To say I had any sleep last night would be an understatement. My mind kept racing, repeating the events that occurred with Shadow. I still could not believe that my imaginary friend from when I was a child was a real living person. The place we went to felt so real, but it didn’t at the same time. I knew if Talone found out about this he would think I was going crazy, or something. It’s best he doesn’t know anything about my dreams, or about Shadow, for the moment anyway.

I still wanted to help, but I needed to learn more about this book in order for me to have an idea on where to start. I shower and do my usual morning routine before setting out to the house that had the garage sale. That lady had to have known something about the book, and if she did, why would she put it in a garage sale of all things? This and many other questions ran through my head, I was just thankful that the place that had the garage sale wasn’t far way from where I lived. Fresh air was definitely what I needed after a day like yesterday. When I arrive, it’s mid-afternoon and there isn’t a soul in sight.

“Makes sense since everyone is working today, more than likely.” I think to myself. This building was one of those that had a front desk like a hotel, so I headed there to find anyone on duty. I end up seeing this lady whom looks like she had too much coffee to drink since she can’t seem to sit still. “She and Talone would get along great.” I chuckle at the thought.

I walk up to the lady and she says her greeting. “Welcome, how can I help you?”

“Yeah, I would like to speak to a lady that I believe lives here. I think her family had the garage sale here.” This lady looks at me confused.

“I’m sorry miss, I don’t recall a garage sale being available here.” My heart rate starts to increase. “Let me check with my colleague on that for you, one moment.” She gets up and leaves to go in another room. It feels like an eternity before she finally comes back with another lady.

“Hello miss, is there something we can help you with?”

“Yes, I was explaining to your colleague that I was looking for another woman whom I assume lives here? I believe her family held a garage sale here the other day.” Now she is looking confused.

“I’m sorry miss, there was no garage sale here within the past couple weeks. Are you sure it was here?” I am stunned.

“No offense, but I know there were people here. The woman had blonde hair, brown eyes, and was tall, wearing a nice sundress. And there was a man and child playing in the back garage. I could only assume they were her husband and child.”

“Madam…” She starts. “Are you referring to the back garage up front?”

“Yes.” I say more confidently and more annoyed.

“Um, I’m sorry, I don’t know how to tell you this but there hasn’t been anyone living in that space for 6 months now.”

“Wait, what?” My mind goes blank. Just the other day, there were people here. There was a family here. There was stuff sprawled out on tables for sale and there were other people buying stuff. “I’m sorry but I know there were people here.” Then I had a thought. “Do you have security camera’s here?”

“Yes we do miss, but may I suggest –” She starts but I instantly cut the associate off.

“Check the cameras.” I interrupted and they both pause. “Please, check the cameras. If there’s no one there, I will leave no questions asked. Just please, take a look at them from the past couple days.”

“Alright.” They both go to the back in the other room.

As they are gone, I begin pacing the floor with near panic seeping in. They have to have seen someone here that day, there were a lot of people here buying stuff. I know I didn’t imagine it, I know I’m not making this stuff up, I know what I saw. The women came back after reviewing the security footage.

“Madam, there isn’t anyone showing up on the footage.” I’m so numb in feeling, I’m speechless. “I’m sorry miss but if there’s nothing else, I would like to kindly ask you to leave.”

“Sure” I’m able to mutter under my breath. “Thank you for your help.”

As I take my leave of the building, my mind is blank. I know I spoke with people; I was holding items and they were real. I absentmindedly headed back to my apartment and just stared at this book. This book is real, what I saw was real, what I felt was real. As if being guided, my hand reaches for the book and I open its pages, the pages from before are still there showing myself and this knight, Shadow, talking near a giant tree.

“Talone.” I say. I had to tell him about this. If nothing else he would think it’s a cool mystery where he could pretend to be Sherlock Holmes. I chuckle at the thought. I pick up my phone and dial his number. Almost immediately I hear his voice.

“Hey! I was wondering when you would give me a holler.” He says, as energetic as ever.

“Listen, you need to come over. Something happened with the book.” There’s a slight pause.

“Amy, did you drown the book or something?”

“I’m being serious, here.” I say a bit irritated. “And no, I didn’t do anything with it. Just please come over.”

“Hold your horses, Amy. I was just joking.” He says. “Are you OK?”

“I have no idea, that’s why I need you to come over. To ensure I’m not going crazy.”

“Alright, give me a few minutes and I’ll be over.” He then hangs up and I sigh in relief. I need to have someone else look at this book to ensure I’m not losing my mind. This book shouldn’t exist, yet here it is. And I needed to find out why it was here. If this danger Shadow mentioned is truly as bad as he’s making it, then our world, as well as his, could be in bigger danger than we thought.

I jump in my seat as there’s a knock at my door a few minutes later and sigh in relief again at the sight of Talone.

“I’m glad you’re here.” He lets himself in.

“Wow, you’re not saying anything about my knocking. Something must be up.” He says as he takes off his sweatshirt.

“Take a look at this.” As I shove the book lying on the coffee table in his direction. He sits down and opens the book.

“Well,” he starts “The characters from before are still there. It looks like they still say the same thing.” He looks at me with a questioning glance.

“Keep looking.” He turns the pages and sees the panels. “Whoa, did you do this with that rain work technique?” He says flipping through the pages. “How did you do it without rain?”

“No, Talone, I didn’t do anything with this. I will be honest though I can’t tell you how happy I am that you are seeing these.”

“Ok, I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here.” He continues. “Did you have someone else, like another friend or something, come over and draw these in?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t understand how these got here other than someone drew them. Like I told you, I understand coding not books.” He says with a little humor.

