As any book on raising kids will tell you, all kids have imaginary friends. Julia invented a few, or invested actual stuffed animals with fully fleshed-out personalities and histories, though she’s always preferred setting up complicated scenarios based on a book, a story, a TV show, or whatever. (See “Nativity Scenes, the Neverending Power of…,” pp. 1,348-2,682 in her forthcoming memoir, How About You…)
Genevieve, on the other hand, has spent a lot of time, and even more time lately, inventing a whole cast of characters who are both pals and alter egos. While “Big Boy” is now largely a memory of the dim past (that is, October), she still occasionally pretends to be the well-behaved and cheerful cat “George,” and now loves to pretend to be a “big sister” named “Ally,” who is variously aged six, nine, ten or some other positive integer greater than three.
Ally’s a good egg, and likes to take care of her brother/friend Daniel, who’s very shy but often joins us for dinner, though he never eats much. Ally especially likes to go to school, which entais, first determining what grade she’s in and then a very long but cheery search in her bedroom for stuff to put her Dora bookbag backpack: books, pencils, paper, stuffed animals (especially good old Teddy O’Peep), jewelry, toys, and so forth. Once suitably equipped, Ally trudges down the hall to the playroom and mutters, “Hi, teachew. I’m hewe for skoo-ow.” She doesn’t seem excited, but that’s just Ally. She buckles right down and gets to work on, say, a picture of a rainbow, until she needs to go see about Daniel. He’s usually hungry, probably because he didn’t eat enough at lunch.