[ WP ] You meet someone who is exactly like your childhood imaginary friend . You discover they had an imaginary friend that is eerily similar to you .

“ Rosaline…? ” 
 
 The little girl in the white dress turned and broke into a huge grin. No front teeth, exactly the way she remembered her. 
 
 “ Ava! ” The girl squealed and ran across the grass to her, hugging floppy Mr. Bear close, the way she always did. 
 
 Ava stared in disbelief. It was a stiflingly hot day, and she had been in the sun re-reading that second work draft for too long. It was due this afternoon, and so were about ten million other things. They had hated her first draft. The office was too hot, too crowded. She came out to the park to breathe. She must have fallen asleep on the bench and was dreaming. God knows she needed the sleep. Now in her twenties, with a job that loved her too much, her own projects on the side and an apartment she hardly ever left the office for, she was too rational and, yes, grown-up to be seeing this. Maybe it was one of those lucid dream things. But she wasn ’ t asleep. And there she was, standing right there. Rosaline. 
 
 “ Ava, I ’ ve *missed* you! ” The girl gasped, her breath short from running. 
 
 “ Hi! ” Ava tried to be casual, “ My name is Ava. What ’ s your name? ” 
 
 The girl cocked her head to the left and frowned, the way she always did when she was serious. “ Ava, *You* called me Rosaline! ” 
 
 Ava smiled with a trace of embarrassment, “ Yes, I know, I ’ m sorry. When I was a little girl, I had a friend called Rosaline. You look a lot like her. ” 
 
 “ I *mean*, I *am* Rosaline! Mr. Bear knows too! ” Rosaline made Mr. Bear nod his head. 
 
 This had to be a coincidence. 
 
 “ Ava, what are you doing? ” 
 
 “ Work. ” 
 
 “ Ava, work is so *boring*! ” 
 
 “ Not what I ’ m doing it isn ’ t. I love my work. I ’ m really very lucky. ” 
 
 Rosaline cocked her head again. “ Ava, you *look* really bored. Maybe you need your friend to cheer you up. ” 
 
 Ava had to laugh. 
 
 “ Ava, Mr. Bear says he wants to hear about your friend! ” 
 
 “ Oh, um… well, she ’ s an imaginary friend… Do you know what that means? ” 
 
 Rosaline clapped her hands gleefully, sending Mr. Bear flopping lifelessly. “ I *love* imaginar-ary friends! I have one too! She ’ s the *bestest*! *She* hasn ’ t lost her front teeth yet! ” 
 
 A memory in the back of Ava ’ s head escaped, just out of her grasp. Teeth. It was something about teeth. It was around the time she lost her baby teeth that she made up Rosaline. But there was something else. A stick? Someone swinging a bat? Wet running redness running from her face all over her hands? No, blackness. Comforting, velvet blackness. 
 
 “ Guess what her name is? ” 
 
 “ Sorry? ” 
 
 “ Guess! My imaginar-ary friend! ” 
 
 Ava looked at Rosaline ’ s familiar, toothless face. She didn ’ t have to guess. 
 
 “ Ava. ” 
 
 Rosaline held out her hand and Ava knew. She knew she had to follow Rosaline. She had done this before, and she knew that Rosaline was taking her to a sweet home, sweeter than any home she had ever known.
