Storytelling Sunday - Fantastic Friendship

It's time for Storytelling Sunday over at High in the Sky!  Normally we try to have a photo to go with our stories, but by the time you finish reading mine, you will realise why there is no photo to share!  
Have I ever told you about Zolly Watson?  When I was little she was my best friend.  We played together almost every day.  We both loved a glass of Lucozade, drunk out of a plastic beaker with a straw built into the side.  Mine was yellow, hers was blue.  We both loved chocolate biscuits, and when I went round to where she lived, I would fill a small flask with Lucozade and put a few biscuits in some foil, load it into the little saddle bag on the back of my bike and cycle round to Zolly's.  

Sometimes I'd take my Sindy doll round there because although Zolly loved to play with Sindy as much as I did, she didn't have a doll of her own.  If I was very lucky, my mum would take me to the Women's Institute shop where you could buy hand knitted clothes for Sindy so she could have a new outfit.  Zolly and I would spend hours dressing Sindy in different outfits.

It wasn't far from my house to Zolly's - if I looked out of the dining room window carefully I could almost see in her window.  And although I was only about five, mum was quite happy for me to cycle round there on my own.  You see, my sister was eight years older than me and she didn't want to play with some little kid when she was already a sophisticated teenager, and there were no other children of my age near to where I lived so it was inevitable that me and Zolly would become such firm friends.  

My sister didn't quite know what to make of Zolly, even though they never met, she thought it was an odd friendship.  In fact no one other than me ever met Zolly, because apparently she only existed in my imagination.  Her house was the Wendy house in our back garden, and I can still remember cycling round the lawn to get there, unlocking the door and stepping inside where our chairs were waiting, and a table for the drinks and biscuits to be put on.  Mum and Dad had helped me build various bits of make believe furniture for Sindy in true Blue Peter fashion and that was all set up in there too.

But then the summer came and we packed up to go on our two week Summer holiday to Cornwall.  Zolly stayed at home, while I enjoyed a fortnight of sandcastles, paddling in the sea, ice cream cones, and begging to be allowed to go in amusement arcades.  The weird thing was that when we came back, Zolly had gone.  I don't remember being upset, and I don't know how I knew - but she just wasn't there any more.  I guess I had grown up that little bit and was off to school where I would go on to meet lots of new - real - friends.  But whenever I hear people talking about imaginary friends, I always think of Zolly Watson.  (Where on earth did I come up with a name like that?!  I've never heard of anyone called Zolly and knew no one with the surname Watson either)