The Door To Forever

Chapter 2

2

Tommy, Crystal and Nancy continued to visit me for play days, often. I missed having Jason to play with for sure, but the fact that I believed my two Jasons were really one made his loss easier to accept. As the weeks went by and winter approached, the four of us had many fun times together playing outside.

Before the first snowfall of the season, Crystal called me aside one day and pulled a Jason on me.

“I know it has only been a few months since Jason told you he would not likely be able to come and play with you much longer. Well, now it is my turn. Just like Jason, I must go off and do something else important in a month or so.”

I didn’t cry this time. It was not that I didn’t like Crystal. The truth is that she was now my favorite playmate of the three, and I hated to hear that she too was going to leave me. “Are you going to end up in a new baby like Jason did?”

“How do you know about that?”

“The first time I stared into the eyes of my baby brother, Jason, my heart told me that he was really my playmate, Jason. I have no way to prove it; I just feel it in my heart.”

Crystal smiled. “Your heart knows. You are still too young to understand how all of this works, but to answer your question, yes, I am going to end up in a new baby.”

“How do you and Jason know so much about all of this when you cannot tell me the whole story?”

“When Jason, Tommy, Nancy and I are here playing with you, we do not have bodies like yours. We are just able to make ourselves look like children your age. That is why your mother and father cannot see us when we are playing. When we do not have bodies like you, we know way more than children your age, who are in bodies, know. When you get older, you will be able to understand this better, okay?”

“Okay, I guess.”

About a month later, only Tommy and Nancy came to play.

For two years Tommy and Nancy were my regular playmates. They came more in the warmer months while I played outside than they did through the colder or stormy days when I spent more time indoors. They did occasionally join me in my bedroom/toy room, but we were careful to not play any noisy games where I might get excited and shout or say things that would cause my mother, in particular - as she was home most of the time – to investigate why I was causing a ruckus. After my mother had warned me back when I was four or five that she did not want to hear me talk about the disappearing Jason anymore, I obeyed her command and never, for a long time, mentioned my pop-in, pop-out playmates.

It would be approximately two years after Crystal disappeared from my playground that Nancy added herself to my missing playmates list. She did not do it when the two of us were alone but did it in front of Thomas as well.

“It is time for me to tell you that pretty soon I will no longer be coming around to play with you, Johnny.”

My mother had revealed to Jason and me a few weeks before that we were going to soon have a baby sister or brother, so Nancy’s news was not exactly unexpected. “Are you going to become my sister?”

Nancy smiled. “Yes, that is the plan.”

“Great. Will Mom call you Nancy?”

“That is up to your mother, but I know that Nancy is the name she has at the moment on the top of her list of names for this baby.”

“Oh, how do you know that?”

“Just like how Tommy and I pop in to play with you at times, we can also pop in and see what is taking place anywhere inside your house, not just your bedroom. When we do that, we do not let anyone see us, so no one knows we are there, not even you.”

“How does that work?”

“You are still not old enough to understand exactly what is going on. As you get older, Tommy will explain more and more about how this all works, trust me.”

I turned to Tommy. “You’re not going to disappear on me like the rest of them?”

“No. I am going to be with you for many, many years. I will be your guide, explaining, at the appropriate times, how all of our popping in and out works, as well as lots of other things that you have no idea about right now.”

“Cool. How do you know all this?”

“That is one of the other things I will explain when you are older, okay?”

“Okay.”

A few weeks later, our new sister arrived. Mom called her Nancy. As soon as we looked into each other’s eyes, I knew my two Nancys were one. I’m sure she did also.