Imaginary Friend

One interesting thing to know about my childhood, is that I grew up next to a small graveyard. I spent  a lot of play time there alone. There were fewer than twenty graves there at the time in the 70's and 80's. Today, there are still less than twenty five. The graveyard sat higher than our home, a top a steep embankment. A row of pine trees separated our property from the first row of graves. Those same pine trees, were planted by my father after each Christmas. Proudly, they stand there today.

I played in the graveyard all throughout my childhood. I skipped along the graves, climbed on top of the large ones and sat kicking my feet against the cold marble. I played hide and go seek with my imaginary friends. I rode my bicycle through the graveyard on many occasions. Not once, did I fear the place. It was for me, an escape. My very own private playground. 

My friend Adam was a young boy, about age 4 or 5. He had brown hair and wore a hat. He never came inside my house. He was instead in the graveyard and in my backyard. He and I played a lot. I told him everything about my day from the moment I saw him. It never occurred to me that he didn't play in my house. He waited for me though, right outside, at the side facing the graveyard. Of course as I got older, I reflected back to my friend Adam and I am sure that he was a ghost. His features were very real. He had substance and always wore the same hat.

There was a child buried in the graveyard. Small, white, marble tombstones, one with a lamb on top of it.I do believe that was my friend I knew as "Adam."