Imaginary Friends: Do They Hold Grudges?

To make sure everyone can appreciate the awesomeness of this story, I must first give a brief synopsis of my childhood. As most of you knoe by now, I was the youngest of 4 children. At the risk of sounding a tad conceited, I was the perfect child: smart, adorable, obedient, and an overall pleasant disposition. Understandably, my less perfect siblings were slightly resentful. For them, it probably seemed like I got everything I wanted. Every sibling dispute that was resolved by my mother was in my favor. They tended to avoid playing with me.

What was a lonely (yet brilliant) 5 year-old prodigy to do when his potential playmates were letting unbridled jealousy stand in the way? Imaginary friends. The general consensus is that I had three main imaginary friends: Blue Matter (side note: How awesome is that? How many 5 year olds have imaginary friends named after high school science terms?) , Pinky Boy and Pinky Girl. One of my favorite things to do was share my imaginary friends who the siblings who were neglecting me. As my sister was preparing for summer camp, I informed her that Pinky Boy and Pinky Girl wanted to attend. My guess is that my sister made sure they didn’t attend. Now, I can’t be 100% certain, but I think my imaginary friends ceased after that summer camp experience. Very sad, but I managed; I was a resilient 5 year old.

Fast forward to the present. In a blog written almost two weeks ago, I detailed the wacky encounters I had with a young man of around my age who asked that he be referred to as ‘Pinky’. I neglected to mentioned, however, the reason why my new friends and I were having a meal with ‘Pinky’ and his gang. The dinner was actually an informal gathering prior to our departure to go camping in the Lower Zambeze that weekend. You see, my friends and I had agreed to pay ‘Pinky’ to serve as our travel guide and to take us camping with him. The ensuing camping trip with ‘Pinky’ never ended up happening. He apparently thought it was a bright idea to make inappropriate comments to one of my female friends. The entire group chose to cancel the trip and end our association with ‘Pinky’. I think I’ll manage; I am a resilient 25 year old.

Kinda ironic, isn’t it? I have imaginary friends named ‘Pinky Boy’ and ‘Pinky Girl’. I make arrangements for them to go camping. Plans blow up, they don’t go camping, we never talk much after that. 20 years later, ‘Pinky’ makes arrangements for me to go camping. Plans blow up, I don’t go camping, I never plan to talk with ‘Pinky’ much after that.