Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend (23 page)

‘Max,’ I say, trying to sound like a Mrs Gosk. ‘Mrs Patterson is bad and we have to get you out of here.’

I don’t actually know how to do this, but I know I can’t do anything if Max doesn’t agree.

‘She is not bad,’ Max says.

‘She stole you,’ I say. ‘She tricked you and stole you from school.’

‘Mrs Patterson says I shouldn’t go to school. She says that school is not a safe place for me.’

‘That’s not true,’ I say.

‘Yes, it is,’ Max says, and it sounds like he is getting upset. ‘You know it. Tommy Swinden is going to kill me if I stay in school. Ella and Jennifer are always touching me. Touching my food. Kids make fun of me. Mrs Patterson knows about Tommy Swinden and the other kids and she said that school is not a good place for me.’

‘Your mom and dad think school is a safe place for you. And they are your mom and dad.’

‘Moms and dads don’t always know best. That’s what Mrs Patterson says.’

‘Max, you are locked up in a basement. That is bad. Only bad people lock kids in basements. We have to get you out.’

Max’s voice softens. ‘If I tell Mrs Patterson that I am happy, then she will be happy.’

I don’t understand what Max means. Before I can ask him, he speaks again.

‘If Mrs Patterson is happy, she won’t touch me or hurt me.’

‘Mrs Patterson told you that?’

‘No. But I think it,’ Max says. ‘I think if I tried to get away she might get real angry.’

‘I don’t think so, Max. I don’t think she wants to hurt you. She just wants to steal you.’

But as I say this, I wonder if Max is right. Max doesn’t understand people very well, but there are times when he understands people better than anyone else. He might not see how sucking on his fingers in the middle of class makes him look silly, but he was the only one who knew that Mrs Gosk was sad on the day her mom died. Max knew right away, even though Mrs Gosk did a good job hiding it, and the rest of the kids didn’t know until the next day when Mrs Gosk told them. So I wonder if he is right about Mrs Patterson, too. Maybe she is more of a devil than I thought.

‘Don’t you want to leave?’ I ask.

‘This is a good place,’ Max says. ‘It has lots of good stuff. And you are here. You promise that you will never leave?’

‘Yes, I promise. But what about your mom and dad?’

I want to say more. I want to list all the things that Max will miss if he stays locked up in this room but I can’t. I realize that, in all of Max’s life, the only things that he might miss are his mom and dad. He has no friends. His grandma died last year, and his other grandma lives in Florida and never sees him. His aunt and uncles are nervous and quiet around him. His cousins avoid him. All he has is his mom and dad and his things and me. And his things might be just as important to him as his mom and dad. That is a sad thing to say, but it is a true thing to say, too. If Max had to choose between his Lego and his army men or his mom or dad, I don’t know what he would choose.

I think Max’s mom knows this, too. I think his dad probably knows, too, but he lies to himself and says it isn’t true.

‘I can see Mom and Dad again,’ Max says. ‘Mrs Patterson told me. Someday. But not now. She is going to take care of me and keep me safe and keep me away from school. She calls me her little lad.’

‘What about her son?’ I ask. ‘Have you met him?’

‘Mrs Patterson doesn’t have a son anymore. He died. She told me.’

I do not speak. I wait.

Max looks down at his submarine and tries to fit pieces into the unfinished side. After a minute, he starts speaking again. ‘He died because his daddy did not take care of him good enough. So he died.’

I think about asking where Mr Patterson is right now, but I do not. Wherever Mr Patterson is, he is not here. He is not a part of this. I know this now.

‘Do you like it here?’ I ask.

‘It’s a good room,’ Max says. ‘It has a lot of good stuff. It was a mess when I got here but Mrs Patterson let me fix it. All the Lego were mixed up and the
Star Wars
stuff was in the toy box and all the army men were still in their boxes. All wrapped in plastic and stuff. And those DVDs were in a box, too. Now everything is right. She even gave me a piggy bank and a bunch of pennies, and I got to put the pennies inside. There were so many that they almost didn’t fit.’

