Imaginary Friends

Completely bored. Personally, I don't even think that covered the extent of boredom my mind was experiencing at that moment in time. Now, I know everyone suffers from boredom now and then and, though, even for the average mortal it could reach this extreme state. Yet, unfortunately for me, I came equipped with a built in defense. Some say it's a good thing, but if only they truly understood what imaginary things were floating through my head as I sat on the red checker-board blanket typically seen in a setting much like this.

The park was nice, this fine summer day, as I watched the children play on the swing sets and in the sandboxes battling imaginary beasts of their fancy. Yet, no matter how much I could 'enjoy' this scene I was still completely board out of my mind. Being twelve and too old to play with these young children in the sand and fighting their dragons, yet at the same time, still wanting too was not exactly what I would call fun. So instead of breaking the unwritten rule that a kid my age cannot pass over the sand box line I sat, next to the empty plates that used to be full of sandwiches, and drifted in and out of the 'real world' where I, in my own way, could play with the imaginary world of a six year old child.

As my eyes drifted past the climbing tower in the distance my mind wandered and slowly converted it into a spacecraft and placed me on the top bar that was now no longer what it seemed. It was now the head seat of a rocket and I was in charge of the buttons laid out before me. I could hear the count down to liftoff begin as my pulse began to rise and I got ready to hit the little read button after lift off had begun. Three. I got my finger ready. Two. A real space flight, how cool! On- I never heard the end of the word. A fatal error to say the least but luckily as the rocket blew up and I was thrown into the air I found that I was still in one piece. As I came lunging towards the ground I closed my eyes really tightly, hoping against all hope, that the end would come quickly, but after a minute of waiting, and no final 'splat,' I opened my eyes to find myself sitting on a telephone pole with an attached telephone line beside me covered with little sparrows who were over looking a rock concert with an extremely weird sound. I turned to the birds and smiled weakly and then looked down.

Oh my goodness! How was I going to get down? I asked the birds beside me who merely laughed in reply. Yes, I do mean they laugh! before they replied that I had to fly. I did not bother to say that that was an insane idea and instead opted to try my luck with another quick flight. Not the brightest of ideas. When I hit the ground I knew that I was on my back, which was very odd considering I had gone down belly-flop style whilst flapping my arms. I opened my eyes. or rather one of them because the other refused to open. When my one eye began to focus all I saw was a man was holding up two fingers in front of my face, he inquired as to how many I saw and I told him. He smiled widely at me showing off only three teeth and a booming voice announced that I was all right. I was going to ask what had happened to me, but the man with the bad teeth simply pulled me up to my face and a huge crowd around a boxing ring, a boxing room that I was standing in, started to cheer. I smiled and waved at them and noticed that my hands were in boxing gloves. But as I slowly began to realize that I was in a boxing match a large television caught my eye as it replayed me being knocked out by a large shadowy figure. After watching myself fall backwards on the mat I decided that I did not want to try that again so I turned to face my opponent. I felt my mouth go dry and drop slightly as I took in the man's size. To compare my new situation to David and Goliath would have been a great understatement; it was more like David verses Godzilla in size.

I felt my face go white with fright but I pushed it aside. I was going to face this brute of a man no matter what. When the referee gave the signal I took the first step and once we reached the center Mr. Godzilla threw the first punch, which I easily ducked. Once I came back up I noticed that he was slightly off balance and I seized what I knew would be my only chance to win the fight.

I hit him quickly in the face, not hard by any means, and yet Godzilla-man fell. The crowd went wild and as the referee was holding up my gloved wrist I closed my eyes to bask in the glory of my victory. As I had my eyes shut I noticed that my wrist was no longer being held up, the gloves that were on them had disappeared, and the cheering had changed. When I reopened my eyes I saw the Milwaukee Bucks running up and down the basketball court trying to gain a much needed three pointer. Despite myself I found that I was cheering them on with the rest of the fans as I stood on the sidelines of the basketball court. After they had scored the needed pointes, I took the time to look at the happy crowd and saw Bill Cosby sitting on the other side of the court with a spoon in his mouth and what was unmistakably a little cup of Jell-o. I couldn't help but laugh at him. I mean, I could understand an obsession with Big Mac's but Jell-o? it was only a little weird.

As I was laughing at the older man my attention was drawn away from both Cosby and the game. My surroundings had begun to change again and I watched them as they morphed from the arena full of fans into a small train station. I shrugged my shoulders at the change (I wasn't much of a basket ball fan anyway) and quickly hopped a train to who knew where.

It was comfortable there on the upper level, once I had boarded and located my seat, even though there was a woman next to me who was snoring loudly. I turned my attention from the noisy sleepy to the window and noticed that the summer scenery I had grown used to since school had gotten out had been replaced with Antarctic conditions and Christmas lights were blinking on and off all out of time as carolers went door to door singing. I smiled slightly at the sight as the conductor came into our car and announced that the next stop was a college I had never heard of. Considering I had no clue where the train would take me next I decided to get off at the school that had a very strange name for a college. I assumed I was no longer in the United States, because we would never name a school as oddly as that. When I stepped off the train I assumed I would have ventured into six feet of snow but instead my left foot met the ground as I was greeted with a slight breeze and the sound of rustling leaves. Autumn.

The beautifully colored trees lined the sidewalk that led to the campus' main building. Once I entered the intimidating building a very stern looking woman handed me my schedule and informed me that I was late and sent me off on my way. I couldn't help but be confused but listened to her anyway, and looked at the schedule to see what 'class' I happened to have next. Double Science. Yup, I was definitely not in the States anymore, and from the sound of that, I had landed in England. Yet, as I walked and listened to the few students that were there, only about half of them sounded like they were even from the United Kingdom. I shrugged the thought away and ventured onward to classroom 245.

The building was huge and by the time I managed to find my room my legs were aching. When I reached the classroom the door was shut and I suddenly knew that by knocking all eyes in the room would be drawn to me. I hated that kind of attention. So with a slight delay, I lifted my hand and rapped three times on the thin wooden door. I heard the muffled lecture stop and then the door click open. The professor that faced me was slightly on the hefty side and seemed to be missing hair. for there was no way his hair really looked like that on top. I tried not to stare to much as he told me to come in. I did as I was told, never wanting to disobey a teacher, and took my seat where he told me too. It did not take long for me too lose all interest in 'Double Science' (I still didn't know what that meant) but soon found out when the bell rang, and no one moved! Two science classes in a row! I felt my head scream with an inward groan as Professor Boring went on and on about nuclear energy usually interesting if it somehow dealt with the Simpson's. And of course it didn't.

I didn't notice until a girl behind me stifled a laugh that the Professor had asked me question number three from the book, on the topic and just sort of stared at him with the fish gaze. Blink blink. "Noah, you enjoying the moon?" He said only the voice didn't belong to a man. It sounded familiar. As I continued to just stare blankly at the professor he began to slowly change into a face that was as familiar as the voice. My mom. I smiled at her as the classroom dissolved into the boring park I had temporarily escaped from. She smiled back and told me that it was time to leave.

I helped her pack up the picnic blanket and assorted Tupperware containers and carried them over to our car. As we fit everything into the trunk my mom continued to ask me about what I was thinking about, but I knew she wouldn't understand so I merely told her I had zoned out. She laughed at that, and I knew she knew I was lying, but was glad to see that she didn't bother to ask me about it. I climbed into my claimed position, shotgun, and mom started up the car and we slowly headed out of the parking lot and as we pulled out of the I took one final look over my shoulder at the kids playing on the equipment and bid one final farewell to my imaginary playmates for the day.