The Sixth Sense

O has an awesome imagination; yesterday when I was driving him home from our nanny's house, he looked at the empty car seat next to him, and declared to me, "I'm going to pretend Zachary is sitting right there." But sometimes the line between imagination and potential X-Files plot pitch has gotten a little fuzzy.

Several months ago, in the middle of the night, I was snuggling with Z (who'd had a bad dream or a tummy ache), and O also woke up, asking mommy to take him to the bathroom. When she went to get him, this was their conversation:

O: [whispered] Who's that, Mommy?
M: Where?
O: (looking at Z's room) Who's that in the door?
M: There's nobody there.
O: Who's that in the door, Mommy? He's a little bit scary.

Yikes. Meh was mildly freaked out. Our explanations at the time ranged from him knowing that I was in Z's room to the fact that there's a mirror at the end of the hall and O was seeing a reflection of himself or mommy. Or if it was otherwise unexplainable, my vote was for Al Calavicci.

Then while Meh and I were out of town this past weekend, O gave papa a fright by having this conversation while in the upstairs bathroom:

O: Who's that lady?
Papa: What lady?
O: THAT one.

Further inquiry from Meh when we got back solicited that he'd seen "a queen with orange hair." Mommy interviewed him further about it today:


Since Meh and O were apparently talking about fairies at the time, we're hoping that it's either that kind of connection, O's imagination, or inspiration taken from something he's seen/read (the other day he pulled down a copy of Anne of Green Gables, which does feature a picture of the red-headed protagonist on the cover). On the plus side, he does appear to like her and thinks she's nice, so at least it's a friendly ghost/fairy/make-believe friend!