Max points at the desk. There is a small, metallic piggy bank on the corner of the desk. It has tiny metal legs and metal ears and a metal snout. It is tarnished and old.

‘It was Mrs Patterson’s when she was little,’ Max says, seeming to read my mind.

I think that Mrs Patterson was smart to let Max fix the room. I bet that fixing the room helped Max get through the first day. Max can’t leave his Lego unless they are sorted into the right piles, and in kindergarten he used to sort the Lego center before he went home or it would bother him all night. I bet that Max stayed busy during his first day here, if he wasn’t stuck.

‘Max, if you are afraid of Mrs Patterson, then this is not a good place.’

‘I am not afraid of her as long as she is happy. And now you are here. I feel a lot better now. As long as you are here, everything will be fine. I know it. I told Mrs Patterson that I needed you, and she said that maybe you would come. And you did. Now we can just be together here.’

That is when I realize it. I will never disappear as long as Max stays in this room.

Max’s mom and dad are always pushing Max to grow up, meet new people, try new things. Max’s dad wants him to join something called Farm League next year and Max’s mom wants to see if he can play the piano. They send him to school every day even though Max told them that Tommy Swinden is going to kill him.

I never thought about it before, but Max’s mom and dad are my biggest danger.

They want Max to grow up.

Mrs Patterson wants to do the opposite. She wants to keep Max in this room made especially for Max. She wants to keep Max here and keep him safe. She is not going to send a ransom note or chop Max up into tiny pieces. She just wants to keep him here like he belongs to her. All locked up and safe. She is a devil in the pale moonlight, but she is not a movie or television devil. She is a real devil, and maybe I should be dancing with her after all.

If Max stays here, I could live for as long as Max lives. I could live longer than any imaginary friend ever.

Maybe if Max stays here in this room, we could both be happily ever after.

CHAPTER 38

Max and I are playing with army men when the door opens and Mrs Patterson comes in. She is wearing a pink nightgown.

I feel embarrassed. I am looking at a teacher in her pajamas.

Max does not look at her. His head stays down. He is staring at the pile of army men in front of him. They were just hit by something called a cruise missile. It was actually just a crayon that Max dropped from a plastic airplane, but it blew up all the neat little rows of men by the time Max was done with them.

‘You’ve been playing with your army men?’ Mrs Patterson asks. She sounds surprised.

‘Yes,’ Max says. ‘Budo is here.’

‘Oh, he is? I’m so happy for you, Max.’

She really does look happy. I think she might be relieved to hear that Max has someone to play with, even if she doesn’t think I’m real. She probably thinks that Max is getting adjusted to his new room, and that is why I am back.

She doesn’t know how hard it was for me to get here.

‘It’s time for bed,’ Mrs Patterson says. ‘Did you brush your teeth yet?’

‘No,’ Max says, still looking down. There is a gray sniper in his hand. He turns it over and over in his hand as he speaks.

‘Will you brush your teeth?’ she asks.

‘Yes,’ Max says.

‘Would you like me to tuck you in?’

‘No,’ Max says. He says this fast. He answers her question fast, and he says the word
No
fast, even though it’s just the word
No
.

‘Okay but you need to be in bed, lights out, in fifteen minutes.’

‘Yes,’ Max says.

‘Okay, then. Good night, Max.’

Her voice gets higher as she says the last three words, as if she is waiting for him to speak. She is waiting for him to say ‘Good night’ in return and finish the little good-night song. She stands by the doorway for a minute, waiting for Max to answer.

Max stares at his sniper and says nothing.

When she realizes that Max is not going to answer, her face falls. Her eyes and cheeks and head all drop, and for an instant I feel bad for Mrs Patterson. She may have stolen Max, but she will not hurt Max. In this tiny moment of sadness, I know this for sure.

She loves Max.

I know you can’t just steal a little boy from his parents because you lost your own little boy and I know that she is probably still a devil and a monster. But in that split second, she looks more like a sad lady than a monster. I think she thought that Max would make her happy, but so far he has not.

She finally leaves, closing the door behind her without saying another word.

‘Will she come back to check on you?’ I ask.

