Imaginary Friends

“Gina is my little girl.”

Gina is the first and foremost among Bella’s coterie of imaginary friends. She’s Bella’s daughter and appeared at about the time when Ben was born. Bella told stories of being in the hospital for Gina’s delivery. Sometimes Gina is a dol. Other times she seems to be in invisible person only Bella can see. Bella does not insist that we talk to or interact with Gina.

Gina sometimes has a brother or a sister but they remain nameless.

Then there are names that we don’t really get much information about. They just appear in her chatter about her day.

Ayrie is one that has come up again and again. At first I thought she was saying ‘Ellie’—she’s not very good with R. But she corrected my corrected pronunciation and was only happy when I echoed her pronunciation: Ayrie. It’s always ‘My friend Ayrie,” so definitely not in the ‘Gina’ category.

Kellin is a name that came up for the first time last week. Also a friend. I have no idea where she gets these names but I’m fascinated. She was very clear that it wasn’t Karen (my first attempt to understand what she was saying) or Kevin. No, it was Kellin.

Ann is an interesting one. Bella has a strong attachment to Dom’s sweet co-worker, Anna. But her imaginary friend is just plain Ann. (I don’t know if it’s Anne with an E or not; but I rather think not.)

I’m rather sad that we no longer play with Pooh and Piglet and the others. I miss the old gang. But they are gone back to their storybook land. Now ‘Pooh’ is just Sophie’s generic name for any teddy bear.