A childhood belief about imaginary friends

When I was eight, I had a few more imaginary friends.

"Angel" was a comforting tiny angel girl whom I made up when my second-grade teacher yelled at me for misspelling a word, and I was trying not to cry. Angel either sat on my shoulder or flew around my head, telling me what to do in a bad situation. Sometimes, she'd have to go back to Heaven for her "occasional angel IQ test" and she'd mail me little post cards and letters (which I drew and showed to Papaw). Angel looked just like the first ghost in that cartoon Christmas Carol movie with Mr. Magoo.

Another one was "Maria". She was a Hispanic lady that lived within the pages of my math textbook. She'd always talk to me, tell me silly stories about "back home in New York" or bounce around and hang off of the letters and numbers. She also had a daughter, Rita, but I rarely saw her because she was a loner. Oddly enough, the two women were actually made up when I saw two photos in the textbook.

Then, there was Zelda (from the Sabrina the Teenage Witch comics) and Obi-Wan Kenobe. They were madly in love and were always kissing. Obi-Wan also helped care for Zelda's newborn baby boy from a previous marriage (the baby never grew any older; Zelda's previous hubby died in a plane crash). Then, Zelda and Obi-Wan were able to get married when Obi-Wan got a job in a Ragtime band and made a million dollars. I was the flower girl, the vacuum cleaner was the preacher, and various toys were the guests. Can you say, "Soap Opera"?

The last one was my "army" of toys. I had six or seven little toys, including a foot-tall plastic anime bendable dragon thing, a Barbie doll, and a little baby pegasus doll from Hercules. The army was responsible for going into rebellious battle with the grown ups. I can't tell you how many times I shut the kitchen door and screamed at the top of my lungs at the others, while pretending it was General Dragon. General Dragon and General Barbie had an attitude problem and had a slight infatuation with each other, while Pegasus was the perfect little soldeir everyone hated.

One more imaginary team I can remember took place when I was about ten or eleven. I created a cajun/dixie/New Orleans-type band on a shelf on my mom's deck. We were called "The Berts", because each of our names ended in "-bert". There was Jessbert (me), Herbert, Hobert, Bobbert and Billybert. Hobert and I were the singers, Herbert played banjo, Bobbert played the trombone and/or saxophone and Billbert played the harmonica and/or the snare drum. The other band members were toys, by the way.

Wait, I take that back. I also named some of my mom's plants. I can clearly remember a pink vinca flower named Rita (love that name!) and a tomato named Jeremy. They were just like Zelda and Obi-Wan!

Even today, all of these little imaginary beings still live in my mind, coming out every-once-and-a-while to say hello.