“Can you tell us just one more story?” Ava and Maya begged in unison.
“Yeah, just one more please Grandma. I promise we’ll go to bed right after.” Maya pleaded.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell one more but after that, I’m done. What kind of story do you want?” She responded.
“Umm… Can you tell us a scary story?” Ava responded.
“Hmm… I think I have a story that might just do the trick.” She replied. “The story begins when your mother was actually around your age. She would get sick often and have fever and fainting spells. Because of this, she would spend a lot of time in the house. Often, you could see her sitting at her bedroom window watching the other kids play. I felt bad, of course, making her stand inside but, I needed to keep her safe. I-”
“So, what did Mommy do while she was stuck in the house?” Maya interrupted.
“Well, I was getting there.” Grandma chided. “Your mother would make imaginary friends. Every day there was a new friend, with their own personality. They would play games, talk to each other, and help her feel like a normal kid. I never paid too much mind to this because it made her happy. So one day, she came to me, telling me about her newest friend.”
“Mommy, Mommy. I met a new friend today.” Casey babbled, holding my legs excitedly.
“Yeah, so what did you guys do today?” I replied teasingly as I cooked dinner
“Well, Mommy. Today, we played so many new games and he told me stories and we played with my dolls.” She gushed on and on about her newest friend.
“Sweetie, you can invite your new friend to dinner with-”
“No! Mommy.” She interrupted. “He wouldn’t like that. He doesn’t a lot of people.” She responded with a tinge of darkness.
“Okay. Then, get ready for dinner.”
I should have nipped it in the bud then, but I was afraid of further isolating her. So, I let it go, told myself that it was just an imaginary friend, and this phase was gonna end soon. Weeks passed and she still was playing with this friend, not only that, her condition was getting worse. She couldn’t keep food down. Her temperature would constantly be above 100 degrees. We were constantly in and out of the hospital, trying to work with the doctors to figure out the cause of her sudden downward spiral.
“Did you try this?”
“We have a new treatment for her condition.”
“There’s a new experimental medicine we can try.”
We tried so many things, yet she didn’t get better. I did my best to console her but there’s only so much that I could do. So, one day I decided to go to your mom with some activities for us to pass the day.
“Good morning sweetie. How are you feeling today?” I asked cautiously while kissing her forehead.
“I’m feeling okay,” she replied as I pulled out the weathered photo album
“Well, I’ve got an old photo book and some old movies. We’re gonna watch them while helping me move the pictures into a new album that we’ll decorate.” I babbled excitedly, hoping that my excitement would rub off on her.
Several hours later, we had passed through most of the album. I grew anxious, I knew we were nearing that part of the album: my wedding photos. It’s been almost seven years since Sam died and left me to raise our baby. I’ve tried my best to keep his memory alive but even the mention of his name would bring me to tears. Before Casey was old enough to start asking me questions about her dad, I hid everything related to him so, I wouldn’t have to confront the awful truth that he was gone and I was alone.
“Wow! Mommy, I can’t believe you’re friend with Sam.” Casey exclaimed
“Huh… What do you mean?” I responded
“Look, Mommy. It’s you and Sam,” she replied confidently, pointing at my wedding portrait
I felt chills all over my body. “What do you and Sam talk about?” I said cautiously. There’s no way she’s talking about him. No, no way.
“We talk about everything. He told me not to tell because you would get really upset. He said I could come with him one day.” Casey confessed
“Honey, that’s your dad in the picture. You can’t be talking to him. He’s been dead since you were a baby.” I said, trying to convince myself more than Casey.
“And that’s the end of the story for today”