Imaginary Friend

The next time your children tell you they have an imaginary friend—you may want to listen to them.

 

Mary and Jerry Gaddis were our babysitters whenever Gene and I had a date night.  Gene is my husband.  Mary and Jerry were our next door neighbors.  They were married with three adult children of their own.  They said that babysitting our children kept them young.  Mary said it allowed them to re-experience the sounds of young children throughout their house on occasion.  Gene was content to let Mary and Jerry get reacquainted with the sounds of three young children racing through their house.  Our children were three, four, and six.  Gene often teased that Mary and Jerry could be on a permanent rotation schedule with us.  Mary and Jerry, both seventy-five, declined Gene’s offer.  But they told him to put their number on speed dial.  They would always help when they could.  They said they remembered being young with a tight budget and little time to enjoy one another after their children were born.  They were like parents to Gene and me.  Our children considered them as extra grandparents.
 

One night, two years ago, Gene and I were on our way to a restaurant.  This was our first date night in six months.  We were looking forward to having our favorite wine with our favorite seafood and some uninterrupted conversation.  We stopped in front of the restaurant and the valet opened my car door and helped me from the car.  Gene and I relaxed the moment we walked into the restaurant.  We had finally got our date night back.  And we intended to enjoy every minute of it.

 

We had scallops in a special seafood sauce for appetizers with a red wine.  We talked and laughed as if we had not seen each other in months.  We barely heard my telephone buzzing.  I checked the number.  It was Jerry. 

 

He and Mary were babysitting the children at our house that night.  Their house was undergoing some kitchen construction.  They were not comfortable having our children there while it was going on.  All the nails and construction materials were too much temptation for small children they said.  But they had said they would still baby-sit for us at our house.  We had showed them where everything was and told them to call us if they were unsure about something. 

 

“It’s Jerry,” I said.  “I’m going to the ladies’ room.”  I held my phone at my side and walked quickly and calmly to the ladies’ room.  There was hallway in front of it.  My phone had stopped vibrating.  Jerry had left a message for me to call him back.  I pressed the call button.  He answered on the first ring.
 

Chapter 2   

 

“Is everything okay?” I asked.  He wanted to know if Mia was to spend the night with my children.  I felt embarrassed.  My children had tricked him.  “Jerry, I’m sorry.  I should’ve told you and Mary.  Mia is their make-believe friend.  Just tell them she can stay the night.”  He said the kids may have a make-believe friend.  But the little girl sitting on the couch with them was real.  He was sure they called her Mia.  “Mia’s their imaginary friend.  I don’t know who this other child is.  There shouldn’t be anyone there right now.  No one is spending the night.”  Jerry said the little girl came downstairs a few minutes ago and sat on the couch with my children.  He said my children said she did not talk much.  And she would not answer him.  “Ask the children what her name is again.  Tell them I said not to play around.”  I heard him ask the children her name.  They yelled Mia.  He said Mary is watching all four of them.  “Jerry, what does she look like?”  He described her as five or six years old and thin with light brown hair.  “Who is this girl?”  Jerry said he did not know.  He thought I would.  He had not seen her before.  “Will you put her on the phone please?”  I heard some rustling and then quiet.

 

“Hello,” I said.  No one answered.  “Hello.  Is this Mia?”  A little girl’s voice said yes.  “Where are your parents Mia?”  She said home.  “Where do you live?”  She said here.  “Where is here?”  She said at our house.  “Will you give the phone back to Mr. Gaddis please?”              

 

Jerry answered yes.  “Jerry, stay on the phone,” I said.  “I don’t know who she is.  She shouldn’t be there.”  He said she was sitting quietly and watching television.  “Jerry, make sure the doors and windows are locked.”  He told me everything was fine and not to panic.  “I know it is.  But we’re on our way.”  He said it was not necessary for us to ruin our evening.  That the girl was probably from one of the families down the street.  “You’re probably right.  But I’m going to hang up and call you back in a few minutes.”  He said for me to please do not panic and that everything was fine.  That he would call me if something changed.

 

I rushed back to Gene and whispered to him.  “We have to go.”  He looked stunned and asked what was going on.  “I’ll tell you in the car.”  The waiter came to our table.  “We need the check please.”  He asked if everything was all right.  “Yes.  It’s a family emergency.  We have children.  Can you hurry please?”  He rushed away.  Gene touched my arm.  “I’ll tell you in the car.”  The waiter came back fast.  Gene paid with cash.  Then we walked outside and waited for our car.  He asked what was going on.  “I’ll tell you in the car.”  There were several valets standing nearby.  The valet drove up with our car.  Gene and I got in and we sped off for home.

 

Chapter 3  

 

“What is going on?” he asked.  I told him Jerry had said the children’s imaginary friend was at our house.  And that she was watching television with the children.  “Didn’t you tell Jerry she was imaginary?’  I yelled at Gene that she was there in the flesh.  And that Jerry saw her.  “That’s crazy.”  He glanced at me.  “Is Jerry okay?”    

