Invisible or Imaginary?

When we were but wee lassies, my sister told me about her invisible friend. His name was Jenkins and he was a butler. Now, whether or not he was employed as her butler, or simply a butler with whom she was friends, I was never entirely sure. She did occasionally ask him to bring her things. I remember one time, in particular, when we were sitting in a hospital waiting room after my uncle had gotten surgery, where we whiled away the hours seeing what sort of ridiculous things that we could get Jenkins to bring us.

I decided I didn’t want to be left out. And thus, Lily was born. She was very pale, with long, black hair to her waist. She always wore tiger lilies in her hair. One because I liked the orange color and two because her name was Lily and therefore she had to wear lilies. It was, like a rule, or something. And she was a big fan of flowing skirts.

Basically, I created a vampiric hippie.

I’m not sure if this choice was simply inspired by the tiger lilies in the front yard or because on some level, I knew her easy-going personality would offset Jenkins’ formality nicely. Either way, I loved her. And regardless of their personality differences, she and Jenkins got along very well. They even occasionally went on trips together. Little sis and I were always anxious for their return. We wanted to hear about their travels. And, of course, see the gifts they brought us.

Despite all the fantasy souvenirs we collected, it is important to note that while Lily was imaginary, I’m still pretty sure that Jenkins was just invisible. He never revealed himself to me, but my sister’s conviction that he was there was pretty convincing. There never seemed to be any traumatic event that caused Jenkins to leave (no Drop Dead Fred moments, as it were), so I’m guessing he had to leave at some point to go buttle* for another kid and they parted ways amicably.

So, a big thank you to both my sister and her invisible friend for allowing me my imaginings so I wouldn’t be left out.

Lily, if somehow I am mistaken, and I didn’t just create you in my mind, please accept my humblest apologies. And feel free to stop by. I’d love to catch up.

*Spell check doesn’t recognize this word, but I’m going to assume it’s the verb for what a butler does and spell check just isn’t ritzy enough to realize it.