Childhood, it's a fun time for most of us, but it's also a time of loneliness for some of us. There are some points when you are a kid where you feel like everyone has forgotten about you because you don't have all the cool toys or your not interested in same things as everyone else, and instead of finding other things to bond over they'll just leave you behind to fend for yourself. Those are the points in life where you feel the most alone and completely friendless. I had a point like that in my life but it didn't last long though. That's because instead of having real friends I decided to make up my own. It was just one though, because if you have one special best friend that's all you really need to get you through the hard times. To others my best friend was just a waste of space, and that I was just talking to thin air whenever somebody saw me talking to him, but that's because they never really saw him. I was about six and a half when I met him. My mom was taking me home from school and I had just gotten out for Christmas break. The air was cold, the windows were all fogged up so I could draw on them, and Christmas music was playing loudly through the speakers. I remember clicking my heels together a lot, because I liked the sound my rain boots would make when they did that, as I jammed out to Jingle Bell Rock in my car seat. My mom turned down the radio suddenly and I saw her look at me in the rear view mirror.
"So how'd the Christmas party go?" she asked.
"It was good mommy" I lied.
"Did your friends enjoy their presents?" she questioned. My mom had decided to buy presents for the whole class for me to handout and we had made everyone cute little bookmarks since we were all starting to read, but hardly anyone actually kept them after they opened them in class today, once class got out I saw everyone of the kids toss them secretly in the trash. I was the only one interested in reading and everyone else was well more interested in rotting there brains in playing sports and other things.
"Yeah they said it was the best present ever" I lied. I didn't want to bother my mom, with my lack of friend's problem because I knew she would worry about me and get overprotective and that would of course make things worse. I saw her eyes lighten up at my answer to her question and she turned the music back up. I leaned my head against the back of my car seat and let out a sigh. Words could not express how badly I wanted a friend at that time. I wanted someone to play with me, someone who cared about me, someone who would know how to brighten up my day, and would never think about hurting my feelings.
What if I made one up? I thought to myself. I smiled at the idea. Why hadn't I thought about it before the most awesome friend I could ever have could be one that was made just by me.
What would my friends name be though? I asked myself.
"Chestnuts roasting on a open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose..." the first few lines of "The Christmas Song" started to play. I perked up at the sound of that name. That wasn't a bad name actually it sounded cool.
The car stopped and my mom unbuckled my car seat and I quickly hopped out.
"Honey would you mind staying outside for a couple minutes while I go wrap some presents real quick?" My mom asked.
"PRESENTS!"
"No you can't see one" my mom quickly shattered my hopes. I let out a dejected sigh.
"It'll only be a couple minutes, why don't you play in the snow" she suggested as she walked inside and shut the door behind her. I dragged my feet as I walked across the yard trying to kick up snow and plopped down on the ground.
Well guess it's time to start playing with my imaginary friend I thought.
"So Jack wanna make a snowman with me?" I asked the empty air. Of course nothing happened. I closed my eyes and tried to visualize my new friend as hard as I could and nearly prayed for something magical to happen. When I opened my eyes nothing was there.
"Alright fine then I'll make it by myself. For being my new friend you aren't very helpful" I joked as I tried to roll up the bottom of the snowman I felt something hit me on my back and realized it was a snowball.
"Ow" I complained as I turned around and saw a tall older looking boy with white hair and huge blue eyes. He was dressed in brown pants, a blue sweatshirt, and he wore no shoes. He gave me a smirk as he leaned against this tall curved stick.
"Who are you?" I asked. His eyes grew wide.
"You can see me?" he asked.
"Yes" he got this smile on his face.
"Wait who are you?" I asked again.
"Well, I guess I'm as you put it 'your new unhelpful friend'" he joked, throwing another snowball that I expertly dodged.
"JACK FROST!" No way this is how imaginary friends work out? I had no idea you could actually see them when you made them up. This was awesome! I had a friend now, an actual friend, and he wasn't being mean to me either!
I quickly covered my nose for a moment as I remembered something.
"What are you doing?" he asked me as he got down to my level.
"Covering my nose, I don't want you to bite it" I muttered.
"Why would I bite your nose?" he asked.
"You know the song 'Jack Frost nippin at your nose'. Why would you bite people's noses anyways that's weird?" I told him. He laughed at my comment.
"That's not what it means" he explained.
"So you are not going to bite my nose?" I asked. He shook his head and I uncovered my nose and smiled at him.
"What's your name?" he asked me.
"Wendy" I held my hand out so I could be polite.
"Hello, Wendy" he smiled as he shook it.
"We are going to be best friends" I assured him.
"Now then weren't we making a snow man?" he asked. I smiled mischievously at him.
