Audrey and Todd - a Short Story for School

Imaginary or not, Todd was becoming a real problem, Mrs. Snyder thought. She had received five emails from Audrey’s teachers so far this year regarding her imaginary friend. “She won’t engage with the other students,” they complained. “When we have activities, she stays alone at her desk. She won’t let anyone be partners with her.” Today’s email – number six – was from the principal himself, who merely said, “The staff is becoming concerned.”

Mrs. Snyder had been fielding these complaints for years, ever since Audrey started Kindergarten. She and Mr. Snyder had always agreed that their daughter should get to explore her imagination. They thought it was creative. But now that Audrey was ten years old – almost junior high age – even Mrs. Snyder was beginning to think that it had gone on long enough.

After discussing it with her husband, she decided to have a talk with Audrey at dinner that night and have it out once and for all.

“Audrey, dear,” Mrs. Snyder began. “Daddy and I want to talk to you about Todd.”

Audrey looked up from her plate, eyes suspicious. “Why?” she asked. “Has he done something bad?”

“No, no. Nothing like that, honey,” Mrs. Snyder said quickly. She glanced at her husband, who encouraged her with a nod of his head. “It’s just that, well . . . Todd has been with us for quite a long time, hasn’t he?”

Audrey became stiff and expressionless. She said nothing.

“He’s been a very good friend, Audrey. Daddy and I know that. And you’ve always been so fond of him. We’ve all liked having him around.” Mrs. Snyder smiled, but her daughter’s guarded expression showed that the smile was useless. They all knew what was coming. “But Daddy and I – well, we think maybe it’s time you found some new friends to play with.”

“I don’t need any new friends.”

“Some real friends, dear,” Mr. Snyder interjected gently.

Audrey looked at him angrily. “Todd is real,” she insisted.

“No, he isn’t, dear. Daddy and I have told you that.”

“And that’s okay! There’s nothing wrong with having an imaginary friend,” Mr. Snyder added. “You know Mom and I love hearing your stories about the adventures you go on with Todd.” He began to smile in spite of himself. “Climbs up the mountainside, travels in the woods, dangers in the sewer . . . .”

“Phil!” Mrs. Snyder rebuked. That particular story had haunted her for days.

Mr. Snyder reigned in his merriment, and his tone became serious again. “What I mean to say is that we all love Todd. Your mom and I only think it would be nice if you got some new . . . less invisible friends.”

Audrey pursed her lips, thinking. She glanced to a spot at her left, then said, “Todd doesn’t want me to have any more friends. He wants it to be just him and me. We have fun together.”

“We know you do, sweetheart,” Mrs. Snyder said. It was all she could do not to just give up and let Audrey have her way - the way she had done for the last few years. “Having one really good friend is fun. But I bet you’d like having lots of friends even better.”

“But Todd –”

“You know,” Mr. Snyder interrupted. “A good friend doesn’t tell you what to do. It isn’t nice. A good friend would want you to be happy, wouldn’t he?”

Mrs. Snyder knew he’d gotten her there. Audrey’s eyes had gone wide, and she considered for a moment, twirling her fork idly. Then she said, “Yeah . . . yeah, he would! If Todd is really my friend, then he’d want me to be happy.”

“Exactly!” Mr. Snyder agreed, grinning.

“So, he’ll let me make new friends?”

“Of course, honey,” Mrs. Snyder said. Audrey was starting to look excited now. Mrs. Snyder hurried on, wanting to capitalize on the moment, “Like what about that sweet girl down the street – Hannah? She used to always come over here to ask if you could play. I’ll bet she’d love to be your friend.”

“Really?” Audrey was glowing with excitement.

“Of course!” Mr. Snyder joined in. “Why, lots of people would love to be your friend if you just gave them the chance.”

“So you tell Todd,” Mrs. Snyder said. “Tell him you’re not going to play with him anymore for a while. And then when you’re at school, you ask Hannah if you can play with her. You’ll have friends pouring out your ears before you know it!”

“Wow!” Audrey said.

Crash!

In the excitement, Audrey must have bumped her plate. It had flown to the floor, dumping its contents all over. Audrey’s face paled immediately. “Sorry, Mom,” she said, nervously.

