Playground (A Luc’s POV)

Hmm… I guess dad wasn’t wrong when he told me it’d be fun working with my brother. The day Gabe left home, I remembered dad telling me he’s never coming back. Big deal. He will. Our kind always does. Our kind, the Guardians or in the humans’ sense, imaginary friends. Despite of our age we would each be assigned to any random kid the papers chose for us. Some of us would stay on earth for a few years, some only for months (in this cases, the kids might have met new Guardians or maybe the outgrew us). That’s how our lives are. Some may ask, are we angels?

No.

Angels, those heavenly beings mentioned in the Roman Catholic beliefs, are different from us. They have their own jobs. I heard theirs was to protect believers from harm, corruption and the likes. I don’t really know. But they’re gonna be stuck with the believer they’re assigned to for the rest of his/her life. They’re more patient than us. More…gentle, sophisticated. They’re really, really nice folks.

And they have wings.

Us, the Guardians are way laid back than them. We sleep on the clouds till duty calls. We only wait for the papers to come. Unlike the angels, we become what the client wants us to be. For communication sake. It’s cool if it’s your first time but if you had different clients before, it’s rather confusing or amusing. What’s not cool is that we’re forgotten, completely most of the times. But someone’s gotta do the work, right? Whatever.

Emma was Gabe’s first client, his first assignment. He didn’t like her at first but after spending more than a decade with your client, something is bound to change, isn’t it? When they made it pass a decade, dad sent me down to help Gabe. He said, in his wise man’s voice, “Son, your brother needs you. It can’t just be the two of them. What fun is that? Besides, he told his client he has a brother and now she wants to meet you.”

Old man.

I hated this kind of work ever since I could talk. I intended to give Emma a piece of my mind. One can’t have more than a single Guardian. Who does she think she is, to just call me down when she wants to - just to meet me, for damn sake! So I went down, yes. Big mistake. Yes.

Gabe greeted me as soon as I reached her place and introduced me to Emma. When she saw me, she smiled. I sensed something was not right about this girl. The way Gabe talked to her, to me was exactly the way he did back home. I knew it then that this girl was a hazard. She indulged too much in her imaginations that she particularly befriended Gabe, knowing who we are! Kids don’t usually realized we’re imaginary friends. They think we’re real.

Emma made us believed we’re real. See the difference?

Law #27: Avoid a curious client. But then again, Emma seemed fun, overall. As a client, she’s a tedious task. As a friend, she’s cool. In touch with her emotions, charming. Emotions, huh? To human guys it sounds so troublesome. To us, it was charming because we’re tied to a client’s emotions. Without that, there’s no us, really.

So I’ve been with them for almost 6 years now. Gabe seemed to like her a lot. He loved his job. Yuck! He only had 1 client, his current client. Of course he’d love his job. Duh. However, I think I know the real reason why. Emma’s life was a movie, those familiar ups & downs, heartbreaks & lovestruck, everything there was to her life was always fascinating, judging by her age and her occasional breakdown. It’s just…fun.

She talks to herself. She talks to us. And I’ve a very funny feeling she’s gonna pull more of us down. This girl is never tired to tweak around with her mind.

Oh well, as long as she could bear living with us.

Funny. I think she actually will.

Hmm…

I should tell dad. Really.