"Oh we were but..." I quickly tossed a snowball at him and laughed as it hit him in the face. Oh how revenge was sweet.
"You're fighting a losing battle here,Wendy girl" he smiled at me and also giving me, what would be, his nickname for me. I tossed another one at him and stuck my tongue out at him before I ran for it. I watched as my dad's car pulled up and I ran to him when he got out.
"DADDY" I screamed as I ran into his arms. He picked me up and kissed me on the cheek.
"Hey pumpkin what are you doing out here?" he asked me.
"Mommy's wrapping presents so she told me to play outside, me and my new friend Jack were having a snowball fight" I told him.
"Jack now who is he? Is he your boyfriend?" he joked.
"Ew Daddy no that's disgusting" I giggled and I heard Jack laugh at that too.
"Alright so where is he?" he asked.
"Can't you see him he's right there" I pointed straight at Jack and and Jack tried to wave at him.
"Oh" my dad realized.
"Hmmm I never thought he'd be fat with red hair" he joked. It was then I knew my dad was faking it and he couldn't actually see him.
"Daddy" I joked he set me down and rolled up the perfect snowball for me and handed it to me.
"I'm going to head inside and help mommy. Why don't you throw this at Jack"
"I will Daddy, thank you daddy" I said as he went inside.
"Well he seems nice" Jack said and I quickly interupted whatever sentence he was going to say next as I made my snowball collide with his face for the second time today and this time he chased after and I ran giggling like a maniac. That was the beginning of our friendship. We spent so much time together and it was the best time I had ever had in my life. Of course I got ridiculed relentlessly about him at school but that didn't matter as long as I had Jack things were good. Eventually I realized that he wasn't a part of my imagination and that he was an actual person. I figured that out the day he caused a snow day for me because I didn't want to go to school. He told me once that besides being my best friend he had an actual job pretty much where he spread joy to all the kids in the world with his powers. Even though he had his job, he would always come back to me in the end, because it turned out not only was he my best friend but I was his now.
"How come I'm the only one who can see you though?" I asked him one day as we stayed up past my bedtime. He shrugged.
"Well I'm glad I can see you, you're the best thing that's ever happened in my life besides that one trip I took to Disneyland" I corrected myself.
"You too Wendy, it's been awhile since I've actually talked to someone" he said as he nudged me.
"How long?"
"Almost 300 years" He contemplated.
"WHOA!" he laughed at my expression.
"So that means you are never going to get all old and wrinkly then?" I asked.
"I suppose so" he said.
"We could literally be friends forever?" I smiled.
"We could" he smiled back.
"Awesome" I fist pumped the air. We looked out the window together and saw the moon shine it's light brightly through it as the light nearly illuminated the whole room. Jack started to make snowflakes fall out of nowhere and they sparkled as the light would hit them, when I stuck my tongue out to catch them in my mouth they tasted like peppermint. I remember falling asleep that night a little while later and having amazing dreams of what summer was going to be like once school got out, but then things took a turn for the worse. I remember my mom getting a phone call one certain evening that changed our lives. She had spoken on the phone for a couple minutes and then dropped it and started crying.
"Mommy, what's wrong?" I asked her. She looked at me and started crying even more and beckoned me towards her. When I stood in front of her she grabbed my hands and looked at me intently.
"It's your daddy sweetie, remember how he went to work this morning?" she asked. I nodded.
"Well I guess he took a wrong turn and ended up going to Heaven instead" she tried to tell me gently, with a smile on her face. I remember having a very vague idea of what Heaven was but I never really got the concept.
"When is he going to come back?" I asked her.
"Sweetie, he can't" she told me. And that's when I started crying. My mom and I both held onto each other as we sat on our kitchen floor and cried together. Several hours later they had called my mom over to the hospital to ask her to identify my dad's body.
"I have to go to the hospital for a moment sweetie, you can wait in the waiting room while I go see something" she told me as she buckled me into my car seat. It was a quiet car ride this time. There was no joyful music and no sense of cheeriness in the air.
When my mom had dropped me off in the waiting room, the minute she had been out of my eyesight I ran outside.
"JACK?" I shouted for him. There was no answer.
"JACK?" I screamed now desperately.
"Hey there Wendy girl" he called from behind me. I turned around and ran to him and hugged him around his waist.
"It's my daddy, Jack he's not coming back" I told him. He hugged me back very tightly and he felt really cold but it felt nice in the early spring heat. Jack never left my side after that, for a couple weeks. It was just him and I. He would always try and make me feel better and it would always make me happy for just awhile but then I'd get all sad again. The worst part about it was when my mom finally sent me back to school. When I was there I was utterly alone. I didn't have my mom to cuddle up with on the couch if I got sad at any point during the day and I most certainly didn't have Jack, because he had to go back to his job after spending so much time with me. I didn't get to upset though about him leaving, especially since he'd promised he'd be back as soon as possible. And if there was one thing I always knew about my best friend it was that he would keep his promises.