‘No,’ Max says.

‘So why not play all night?’

‘I don’t know,’ Max says. ‘She won’t peek through the door, but I think she would still know somehow.’

Max walks to the door marked
Boys
. He opens it. There is a bathroom on the other side of the door. He takes a toothbrush down off the sink, squeezes some toothpaste onto the brush and begins brushing.

‘How did she know to get you Crest Kids gel?’ I ask. It is the only toothpaste that Max will use.

‘She didn’t,’ he says between brushings. ‘I told her.’

I could ask more about the toothpaste but don’t. Either Max got stuck on the first night when she tried to get him to use Colgate or Crest Cool Mint (which happened once when Max’s dad tried to change the toothpaste) or she asked him which toothpaste he wanted before he needed to brush.

She probably asked Max. Even though Mrs Patterson changed every single thing in Max’s entire life, she also understands that any change is trouble for Max. Max’s dad understands this, but he keeps trying to change things anyway, even when he knows that Max will get stuck. His mom understands, too, but she tries to change things slowly, so Max won’t notice. Max’s dad just changes things, like the toothpaste.

‘This room is nice,’ I say as Max changes into pajamas. They are camouflage pajamas. They are not the pajamas that he usually wears, but I can tell that he likes them a lot. When he is done putting them on, he walks into the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror.

‘This place is pretty nice,’ I say again.

Max does not answer.

I keep thinking about the way he turned that army man over and over in his hand when Mrs Patterson was talking to him, and the way he would not look at her. Max said that this was a good room and that we could just stay here together. I believe him, but I think there are words behind those words that Max is not saying.

Max is afraid. Max is sad.

Part of me wants to forget about the way he was staring at that army man. It wants me to wait a few days or a month or even a year because Max will eventually like his new room and maybe even Mrs Patterson. It wants me to believe that Max will be fine like he said he will because that means that I get to exist for ever.

But another part of me wants to save Max right now, before it’s too late. Before something happens that I can’t see yet. That part of me thinks that I am Max’s only chance and I have to do something soon.

Now.

And I am standing in between the two parts of me. Stuck like Max. I want to save both of us but I don’t know if I can.

I don’t know how much of Max I am allowed to lose to save myself.

CHAPTER 39

Max is finally asleep.

He turned out the lights and climbed into bed after brushing his teeth. I sat in a chair next to his bed and waited for him to arrange the pillows. Just like home.

Except there are nine nightlights in the room, six more than Max has in his bedroom at home, so it isn’t very dark.

I waited for Max to say something, but he just lay there, staring at the ceiling. I asked him if he wanted to talk, because we usually talk before he goes to sleep, but he just shook his head. After a little while he whispered, ‘Good night, Budo.’

That was it.

After a long time, he fell asleep.

I’ve been sitting here ever since, wondering what to do. I listen to Max breathing. He tosses and turns a little, but he does not wake up. If I close my eyes and just listen to him, it is almost like we are home again.

If we were home, I would be sitting in the living room by now, watching television with Max’s parents.

I already miss them.

I feel trapped inside this room.

I am trapped inside this room. I am a prisoner, just like Max. I stare at the door and wonder how I could ever save Max when I can’t even escape myself.

Then I know what to do.

I stand up and walk to the door. I take three steps into and then through the door, and a second later I am standing back in the part of the basement with the little tennis table and the stairs. There are no nightlights in this room, so it is pitch black.

I passed through the door on Max’s side of the wall because it looks like a door. Max even called it a door. He had said that Mrs Patterson would not peek through the door, which means that it is a door to Max, and if it is a door, I can pass through it. It is his idea of a door.

But the super-secret door on this side of the wall is not a door in Max’s mind, so I cannot pass through it. In Max’s mind it is a wall. Just to check, I turn and walk back toward the wall. It is so dark that I bump into it even harder than I had expected.

I was right. It’s just a wall on this side.

This might not have been a good idea. If Max wakes up, I cannot get back into the room to let him know I am still here. I won’t even know if he is awake. I have left Max alone again, and he will know it. I have made another big mistake.