There is a playful innocense in childhood. Imaginations drift to their furthest potential in those young developing years. Somewhere in time we lose that creativity in our minds. We stop using that playfulness our minds can produce and replace it with an older way of thinking. Here, I think back to that time when I was a young child who had fun with an imagination that was endless.
I was the youngest in my family. My brother is 4 years older than me and my sister is 7 years older. There were times when I wanted to play a game that was more in my age range like Candy Land or Go Fish and no one wanted to play with me. I would ask my mom but she would be preoccupied with something. Often she would tell me to play on my own. And I did. I invented a friend. Jody was her name. She was about my age, dark hair and great at everything. We would play games or Barbies, go on adventures outside, dance and even swing on the swingset. I had a great vivid imagination and sometimes my imagination would step outside of the boundries and leak into the real world.
One day Nonnie, that is what we called our grandmother, was watching me. I think my mom was at a school event for my brother and sister. Nonnie was busy doing something and "Jody" and I were busy playing house. We would act like we had important guests coming over for tea and we were preparing for their arrival. We even dressed up for the occasion.
I excused myself to use the bathroom. A pretend knock was at the door. "Hang on, Jody. I am almost done." I would call out.
I opened the bathroom door. "Oh, You have to use it too, Jody?" It may have looked like I was starting off into thin air but in my mind "Jody" was really there. "Okay, you can use it now. I will even lock the door for you so you can have some privacy." I turned the lock and shut the door. I went back to my bedroom and resumed setting my bed up to be used for the tea party. We had very important stuffed animal guests that were to arrive at any moment now.
Our house had 2 bathrooms in it. Actually one was a half bath. It was very small. A daddy long-leg spider often camped out in a small web in the corner right above the toilet. My sibilings and I avoided that bathroom because of it. The spider could of used the advantage of us sitting on the toilet to swing down on its web and crawl into our ears and lay eggs. It probably wouldn't of happened but we were young and we didn't want to take any chances. Our main bathroom was the only door in the house that had a lock on it besides the doors that lead outside. This was our main bathroom in the house.
Nonnie comes around the corner to use the bathroom and found out it was locked. "Jill?" she asks seeing if I was in there.
"I am in here." I call out to her from my bedroom.
Confusion crosses her face. "If you are in the bedroom who is in the bathroom?"
"Jody is in there." I state matter of factly.
"Oh, I didn't know you had a little friend over. When did she come over?" Nonnie says as she is entering my bedroom.
"She's been over. She's my imaginary friend!" I said giggling.
Nonnie looked at me with her eyes popping out of her head, "Your IMAGINARY friend?"
"Yep," I reply innocently back, "She had to use the bathroom."
"How are we supposed to open the door!?" Nonnie asks the question out in the air rather than to me. "I need to use it!"
She quickly goes to use the smaller bathroom. She came back with a coat hanger that was straigtened out. She used one end and stuck it into a tiny hole in the door handle trying to unlock the door. It wasn't working. The lock was the kind that you had to push in and twist. She ended up calling my mom's boyfriend to come over and see if he could do something to open the door. He came over and they both pondered over the door.
I remember sitting on my bed, across from the bathroom, hearing them trying different techniques to open it. I even heard talk of taking down the door. As a child it sounded like a major project. I felt horrible. I didn't mean to cause such a commotion. Nonnie somehow knew I was upset. She came in to talk with me. She told me that I should of known better than to lock the door with no one inside. She went on saying it is fine to have imaginary friends but have them lock the door by themselves next time. I remember laughing at that. The door finally opened and all was well with the world again. "Jody" and I resumed our tea party as we had our important guest waiting.
Somewhere in the time of growing up "Jody" faded away. I cannot help but smile as I look back at my childhood and my over active imagination.
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