I tried to make it through the first day of school without feeling sad but I couldn't help it for some reason I felt like everyone was talking about their dad's whenever I would come close to someone. I knew they weren't doing it on purpose but it still hurt. However though even in the darkest of times there will always be faint light to make it go away. My faint light happened to be a little girl, of about my age, named Violet. Violet had decided to approach me at recess that same day and I think it was the best decision she ever made.
I was sitting on the wood chips on the playground trying to make a small pile of them to keep my mind clear while everyone else was playing a class game of tag. Violet had plopped down next to me and looked at me for a moment.
"I'm sorry about your daddy dying Wendy" she told me, and she actually seemed sad about it.
"Thank you" I told her politely.
"My daddy died too, but I was little so I don't remember him, but I do get sad whenever I think about him. Just as sad as you are now" she told me. I let out a sigh as answer.
"Do you wanna come over to my house and play today. My stepdaddy got me the Little Mermaid 2 and I want someone to watch it with me" she offered. I looked at her and I felt happy for a moment. Someone was actually being nice to me for once and it seemed like they actually wanted to be my friend.
"You want me to come over to your house?" I asked her just to make sure. She nodded.
"Why are you being nice to me?" I asked.
"Because I want to and besides when you play by yourself it looks like you have a lot of fun and I want to have fun with you"
"I don't play by myself I play with my friend Jack" I smiled at her. She gave me a weird look.
"You'd like him, he's really nice and he makes it snow" I explained but that didn't make things better so I decided to drop the subject.
So after school that day I went to Violet's house and had the time of my life and then the next day she came to my house. Eventually we became the best of friends and would spend our days back and forth at each others houses no longer was I alone.
"Ahhh Wendy come on Kim Possible is on" Violet shouted from the little girl's bedroom at a sleepover they were holding. Wendy quickly ran up the stairs, as she held two ice cream bowls in her hands, nearly falling flat on her face from going to fast but quickly recovered and slid on her socks to her bedside as she plopped on the bed next to her best friend and they ate the ice cream together as they watched tv in her bedroom. Just then the window opened and standing in the windowsill was Jack Frost.
"Hey there Wendy girl, sorry it's been awhile" he apologized as he hopped down. Wendy didn't even take a glance at him.
"So who's this?" he asked looking at the new girl sitting on Wendy's bedside with her. Again Wendy paid no attention to him as she took another bite of her ice cream.
"Wendy?" he asked. He blew a bit of cold air on her to get her attention and she shivered a bit and looked straight at him.
"Did you open the window?" she asked Violet as she walked through him to go close the window. Jack felt his heart jump for a moment as she passed through him.
"Nooo come on Wendy this isn't funny, you can see me can't you?" he asked, as he turned towards her. She was trying to jump to jump up and shut the tall window now and Jack went over and helped her, making sure not to smash her fingers in the process. Again she walked through him as she ran back to her bed. Jack went up to her and waved his hands in front of her.
"Oh the other day when I was at girl scouts we had to make bracelets so I decided to make one for you" the other girl said to Wendy as she leaned down to get something out of her pink backpack. Violet grabbed out a beaded bracelet with the words best spelled out on a couple of beads.
"My mom helped me spell it a bit, it says best" Violet explained as she slid it on Wendy's wrist.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Wendy asked. Violet showed Wendy her matching bracelet that spelled out friends.
"Mine says friends. So that means that we're best friends" Violet continued to explain. Jack looked at the happiness on Wendy's face when she said that. Wendy quickly gave the other girl a tight hug and Jack saw tiny tears of joy run down her cheeks. He knew from the beginning that all she had wanted was someone to love her back and treat her nice the way she would be to others. Sure he had done that for awhile for her but he knew in the back of his mind that she wanted something more. So now she was finally getting her wish, she had her first real friend, not someone who could run off on her from time time, because they had a job, and not someone that nobody else could see besides her. He felt happy for the little girl. Jack knew then that she didn't need him anymore, she had grown to old for him. Besides what would she want with an imaginary friend that she didn't believe in, when she had a real friend of her own. He gave the small girl a tiny smile as he ruffled her hair which went by unnoticed.
"Maybe I'll see you another time then Wendy girl" he tried to say optimistically as he climbed back to the window and opened it. Just as he left Wendy looked back at him and for a moment he thought she could see him again but his wish was quickly rejected when she looked back to her new friend. And with that Jack left Wendy.
Little did they both know that they would find each other again 12 years later.