“Talone, listen, I need to tell you something, and please take me seriously while I talk.”

“Alright. You know you can tell me anything.” He says with a look of concern on his face. “What’s going on here?”

I take a deep breath and proceed to tell him everything that happened. The dream I had, the book giving off a glow as if by magic, the conversation I had with the people at the apartment building about how the garage sale didn’t happen, everything. After I finish speaking, he is just speechless for a while, which is abnormal for him. After a while I nudge his shoulder.

“Hey, you ok? You still with me?” I say trying to shake him with a little humor.

“Oh sorry, I was just lost in thought.” He says shaking his head a little bit. “I’m just trying to understand this. You’ve always had vivid dreams before. Why would this be any different?”

“I don’t know if I can answer that. I seriously don’t know.” I say shaking my head.

“And the garage sale. You are absolutely sure the ladies there were positive one didn’t happen?”

“Based on my experience, they checked the security cameras and there was no activity on those cameras.” He goes quite for a while taking in everything I’ve said. For once, I think he’s actually taking me seriously. Before I can say anything, he gets up pretty quickly from my couch and heads for the door. “Hey, where are you going?”

“Give me a few minutes, I’ll be right back.” He says as he leaves. I didn’t have to wait long to get an answer and he bursts through the door, almost in excitement.

“Sorry for the sudden departure.” He says setting up his computer.

“No kidding.” I say. “What’s up?”

“Check this out.” He pulls up what looked like one of his “fun” coding projects, but it was data and articles about imaginary friends. “I was looking for a new topic to start a coding project and came about across these articles about the realization of imaginary friends. I remember you telling me a long time ago that you had an imaginary friend when you were young. Remember that?”

“Yeah, I got picked on a lot at school, so my imaginary friend was really my only friend. That is, until I met you of course.” He beams a smile and continues talking.

“Listen to this, by definition imaginary friends (also known as pretend friends or invisible friends) are known as a psychological and social phenomenon. It takes place in the imagination rather than external physical reality. Now, if you take this and combine it with a paracosm phenomenon, it makes sense with the vivid dreams and this book.” He looks at me and all he gets is a look of complete confusion.

“I know what an imaginary friend is, but what’s a paracosm phenomenon?”

“A paracosm is a detailed imaginary world involving humans and/or animals, or perhaps even fantasy or alien creations; much like vivid dreams and anything we see in movies and such. It’s often having its own geography, history, and language, it is an experience that is developed as a kid and continues over a long period of time, months or even years into adulthood.” He continues. “Amy, I think this is what you are going through.”

“Then how do you explain the panels in the book? You know I suck at drawing and I know I didn’t draw these!” I say pointing to the panels on the open pages of the thick book.

“That, I’m not sure. I know in coding you can have thousands of lines of code and think it looks like the crappiest thing in the world because there’s a lot of variations, linked lists, main roots, and so on. But, in actuality, only until you run the code can you see the true skill of the program and it’s coder.” He looks my way, and again sees a look of confusion.

“What I’m saying is you may say you suck at drawing, but what if your vivid dreams are bringing out your true skill of drawing?”

“Oh come on. Seriously?” I say. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s the best thing I got. I can only explain with software and code, not books. Seriously,” he says lightly punching my shoulder. “How many times do I have to explain that?”

“Maybe once I wake up from this reality and see that everything’s back to normal?”

“Seriously?” He says in a mock laugh. At that point, I let out a laugh and we both just end up laughing just like old times. We laugh for who knows how long and before you know it, Talone says he has to leave to get his project finished. We say our goodbyes and my stomach then reminds me to make supper.

I turn on the news and catch up on the events going on in the world and everything in it while boiling water to make a pasta dish of some sort. As I’m waiting for the water to go, I hear the same stories about companies, politics, and celebrities making drama about who knows what. I flip channels and come across this show about aliens and technology. So, I leave that on and go to my pasta when I get a knock at my door.

“Who could that be?” I ask myself. I look through the peephole and see it’s my landlord. I open the door. “Hello Mr. Swani. What can I help you with?”

“Yeah, you know your friend? Talone? He’s late on rent again. You know if he’s home? I wanna catch him before that snake slithers out the window.” I always think his Brooklyn accent is so cool when he talks. Talone had a habit of bailing at the last minute when our landlord came for rent when he can’t pay. I think about it and decide that I’m not going to save him this time, Talone has had his chances. I chuckle a little as I say “Yeah, he should be home. He just left my place a few minutes ago.”

“Thanks a lot. Have a good one.” He waves his goodbye and sets for Talone’s apartment. I chuckle as he walks away because I’ve reminded him time and time again that he can’t keep running from rent. Plus, the more he avoids it, the bigger the past due amount gets. With that thought, I close the door and go back to making my pasta. It doesn’t take long before I hear another knock at my door.

“Yo Amy!” Again, that Brooklyn accent comes through, loud and clear.

“One moment!” I rush to the door and open it before he bounds on the door any harder.

“That snake took off! Again!” He throws his arms up in frustration. I just shake my head and just try to remain calm. This is the third month in a row that Talone has skipped out on the landlord collecting rent. I’m surprised Talone is still able to live here in the apartment, to be honest, but there’s the matter of the issue at hand.

“Honestly, I have no idea where he could have gone this time. But, I’ll let you know as soon as I see him.”

“Good, tell him this.” He says getting up close. “He better pay up next time I see him or he’s outta here. I’m done playing this game.”

“Yes sir.” With that, he takes his leave. I close the door and take out my phone to send a message. I am not about to be in the middle of an oncoming battle between Talone and Mr. Swani. I send the message, Mr. Swani came around for rent and you weren’t home … again.