Eddie had always known there was something different about Claude.

Other kids told him about their friends, sure, but their friends were make-believe.  They were pretend.

Claude was something different.

The grown-ups thought it was the same, and Eddie didn’t care to change their minds.  Lots of kids had imaginary friends, and as long as you “outgrew” them when you ten or eleven or something, the adults didn’t think much about it.

But Claude – Claude actually moved things.  He’d move the bike because he was riding with Eddie  – and, sometimes, in later days, with Eddie’s friends and his kid brother Donnie. He’d move the ball because they were playing soccer.  Eddie had a lot of fun with him, especially those early years when his parents were doting on Baby Donnie and then Baby Eloise.

The thing was, the minute an adult was anywhere in line of sight, Claude vanished.  He wasn’t just invisible to the adults, he was gone.  The bike fell down, the ball went straight through where he’d been to the goal, the Captain’s hat dropped to the ground.  Every time.  They learned to play in the backyard after the third time Eddie got yelled at for the bike at the end of the driveway.

Claude was a lot of fun, even if he did get Eddie in trouble.  He left stuff lying around, he vanished and left Eddie to get yelled at for things he’d done, he sometimes pulled pranks on Donnie or Eloise, which of course Eddie was blamed for. Continue reading →