My Imaginary Friend

It was a brisk night, the wind making the windows whistle, and I was getting ready for bed. My parents were on a business trip and my siblings were already asleep. Abruptly , I heard a knock on the door. From the second floor, I looked down through the window. As a 16, I was making sure to be safe, given the fact that I was alone. The figure was of short stature, with a coat, flapping in the wind. As I cautiously open ed the door, the mysterious person embraced me in a hug. I blinked my eyes twice, just to be sure who it was. My childhood friend, Lucky. The only problem was, he wasn’t real. He was imaginary. “Great to see you!”, he said, in his little squeaky voice. At a loss for words, all I could get out of my mouth was “How?”. How did my imaginary friend come to life? I pinched myself, to check if I was dreaming, but I was fully awake. Lucky started to speak again, but I wasn’t listening. Eventually, I welcomed him in, offered a seat, and took one myself. He began to talk, and I started listening. He started with the day we parted. It was my first year of middle school, and I was getting older. I had started making friends that summer, and I said it was time to say goodbye for now. Lucky said he felt devastated, but he left. However, before he left, he said he would see me again. This was that time. He told me how he had survived on the streets, pickpocketing and digging food from the trash. After too long, he decided he was done with that life. That was why he knocked on my door. When I was a kid, Lucky had a soft face, a small button nose, and adorable eyes. Now, he had a rough face, his nose looked misshapen, and overall looked a lot older. We took a walk around the house, reminiscing about the memories we had here. In the kitchen, where we would all eat together, and I would have to eat Lucky’s food for him. In my bedroom, where we would tell each other stories late into the night. On the front lawn, where we would compete to build the largest snowman. In the living room, where we would play video games on the weekend, on my Wii. Lucky asked how I had been, and if I had made any new friends. I told him I had, and that they were all very nice. Most importantly, though, he was the best friend I ever had. After an hour of talking, I was getting tired and I said I needed to get to bed. I offered Lucky to stay, and he accepted, saying he would sleep on the couch. 

The next morning I woke up and walked out of the living room. The problem was, Lucky wasn’t there. Had I imagined it all?