kid that filled one of the stools.
"Hello...?" I say as I try and breath in the cool air coming from the open window.
"Hello!" She's says smiling, waving her hand at the empty chair motioning me to sit down, "Whats your name?"
"I'm Poppy. Poppy Jun."
"Im Madelyn," She explained, "And Poppy, you are now my best friend!"
"I don't think it works like that..."
"How does it work then?" I think about the harsh explanations I would need to do, explaining how it could take months before someone even comes close to being best friends with someone. But she wouldn't understand as she's still playing with dolls.
"It doesn't matter." I finally say.
"Alright, then we're best friends."
I thought about fighting back, but that would only lead to confusion and tears.
So I left it.
She placed her mouth on the plastic cup and sipped at the cool air surrounding us. She poured me a cup of tea (air) and placed it in front of me, taking a plastic croissant and shoving it in my face, making me place my teeth in it, almost breaking them.
"Ouch!" I complained.
Completely ignoring my statement, she asked, "Where are you from anyways?"
"Australia. Uh may I ask where a I am?"
"I'm not sure..." She exclaimed.
"Where's your mother? Can I ask her?"
"Sure! Follow me!"
Sometimes I wonder how little kids have so much energy. Running around being monkeys all the time, it just doesn't make sense.
~
She took me downstairs into the spacious kitchen, where her mother was cooking what smelled like spaghetti.
"Mummy?" She whined.
"Yes baby? She replied in a sarcastic tone, like she was ready to go to bed.
"Poppy needs to ask you where we are."
"Whose Poppy sweets?"
"Her." She pointed towards me with a great big cheesy grin. I could help but bring a smile to my face. She was very cute, with brown curly hair and a spray of freckles amongst her nose. She was wearing a cute little fairy costume, holding a fairy wand with different pieces of materials coming from the top of the star. She places one hand on her hip and stubbed her left foot, gazing towards me.
"There's no one there silly." She giggled.
"Poppy's right there." Madelyn said in a confused expression.
"Honey, don't trick you mother, you know what that does to me!"
Madelyn stared blankly at the tiled floor, twitching her fingers and looking unexplainably guilty. But what was more important is how she couldn't see me. I looked at my arms and down to my legs.
'I'm not invisible.' I thought, 'But how can Madelyn see me, but not her mother?'
"Go and get your father," Madelyn's mother asked, "Tell him we're having spaghetti."
"Ok Mummy!" She skipped down the hall in her fairy dress, and for some weird reason, I followed. I wanted to see more of this house, I wanted to know why I was here. Because the last thing I remember is the hospital, that brought me to déjà vu. But that's not the weird thing, what's weird is that I am completely and utterly fine, the pain was excruciating before. I feel healthy and somewhat alive.
"Daddy?" She asked.
"Yes Maddie?" He answered from his computer. Her father looked like an important man, with black greasy hair, big brown glasses and was was wearing a black suit with a red tie. He was sitting cross legged in front of a computer, I'm guessing do some sort of work.
"Dinners ready," she explained, "We're having spaghetti, your favourite."
"Thanks Mads, it is Father's Day of course!"
'It's Father's Day?' I thought. The last time I remember anything was when it was Christmas Eve, and we were on our way to Grandma's, that's when the accident happened. Her Dad got up from the computer and walked towards the dining room, cautiously picked a chair and sat at it while Madelyn and her mother followed. Her mother carrying 3 bowls of spaghetti to feed the family.
"Looks great hun." He smirked.
"Thanks, you guys better like it! It took me all day."
"Where's the bowl for Poppy?"
"Poppy doesn't exist!" Her mother yelled.
"Whose Poppy?" Madelyn's Dad asked.
"She's this..." She was almost stabbing the spaghetti by the time I got into the room, "She's this imaginary Friend Madelyn's come up with."
Then it hit me.
I was made by her imagination.