But Mrs. Snyder was so happy to have solved the problem with Todd that she just kept smiling. “It’s okay, Audrey. I’ll clean it up. Why don’t you go on upstairs and get ready for bed? I think that’s enough excitement for one evening.”

Hesitantly, Audrey smiled back. Then she hurried up the stairs to her room. Mr. Snyder looked at his wife, leaning back in his chair. “There now,” he said. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Mrs. Snyder started cleaning up the mess, happily. Still, she thought that she’d better call Hannah’s mother and let her know what was going on, to make sure that Hannah would play with Audrey when she asked. Just to be safe.

*          *          *

 

It was one-thirty the next afternoon when Mrs. Snyder got a call from the school. The secretary only said that there had been an “incident” and Audrey needed to be picked up right away. Mrs. Snyder hung up the phone with a sigh. She supposed it must have been wishful thinking last night, to believe that Audrey really could give up Todd so quickly.

It took much longer than usual to drive to the school; there was quite a lot of traffic for so early in the afternoon. But Mrs. Snyder was glad for it. It gave her time to organize her thoughts and prepare new arguments to use with Audrey. They had made progress last night, she was sure of it. With a little more prodding, Audrey would come around.

After a while, though, Mrs. Snyder realized that all of the traffic was heading for the elementary school, just like her. Worry started to seep into her bones as she realized that she was not the only parent who had been summoned. Something had happened. Something bigger than Audrey.

Her hands tightened on the steering wheel and she focused solely on her driving. The instant she was parked, she leapt out of the car, terrified of what she might find. A crowd of parents was already swarming toward the school, a nervous confusion of sight and sound that nearly overwhelmed Mrs. Snyder. Desperately, she grasped onto the shoulder of a woman nearby. “Excuse me,” she pleaded, “do you know what’s going on?”

The other woman turned to her, looking stricken. “A girl’s been killed,” she said.

“What?”

“I don’t know any more than that. They just said that a girl’s been killed and they’re sending everyone home immediately.”

Audrey. Mrs. Snyder let go of the woman and started shoving her way through the crowd of people, pushing and struggling and fighting to get past. She burst into the building and kept running, calling her daughter’s name now. “Audrey? AUDREY!”

“Mommy?”

The ten-year-old girl was standing at the end of the hallway, alone (of course). Her eyes were pink and swollen with tears, and it melted Mrs. Snyder’s heart to see the way she trembled. Mrs. Snyder rushed to her daughter and gathered her in a tight embrace, cooing softly that everything would be okay, as she rushed the two of them out of the building. Audrey held on until they got outside. Then she turned her head. “It was Todd, Mom,” she whispered.

Mrs. Snyder froze. She had completely forgotten about her daughter’s imaginary friend, and couldn’t understand why Audrey was bringing this up now. She set the girl down in the snow, looking at her carefully. “What was Todd, sweetie?”

“It was him,” Audrey said again. “He hurt Hannah.”

Mrs. Snyder was startled. “What?”

“I told him what you said. I told him that I wasn’t going to play with him anymore and that I wanted to make friends. He was really angry, and he yelled at me a lot, but I didn’t listen to him. I thought he was being bossy, so I went to play with Hannah at recess. But that just made him more angry, and so he –”

“Audrey.” Mrs. Snyder was tense, and so her voice came out strict and unyielding. “I don’t want to hear any more about Todd.”

“But, Mom!”

“I mean it.” She softened, trying to regain her composure. “Something terrible happened today. It must be very scary for you, I know, but we need to face it. I don’t want you pretending that it was just Todd –”

“It was Todd!” Audrey snapped. “Daddy was right – he’s not a good friend! He hurt Hannah – he killed her! – just because he didn’t want me to play with her.” She started to cry again. “It was my fault, Mom. It was my fault . . .”

Suddenly Audrey stiffened and twisted around, looking back toward the school. Her face contorted with rage. “Go away!” she screamed. “Get away from me, Todd! You’re mean, and I don’t want to play with you anymore! Mommy –” Audrey leaned against her mother and clutched at her skirt. “Please! Tell Todd I don’t have to play with him anymore.”

But Mrs. Snyder wasn’t listening to Audrey. She was looking at the snow-covered ground behind her daughter. At the empty, red-dripped footprints. Coming closer.