When our three boys were young we encouraged them to be creative in their schoolwork and especially in their play. Little did we know that simple bit of encouragement would result in a most unusual manifestation – an imaginary friend.
Now, I don't suppose having an imaginary friend is all that unusual in and of itself. I don't remember having one myself, though I did engage in lots of imaginary play (Still do, in fact). And it's not that we forced them to watch weird movies like Drop Dead Fred, which lauded the concept of the imaginary friend. In fact we never mentioned the idea at all. But still the elusive imaginary youngster managed to find his way into our house.
Kel met him first. I don't know how old Kel was at the time, but it was around two or three. And I'm not sure if we would have ever known about the existence of his special buddy if he hadn't been a bit overly mischievous one day. Of course he got caught - the ever-present "back eyes" of the all-seeing Mom catches just about everything a three-year-old can come up with. And when Chris called his hand, Kel had the perfect answer, "I didn't do it." Of course not. So Chris responded, "If it wasn't you, then who was it?" See, at the time Kel was our only child. There was no one else. Her logic was impeccable. But Kel replied with that perfect childlike innocence, "It was Boy. He did it." Now at first Chris continued in her scolding mold, "I know it was a boy. You are the boy and you did it. Now …" But Kel only looked confused. "No Mommy. It was Boy. He did it, not me." Finally it began to dawn on us that our only-child was actually blaming the situation on someone else entirely. Once we understood that, we began to incorporate Boy into the life of the family. When Kel was punished, Boy had to be punished with him, because invariably he was involved as well. We had some fun with the whole thing, but as happens, Kel eventually outgrew his invisible playmate and moved on to greater things, like sports and baseball cards and school. We kind of grieved that Boy no longer lived with us. Our little one was growing up. And soon we forgot all about him.
And then Josh was born. And when he reached the age of two or three, an interesting thing happened. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, we began to hear Josh carrying on conversations with … Boy. We hadn't even thought about the imaginary guy in years, and as far as we know Kel never brought him up either. Nevertheless, there he was, playing with Josh and becoming the instigator of all sorts of mischief and mayhem around the house. It took a while for the reality of the whole thing to sink in. This time we were wiser and oh so much more experienced as parents. We tried a few tricks we had up our sleeve to replace Boy with other things. One idea that we just knew would work involved getting Josh a doll. But not just any doll would do. It had to be special enough to rival the affections of Boy. So we gave him My Buddy. And he loved it. And he … introduced My Buddy to Boy. And the three of them became almost inseparable. Out of ideas, we reverted back to our original practice and welcomed the invisible creature back to our family. Once again he took the blame for most of the pandemonium around the house. Kel even saw his opportunity and did his best to place the blame for his actions on good ol' Boy. He couldn't see him anymore, and he didn't join in any of the play with him. After all, that was a kid's thing and he was all grown up. I'm not sure he even remembered his own Boy experiences. But he knew a good thing when he saw it. Anything to take the heat off his own back. Didn't work, though. Chris just sent all three of them to their rooms. And sadly, after a few years, Boy once again faded into the realm of memories, perhaps joining My Buddy in his perch in the closet.
And then Nathan was born. Honestly, we had once again forgotten about Boy's existence. And as Nathan grew … Boy never came over. I guess it was probably because Nathan was too busy doing wild and crazy things on his own to worry about someone else taking the blame. When he got caught he was proud to take ownership of his accomplishments. So the memory of Boy faded even more, brought out only occasionally to be rolled over a time or two for a brief chuckle, and then filed away again in our vast storehouse of fond remembrances.
Ah, enough reminiscing. Back to the present. Cailyn was here yesterday, and at one point she lined up the three child-sized rocking chairs and announced that one was for her, one was for Nani, and one was for … are you ready for this? Boy. Wait a minute. Boy hasn't been around for literally years – decades. Could this be the same one? Chris waited for more details, but the moment had passed. Cailyn moved on to another area of interest. But Chris hurried in to the office to tell me what she had heard. I have heard of things skipping a generation. Maybe … Boy … is … back.
Proverbs 25:25 says, "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land."
Father, thank you for the good news about Bo and Nancy's house being spared from the wildfires. Please watch over the others who are still wondering as well as those who have already lost everything. Amen.
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