Lee Bacon - Imaginary

PUBLISHERS NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4197-4664-2
e ISBN 9781683359692

Text 2021 Lee Bacon

Illustrations 2021 Katy Wu

Book design by Marcie Lawrence

Published in 2021 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Amulet Books is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

For Clara

There was a time when everyone had imaginary friends. Everyone your age anyway.

The polka-dot panda on a unicycle.

The green blob with a ferret for a hat.

The taco with arms made of cheese sticks.

It was a strange crowd.

I fit right in.

But as you got older, your classmates lost touch with their imaginary friends. Kids were growing up, moving on, finding other things to care about. Real things.

Until.

One day.

I looked up and realized

All the other imaginary friends were gone.

I was the only one left.

An imaginary friend is like a carton of eggs.

We come with an expiration date.

Like all the other worn scraps of childhoodthe tattered blanket, the fluffy bear with the face thats been smooshed from too much cuddlingtherell come a time when youll outgrow me.

Sends a shiver down my fur just thinking about it.

When you were little, youd lead me around proudly, introducing me to the people you met.

But now youre eleven. And Ive stuck around long past the usual expiration date.

These days, you dont brag about me. You dont talk about me at all. Not to your friends, not to your teachers, not even to your mom.

Im a lot less popular than I used to be.

I remember the day we met. You were much smaller then. Standing in your backyard, beneath a ceiling of branches and leaves. There was a yellow plastic shovel in your hands and a shallow hole at your feet. Chunks of your backyard were strewn everywhere.

Your eyes were bright and blue. Your face was smudged with dirt and grape juice. There was a single leaf in your hair.

If you were surprised to see me, suddenly, standing at your side, you didnt show it.

You grinned and said, Hi!

I smiled back. Hello.

You examined me for a second. You look weird.

Did I? Id only existed for twelve seconds. I hadnt even had a chance to check myself out yet.

I looked down. This is what I saw:

Fur.

Purple fur.

Lots and lots of purple fur.

I pieced the rest of my appearance together over time. You might describe me as a ball of purple fuzz. Except a whole lot bigger than any ball of fuzz youd see drifting around the house. I have two arms and two legs, two eyes and one mouth.

I suppose I did look weird. But then again you were the one who imagined me. So I guess that made you a little weird too.

You ran a hand across your cheek, adding another smudge to your face. Im Zach.

Nice to meet you, Zach. My name is uh

My voice fell into silence. I was just beginning to realize something a bit awkward.

I didnt have a name.

But you were about to change that. Your eyes dropped to the shovel in your hand. Your face lit up. How bout we call you Shovel?

Shovel?

You nodded.

Like the thing you dig with?

You nodded again.

Okay, then. I smiled. My names Shovel.

Hey, I have an idea! You can help me and Ryan with our project!

I tilted my head. Ryan?

A sound from the other end of the yard. A door opening and closing. I turned just in time to see a kid step out of the house next door. He looked about your age. A gangly boy with wild black hair that stood up in every direction.

Thats Ryan, you said. He lives next door. And hes also my best friend.

Ryan came running across the yard, barreling right through a pile of leaves.

You called out to him. Guess what! I made a new friend. Hes gonna help us with our project!

I still didnt know what this big project of yours was. And I dont think I ever actually agreed to help. But if I seemed clueless, Ryan was even more confused.

He glanced around. New friend?

You pointed. Hes right here. His names Shovel.

Ryan looked in the direction you were pointing and saw

Nothing.

Which wasnt a surprise. To everyone but you, Im invisible. Im nothing at all.

But Ryan didnt mind. Its like I said already: At that age, everyone had imaginary friends.

You pointed to the hole and explained, Me and Ryan are digging a tunnel!

To the other side of the earth, Ryan added.

When I glanced down at my hand, I was surprised to see that I was holding a shovel too.

We got started. You and me and Ryan. Dirt crunched under our shovels as we dug.

Deeper.

Deeper.

Deeper.

Before long, wed gone far below the surface. The sky was nothing more than a tiny speck of light above us. We kept going. Our tunnel plunged farther into the earth.

Finally, the ground broke open.

Wed made it!

All the way to the other side of the earth!

And it had only taken twenty minutes!

We climbed out of the hole. Brushing away the dirt, I looked around. Grass, trees, a house. Thats what we saw. I scratched at my furry head. The other side of the earth looked a lot like your backyard.

Hey, buddy. Watcha doin?

The voice caught me by surprise. I spun and saw a future version of you standing on the back deck. A man who shared your bright blue eyes and curly tangle of hair.

Hi, Dad! You waved a filthy hand. We just dug a tunnel to the other side of the earth.

Really?

For some reason, he sounded like he didnt believe you. Following his gaze, I realized why. All of a sudden, our incredibly deep tunnel didnt look so deep after all.