 

“He sounded lucid to me,” I said.  I called Jerry back.  His phone rang and went to voice mail.  I called him again and again.  And it kept going to voice mail.  Gene told me to not panic.  Not to think the worse.  Nothing he said registered with me.  “I’m calling the police.”  Gene told me not to overact.  I had already dialed 911.  I told the officer what Jerry had told me.  He said he would send a car over to our address.  I told him we were on our way home. 

 

Gene drove faster.  He slowed down at red lights and then drove through them.  We must have driven up seconds after the police arrived.  They were in our driveway and getting out of their car.  Gene parked on the street and we hurried and got out.  “We live here,” Gene said.  “We’re Gene and Sara Duncan.”  We were walking across the lawn.  The two officers were looking at us.  “Our babysitters aren’t answering their phone.”

 

“Everything is probably fine,” one of the officers said.  “But let us take a quick look.”  I looked at Gene.  He was beginning to look nervous like me.  I assumed the officers knew the situation.  And that is why they wanted to take a look first.     

 

One of the officers knocked on the door and waited.  The other officer was standing behind and to the side of the officer at the door.  He glanced back at us and looked back to the front.  The officer knocked on the door again and yelled, “Police.”  No one came to the door.  The lights were on in the house.  We could see if someone was coming to the door. 

 

“Something’s wrong,” I said.  Gene said it would all be okay.  He began to walk toward the house.  The officer standing behind the other officer met him.

 

“Mr. Duncan, let us have your key to your house sir and please wait here for a moment,” the officer said.  Gene handed him his keys and told him which key opened the front door.

 

“I know something is wrong,” I said.  Gene put his arm around me and tried to reassure me that nothing was wrong. 

 

The officer rushed to the door and put the key in the lock and turned it.  He knocked loudly and yelled, “Police.”  No one answered.  My heart was pounding.  One officer looked to the other.  Both unsnapped the piece of leather that was over their guns.  I know I gasped.  Gene held me tight.  One of the officers put his hand up for us to stay back.  They removed their guns from their holsters.  One of the officers turned the doorknob.  He shook his head.  The door would not open.  He knocked hard on the door again.  “Police!  We’re coming in.  Please stay where you are.”  One the officers pointed to us.  “Stay there.”  He whispered.  The other officer kicked the door open.  I was watching him and the sound of the door cracking still made me jump.  One officer went inside followed by the other.        

 

Chapter 4

 

Lights were on in every room of our house.  We never kept all the lights on.  We watched them go into one room and come out and go into another.  Then they went upstairs.  My fists were clinched.  My hands began to shake.  I kept thinking these are the times you hear about.  Someone accidentally gets shot doing nothing.  What if Jerry had a heart attack and could not answer.  But why would Mary not answer.  What if she was carrying for Jerry and the children were asleep.  What if it was the other way around?  What if something had happened to Mary?  What if they were all at the hospital?  What if something had happened to one of the children?  Gene was rocking back and froth. 

 

“Maybe I should go in,” he said.  I told him no.  The police wanted us to stay there.  I told him they could accidentally shoot him.  “They could accidentally shoot one of the children.  We have to do something.”  I grabbed his arm.  “I’m just going up to the steps.” 

 

“What if they accidentally shoot you?” I asked.  He was pulling away from me.  Another police car drove up with its rooftop lights on.  Two officers got out and introduced themselves.  They told us to go stand on the sidewalk until the other officers came back out.  They too unsnapped the leather covering their guns.  “What’s happening?”  I was losing it, fast.  They told Gene to watch me. 

 

We waited for the first officers to walk out of the house.  We ran to them when they did.  “There’s no one in there,” one of the officers said.  I told them we needed to check the hospitals.  “They’re already doing it ma’am.”            

 

More police would come to our home that night.  But they would not find anything.  No one would be found in the hospitals.  No one would have gone to the hospitals.  They would not find Jerry or Mary or our children.  All of them would seem to have just disappeared.  The police would question me and Gene and decide we were victims of this crime.  But they would have no answers to many questions. 

 

Why was the deadbolt locked from inside?  How did everyone leave?  Why were there no scrape marks on the windows or footprints on the ground below?  How would three young children and two elderly people get out of the house without walking out the doors?  Why would they leave?  Who was Mia?  Where were her parents?  Why hadn’t anyone asked about Mia?  Was she missing?  Did she hold a clue to what actually happened to everyone?  How did she get into the home when she was not in there earlier?  Who let her in?  Why would an elderly couple leave their neighbors and friends?  Why would they leave millions of dollars of retirement money?  Why would they leave their community in which they were so active?

 

Gene and I would talk to Jerry and Mary’s children.  They would tell us that their parents would not up and leave like that.  They would tell us that their parents adored our family.  They would tell us, as well as the police, that nothing was missing from their parents’ house.  Their parents’ cars were still parked in the driveway.  Their wallets and retirement funds were just as they left them.  Their parents’ friends had no answers to what could have happened to them. 

Two months after the disappearances and Gene and I are still waiting and praying for a good outcome.  No leads in the case have ever turned up.  No one has ever come forward with information on any of them.  No one has ever reported Mia missing.  None of our friends or neighbors has ever remembered seeing Mia.  The police are baffled by the case.  Gene and I will never move from this house.  We believe that we will see our children again.  We believe that Mia is the key.  And we are going to find her.