Joshua

My girlfriend has a son named Simon who has an imaginary friend, or so we thought. There would be times I would hear Simon talking to someone in his room, as if he was holding a conversation.

One wet afternoon, a few weeks back, I was editing a music video clip. I was by myself in the house as my girlfriend is a school teacher and Simon was at school. I was having some difficulty with some stuff and was sitting trying to work out the problem when I heard someone singing, a child singing. Thinking it was Simon, I didn't take much notice when it occurred to me that I was alone in the house. The singing was taking place in Simon's room. I got up and went out into the hall and walked to Simon's room. I pushed open the door and, for a fleecing second, I thought I saw a boy disappear into the closet. Thinking some kid broke into the house, I stormed over to the wardrobe and almost tore the doors off... It was empty but yet I swore I saw some kid disappear into it. I went back out into the hallway when I heard giggling behind me. I slowly turned around and saw, on the floor, a piece of paper that wasn't there a few seconds ago. On it was written, in childish writing (and I'm being serious about this) MY NAME IS JOSHUA. My heart almost stopped.

When Simon and my girlfriend came back, I asked Simon about his 'pal'. He looked at me and said: 'You mean Joshua?' I told Samantha, my girlfriend about what I found and she stared at me. 'Joshua? I had a little brother named Joshua,' she said, between sobs, 'he drowned when he was seven years old in a swimming accident... That was thirty two years ago...' Did Joshua come back to play with his nephew? I still 'see' the boy and took him as a part of the furniture, so to speak... Sorry if that was long...