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Monday, February 05, 2018

Jemano

Sully's first imaginary friends were four grown men named Mario, Raligi, Charlie, and Myles. They had a band, and held band practise in my living room all day every day. Once, I accidentally called them "kids" which was how I found out they were grown adult men. Sully was really offended on their behalf.

"The Guys," as Sully called them, came with us everywhere. When we got into the car, Sully would ask me not to drive until The Guys were all buckled in. Raligi always rode on the roof, Charlie in front beside me. They lived with us, slept in the living room, ate meals with us, etcetera.

Last August, Sully informed me that The Guys had moved into their own house down the street. I don't see a lot of them anymore, though they still drop by occasionally to jam with Sully.

A couple of months ago, Sully made a new imaginary friend. His name is Jemano (sometimes pronounced Ja-may-no, sometimes Ja-maw-no).

 I was brushing my teeth the first time he came over.

Sully appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. "Mom, my new friend Jemano is here."

"Who?" I am always caught off guard when Sully tells me there's someone in the house.

"Them!" He pointed into the living room.

"Them?"

"That's Jemano's last name. Them. Jemano Them. He's my cousin and friend. He's a carrot cutter. I met him at the Rush concert."

"A carrot cutter?"

"He cuts carrots."

"Ah."

"That's his job, cutting carrots."

"Oh."

Jemano doesn't live here or anything; he comes over about once a week. He sits in the living room, cutting carrots. I mean, apparently. You'll remember: he is imaginary, which makes him darn near impossible to see. But Sully says he sits in the living room, cutting carrots.

There's not really anything else to say about that; it's just that Jemano Them was here this morning, cutting carrots, and I thought it should be written about.

10 comments:

Rachel Del said...

Oh my gosh, I love this story so much. You know what it makes me think? It makes me think he'll be a writer; that he'll take after you and write stories. And, my god, I love that idea so much!

Sarah Rooftops said...

So much love for this story!

wholelottarosie said...

Brilliant! What a great imagination Sully has. I used to have imaginary dogs as a child and I also had an imaginary friend called Emma when I was about 2 and whom I don't remember. My mum and sisters are convinced I was actually talking to the spirit of a dead girl x

Suzy Krause said...

<3 :)

Suzy Krause said...

I would love that too—and I feel like it's a distinct possibility...

Suzy Krause said...

Aw! Imaginary dogs? that's pretty adorable. I just love the brains of children...

Anonymous said...

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Cheryl said...

This is so great. The Guys still occasionally drop by to jam with Sully? Stinking sweet. There was one semester in college where we were tasked with designing a developmental psych experiment. We didn't actually have to carry it out, which was kind of a dream because there were no restrictions on time, money, etc. I based mine around children with imaginary companions and it was FASCINATING. One popular technique involves having the child invite their companion into the lab via toy phone. In one of the studies I read the researcher was working with a three year old and had to wait 18 minutes (!!) because the rowdy pair of friends were "riding on the roof of a car and coming from all the way across town." Kids!

Suzy Krause said...

That's ADORABLE. I wish my job was researching kid brains.

Sew On See Forth YQR said...

Oh man, this is so cute! I love kids and their crazy cute imaginations! Fin has an imaginary dog named Goosa but he insists Goosa is real but just not here yet. Some days Goosa is big, sometimes small, and once he was "maybe a horse."