Blind Freddie

            “Blind Freddie even knows how stupid that idea is!” Kelly shouted at Max, who had come up with the idea that jumping off the roof with a cape would enable him to fly.

            “If Superman can do it, so can I!” Max shouted back, twisting the blue towel into a knot and adjusting it so that it flapped behind him like a cape.

            “You need wings! Blind Freddie says!”

            “Blind Freddie thinks that two plus two equals seven. He doesn’t know anything! Silly Susan knows more than him!”

            “Silly Susan thinks that it’s fun to set things on fire. You should listen to Blind Freddie,” Kelly crossed her arms and sat on the roof, criss-cross-apple-sauce style and huffed. Blind Freddie and Silly Susan were the twins’ imaginary friends, and they always got into trouble because of them.

            Blind Freddie usually gave them the wrong answers to questions and was a bumbling fool. Silly Susan always got them into trouble when they were playing games because her games were always dangerous and she couldn’t see how. Max and Kelly were always getting into trouble because they didn’t know which of the two imaginary friends would give them the best solution to their predicaments, but they knew that one of them held the right answer and one of them held the wrong answer, the only problem was guessing which one was which.

            “I’m gonna fly away like Superman, and become an imaginary friend, just like Blind Freddie and Silly Sally.” Max shouted from the roof, looking out from the third story to the ocean ahead, and leapt.

            “Blind Freddie knew that was stupid! He knew! Why didn’t he listen!” Kelly sobbed into her pillow and beat her small fists into her mattress. Her brother’s funeral had been that morning and her parents were trying to comfort her, but they didn’t know how. They knew that the imaginary friends that the kids had were the problem, and had already consulted some psychiatrists about what to do, but they blamed themselves more than they blamed the children’s brains.

            “Sweetie, it’s okay. Max is in a better place,” Her mother spoke softly, sniffling and trying to sound so sure of herself so that she could be the rock her daughter needed. Her father was looking out the bedroom window, his eyes were raw from brushing aside his tears before they could fall and he was using his wife as support as they stood in the twins’ bedroom. He hadn’t looked at his son’s side of the room since they decided what wood his coffin would be made of.

            “The name is Flying, Flying Max.” Her brother’s voice echoed in her head.

            “My brother’s name was Max,” She whispered in the dream.

            “I know. I’m friends with Blind Freddie and Silly Sally.”

            “I hate them.”

            “Why?”

            “They were both stupid enough to think a person could fly.”

            “Blind Freddie was right though. You do humans do need wings to fly. You know, airplanes?” There was laughter in the voice, and Kelly woke up. She smiled, laughed a bit at the joke, and cried herself back to sleep.