I have lost a friend

It's been less than a year since they died, and I still miss them very much.

"They" were my imaginary friends for years, since before I can remember. There was Dexter with her squeaky voice and Lefty with his gravelly one. They helped me play parts in games, such as hospital, acting out favorite stories, and, in later years, celebrities such as...well, better not say. Those celebrities have an uncanny way of finding out such things and I will not go into the way they were.

The day they died they put on a performance as Luke and Leia, though in real life Dexter and Lefty were not related and I played matchmaker for them. I even spruced Dexter up with a red wedding veil ("I look like a babushka!" she cried. "Take it off!") and rang the wedding bells, then they thought it was nap time and fell asleep. The wedding (and the playtime) was called off as I slapped them to wake them up.

Dexter had a high squeaky voice and was somewhat frivolous and silly. She also had great capacity for capturing some actions of certain women I know of, though the sillyness of it made them unrecognizable. Lefty was her counterpart, serious and indentifiable by his voice and his "monocle"--really several different wedding rings. But that's another story, and brings up a couple bad memories, so I won't go into that now.

I am glad I taped them doing our favorite stories, for they are dead now. I will not try to resurrect them, for they are gone. I can only remember and weep, for they were very dear and very real to me and the longest-lasting of my imaginary friends. Or even my friends, though these friends I mean to keep in touch with and their friendships shall probably be carried on for a very long time. But Dexter and Lefty were real. The fairies transformed them long ago, and their grave has no marker (When I get home, though, I mean to put up a monument) (No, not in the yard, in my room) (Yes, in plain sight). And I will never meet them again in reality, ever. Their memories will stay with me for a long time. And I can hear their voices because of the recordings.

Some say imaginary friends die because you don't need them anymore. Sure, some of them do. But those of them that are touched by reality, they, they perhaps will die before their times. And it is quite painful if they do.

Of course Dexter and Lefty were not real in the true sense of the world, but they were quite dear to me and all the sentiments expressed in this obituary are honest, true, and nothing to sneeze at. If I didn't have Evonne, Rachel, Kiana, Holli, Kelly, and anyone else who is to be or was indeed at one point a friend of mine, this would've been much harder. Dear friends, one and all, I love you and I'm grateful for you.
Saro