3
MY IMAGINARY CARROT FRIEND
On my third birthday, something crazy happened to me that I finally feel
able to share with people in real life. I knew little about spirit guides
while growing up, but one appeared on my shoulder when I turned
three. A wise-cracking wise carrot that only I can see and talk to. His
name was Muncho, and I met him on the morning of my birthday.
“Wake up sleepy head!” he said to me while I lay on my bed,
asleep.
I wondered whose voice it could be. Could my mother have been
whispering right into my ear? It didn’t sound like my mother, or my
father, or brother. It couldn’t have been Jordan anyway because he
was only one year old, and he was just learning his first words, like a
normal child. The voice was tiny but piercing.
“Get up now!”
The words Muncho spoke to me that morning still shine in my
memory, like balls of light that linger after you close your eyes having
found yourself accidentally staring at the summer sun on a sunny day
in midsummer. The voice was loud but friendly. I remember opening
one of my eyes. It has always been difficult for me to open both my
eyes when someone wakes me up. I flung my right eye open. My left
eye needed more time. The room was pitch black, quiet and seemingly
empty. With sleep tugging at my right eyelid, I shut my eye and drifted
back to sleep.
“Happy birthday Joshua Daryl Carrott!” rang out a loud cry.
I felt something moving on my body. I sprung out of my bed in fear
and lit the gas lamp beside my bed.
“I’m right here!”
“Where?!” I asked frantically.
I couldn’t see who was talking to me. Was it something sinister? I
was startled.