Little Timmy Johnson’s school teachers all thought he just had an over active imagination. Even his own parents didn’t quite know what to think. They had tried every kind of medicine and treatment possible, but no one could figure out what was wrong with this seemingly healthy, happy, normal looking little boy. Little Timmy just seemed to be in his own little world, all the time. His school grades were terrible, he didn’t have any friends and wasn’t interested in anything other kids is age liked to do. He just didn’t respond to normal stimuli.
The unbelievable and unknown truth is that little Timmy actually had a kidney bean sized tumor deep in the back part of his brain... This is the part of little Timmy’s brain that regulates vision and dreaming. The little tumor caused Timmy to dream even when he was awake. He was always hallucinating and even though he recognized his parents and teachers, he wasn’t sure if they were real or just figments of his imagination. In fact, little Timmy had no idea what ‘real’ really was.
Well, little Timmy was always drawing and painting the strangest pictures on and with any and everything he could get his hands on. One day, little Timmy’s mom was pouring overing some of his drawings, searching for a clue as to what was ailing her precious little boy. She felt a cold chill shoot down her back as she came across a very lovely detailed drawing of a hummingbird drinking nectar from at beautiful purple and red flower. She knew she had seen this hummingbird before somewhere, but where? For hours she stared at the drawing trying to remember where she had seen that damn little hummingbird, she had a feeling that it just might be the key to figuring out what was wrong with her precious boy.
A few days later, it happened. Little Timmy’s dad had asked mom if she wanted mushrooms on her pizza and instantly, she remembered that the little hummingbird had visited her years ago after she ingested a handful of ‘magic’ mushrooms at the Oregon Country Fair. Little Timmy’s parents had just ran away together, eloped and were on their honeymoon. Thats actually the same weekend that little Timmy was conceived.
So, after mom explained everything to dad, dad said,”Well, you know what we have to do then, honeybee.” She was holding her breath anticipating his next words, “Let’s go to the hummingbird’s world and see if we can find Timmy there.” Mom almost fainted from the fear and excitement of it all. “Oh, lamb-chop, its been years and years, I can’t do that,” she said unconvincingly as she gazed up at him with a sparkle in her eye. Secretly, she really wanted to and lamb-chop damn well knew it. So that night, they did have mushrooms on their pizza.
Little Timmy was his normal self, giggling and talking to no one and moving around the dining room without rhyme or reason. His parents sat still, holding hands, waiting. As they looked down at little Timmy’s leftover ribeye, their anxiety gave way to frustration and mom took a big piece of chocolate cake. Just as she was lifting the first bite to her mouth, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. It looked wet it was so shiny, with its blue-green tail feathers and orange peel neck. It was the same beautiful hummingbird that had visited her years ago. Mom was frozen, mesmerized by the giant hummingbird suckling nectar from a giant violet and red tinted flower which extended from the stem of the candle and bowed towards the majestic humming bird. Just like in the picture little Timmy had drawn!
Mom was overwhelmed with love and fond memories of her family and didn’t realize that she was now the same age as her son. Lamb-chop was his same grownup self, but somehow he was miniature sized and was exploring the giant half eaten plates of food on the dinner table. He even found his miniature DSLR camera in hopes of capturing the unbelievable scene before his eyes. If only the camera worked. For the first time ever, mom and dad were able to talk to a coherent little Timmy and he appeared to be perfectly normal. He was actually an articulate genius, but you had to visit the hummingbird’s world to understand him. Little Timmy was so happy to be understood by his real parents that he hovered around the room, like a giant air balloon. He couldn’t wait for the hummingbird to finish its dinner so he could introduce his parents. He didn’t know that his parents had already met the hummingbird once before.
Timmy explained to his dad that the world of the hummingbird only existed in the imagination of the people and because people now live out their fantasies online and in video games they no longer dream like they used to. They still dream, just not like they used to. The world of the hummingbird is an old abandoned building overlooking the sandy shoreline of the dinner table. As he was explaining this to his dad, a displaced figment of our imagination made its way across the deserted salad plate. The figment looked like a cartoonish dog of some sort, but it can transform into anything we want at anytime. It looked sad to be out of work, without an active imagination to call its home.
Little Timmy was beginning to bum his parents out so he tried to cheer them up. They had traveled all the way to his world to find him and he wanted to make sure they were as happy as he was to be there. He introduced them to the real Big Papa Smurf who had been quietly observing the beautiful hummingbird and listening this whole time. “Remember when everyone loved Smurfs, dad? Well I bet you didn’t know that the Smurf cartoon was based on a real imaginary character! I bet you never knew that the real imaginary Papa Smurf was a Tahitian aboriginal! He doesn’t talk much, but if you are really quiet you can hear him singing in his native tongue. It takes a lot of imagination so you might have to stay awhile...
(I might’ve gotten carried away with the narrative, but I sure had fun doing so. I couldn’t decide if the story ended with little Timmy coming back to the real world and having his imagination extracted along with the small tumor, or if his parents just became hippies and visited often...so I will leave the end up to your imagination...) |
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