Imaginary Friend

I was reading Matt's post on Six of Seven Sins about his delinquent imaginary friend and it made me think back to my own childhood pretend pal.

I first met my imaginary friend during a family holiday. I can’t remember where we were staying exactly but it was some where in the British country side. As we walked through the fields one day (after what had felt like an incredibly long train journey) I saw my imaginary friend for the first time sitting on a stone wall. He was enjoying the view but still looked a little board, as if he wanted someone to play with. When he saw us he happily waved hello and we started to chat. He walked along the wall with his hands in his pockets to follow us but after a while his feet started to get tired so I let him sit on my shoulder. When my parents asked me who I was talking to (I can’t remember if they looked worried or not) I happily introduced them to my new friend. He was a small white mouse with a long tail and he was very friendly. Unlike other mice he wore clothes and could talk as well.

He came home with us that day and we went every where together. He even came to school with me and wore a matching school uniform. He would sit on my desk and secretly helped me with my school work. Luckily we never got caught or we would have both been in trouble. I can’t remember the day he faded away but I can still remember exactly what he looks like. My mum had made an image of him one day after I described him to her.

At this point you might be thinking there is something about this that sounds slightly familiar. If so you might have seen the movie Stuart Little which was release in 1999 and revolved around the adventures of a small talking white mouse who is adopted by a family of humans.

When I first heard about the movie I thought it was a very strange coincidence. Especially since my name is Stuart as well. Part of me (maybe naively) wondered if I had met the writer of the original story when I was a child and told him about my mousey imaginary friend. I know it might sound silly but it just seemed like too much of a fluke. However, I later found out that the writer E B White first came up with the character of Stuart Little in the1920’s after a dream and later published a book of his adventures in 1945.

Since I was born in 1978 I’m a few years to late to claim my imaginary friend as an original idea which makes me feel a little sad in some ways, I thought he was mine alone. Maybe I was read E B White’s stories as a child and remembered enough to for an imaginary friend based on them or maybe it was just a strange coincidence.

However, the child in me wonders if I might have met the real Stuart Little while he was between his book and movie career. I hope he still remembers me and the fun we used to have together now that he is in Hollywood.