The Story Begins by Modou Fye

across the world while still in Lydia’s room had–all within the blink of an eye–disappeared from within the sphere in which they traveled, manifested right beside it, created a spark and blown it towards the earth, intending to destroy it. As the spark traveled towards the earth, it grew greater in stature; however, when it was but a hair’s breath away from impacting the earth’s atmosphere, an unseen but far greater power interceded, absorbing what had initially been but a tiny spark into a vacuum and thus spared the earth.
    Then a sonorous voice had boomed across the heavens, asking, “Shall you destroy all that your beloved holds dear? Shall you not grant her, her loved ones again? Remember her heart always lest you destroy her spirit.” Then the voice was gone. Lydia’s new friend had then bowed his head in acknowledgement and reverence before returning to the sphere.
    As they traveled into the deep dark of space, unbeknownst to Lydia then, her new friend had been creating a sun with but a single world with wild natural beauty to revolve around it. When they had arrived to where the new creation lay, they had descended just in time to witness the last blooming flower on that wildly beautiful planet blossom in their presence. For the first time, he spoke to her saying, “A gift for you.” He was referring to the planet as a whole.
    Because Lydia had always had a television in her room, when her parents heard her talking and laughing aloud, the assumption was that it must have been because of something she was watching on television.
    And just as Rya had done with Jaden, so too did Shia do with Lydia. Initially he had spent a great deal of time with her but his visits grew less frequent as she grew older. Shia, though, had stayed with Lydia a lot longer than Rya had with Jaden, and grew with her as she grew older.
    His visits always meant a lot of fun, which usually meant trips to anywhere, or anything else her mind could conceive. However, unlike Rya and Jaden, he was never seen by anyone other than her, and the worlds they visited for the most part were inhabited by animals that belonged in the wild, not to any one dominant species such as man on earth.
    *
    BACK TO THE PRESENT: Today there was but the two of them at home. Neither her parents nor Cassandra, her neighbor, who was more like a sister, were home. Lydia’s parents not being home meant that she didn’t have to worry about them interrupting her playtime. She needn’t worry about discretion as she didn’t want them believing that, at almost thirteen years of age, she still had an ‘imaginary’ friend. Though he was very real and there was absolutely nothing imaginary about him, she never tried talking to her parents about him for one reason; she’d seen enough movies in which the grown-ups never believed the children, even though they told the truth about such matters.
    “Why do you kind of look like all the boys that I know?” Lydia asked for the very first time as they floated aimlessly about her room, albeit she had wondered this for a very long time. “And are you ever going to be like a real person that everybody can see?”
    “I don’t know. I never thought about such things. Maybe that’s just how my father wants it.” He thought a while then continued. “If I had to guess, I’d say maybe because I don’t particularly care for discretion, and the things that I do when I am with you would probably cause concern among people should they see me is why my father would rather I remain unseen… and if that’s not why, I’m sure he has his reasons,” Shia explained. “As far as looking like all the boys that you know, I don’t even have a guess for that but I’m sure that there is a reason for that as well.”
    Lydia knew Shia and his power and might well enough to agree that he was probably right, which was probably one of the reasons they mostly visited planets with entirely wildlife.
    *
    The older Jaden and Lydia smiled;