My Dearest Imagination,
How odd to say my dearest, as you are my only imagination. You’re my only in most regards. You were my only friend before I went to school and my sister left me behind. I got so jealous of her, going off into some great unknown, beyond the big white door. Somewhere she got to meet people and learn things and play games, while I was stuck on my side of the door. I wouldn’t have made it through those long hours separated from her without you.
Remember we would traverse though the haunted dark forest (under the dining room table) with the trees (the legs of the chairs and table) obscuring the view of the evil Winter Queen trying to cast her spell of the cold slumber (my mom putting me down for a nap). Or how about when I finally got to school and none of the other children wanted to play with me, for reasons that were so silly but at the time caused me the greatest sorrows. I was smaller than the other kids, and younger, by a year in most cases. I had ugly mousey brown hair and big doe eyes. Then I had the audacity of being left-handed! No, the other kids wanted nothing to do with me after they found that out. But it was okay, I was okay. You were there, holding my hand through it all. We would sit in the back of the classroom and make up stories about the teacher being a great wizard, with tomes of knowledge she was trying to preserve. She couldn’t let anyone forget the ancient wisdom of her people lest the Kingdom she came from would truly be gone then and history is doomed to repeat itself if we don’t remember. Yes, you convinced me my teacher was trying to save our world from the forces of evil by sharing her knowledge. I guess in a way you were right.
When I moved on to elementary school and into a new building, I was so excited. It looked like a castle. It was so tall, the tallest building I have ever been in! With stone stairs and ancient wooden floors that groaned about being stepped on. The huge windows would rattle against the wind, but they never wavered in their fight against the elements. The radiator would sing to warm us all in the winter and even the walls seemed to whisper their excitement in being filled. It was there that I made my first friend. She was beautiful. She had long dark brown hair, with bows in it. Her dark eyes were like a starless sky, holding mystery and reflecting wonder. She was the first person who said they loved hearing me talk. I admit it now Imagination, I was terrified I would have nothing worthwhile to speak about. So, I stole from you. All those stories you told me about enchanting princesses and evil queens. I regaled her stories of soldiers of an ancient starlit war, before the sun was made, who bound themselves to each other that they should find the other in every life and fight their enemy side by side until all that was left of the Evil one was song and story. I believed we were those soldiers reincarnated, as I felt with her, I could take one the world. It was then that I introduced you to her and it turned out that she had her own Imagination to share. I believe the two of you became more inseparable than the two of us, as we were still bound by body and rules, were the two of you would dance and mingle over us and grow until nothing would contain you. I fell in love with her, and you did with her Imagination, didn’t you?
I am sorry, Imagination. I haven’t spoken to you in some time. She and I haven’t talked in a few years, and you help me through that. That must have been hard, since I know you and her imagination still dance together, we would never separate the two of you. It was true love. It was beautiful. You made it so. You stood by me through everything. And I’m sorry I must ask you to do it again.
The Evil One has returned, they go by a different name now, trying to hide in my own mind. I won’t ask her to fight alongside me again. I know she can’t. We’ve become our own enemies to each other. But if I told you Evil One’s new name, perhaps you can be better prepared for them? They go by Depression now, Imagination. If they get me, please fight on.