When I was a child, we lived in a rented house just outside of Richmond Va, near a 2-3 story Elementary School just off of Hull Street. The house was a small two bedroom one story house. I don't recall exactly when it started but my younger brother started talking about his best friend Jimmy, which he had "made up" because he really had no other children is age to play with. My brother and I shared a bedroom and whenever I came into the room, my brother would say that Jimmy was hiding from me because he didn't like to be seen. During the time that we lived in this house, we were given a German Shepard puppy who we named "Lady", whose parents were guard dogs at the Towing Service where our father worked. My brother adored that dog and played with her all of the time.
There was one summer afternoon, when I was 5 and my brother was 3, that my brother and "Lady" left our yard and went for a walk. Sometime later, my brother returned very upset that Lady had ripped his pants. My parents were surprised by this because Lady was a very gentle dog, even for a puppy and asked my brother what he was doing and where he was when this happened. He said that he and Jimmy were going to "see the water" (there was a small pond surrounded by trees at the end of our street) and that every time they tried to go beyond the trees, Lady would bark and growl at Jimmy so much that my brother decided to take her home. Lady finally grabbed my brother by his "britches" and drug him home. Our parents reminded my brother that he was not allowed to walk down to the pond alone and that Lady was doing her job by bringing him home, but my brother was adamant that he was not alone, he was with Jimmy. My mother made the comment that Jimmy's mother probably wanted him to come home and my brother said that he was home, that we lived in his house, that he lived in the house first, that his mother went away.
I don't remember exactly when we moved out of the house, but I do know that Jimmy was not mentioned after we moved. When I was in high school years later, I was riding around with my boyfriend at the time and saw the old school. We drove down our old street and stopped a lady who was walking a dog in front of the house that we lived in. I asked her how long she lived in the neighborhood and if she knew anything about the house. She said that there was a lady who lived at the end of the street who could help me. When I asked her about that house, she grew a little pale and seemed to shiver. I told her that I lived there in the early 1970s. The only thing that she would say was that there was a mother and little boy who lived in that house and that the little boy drowned in the pond one summer. I asked if his name was Jimmy and she just looked at me and said "how did you know that?".
I should mention that my brother did not remember Jimmy until my mother retold the story, he did suddenly remember him, but he said that he was a REAL person but that he couldn't understand why he lived in our closet.
Loading comments....
