“I—I … I’m dreaming …” I said quietly. “Everything is fine, I’m just having a bad dream.”

I sank down onto a wooden dining chair and watched him as he walked around the room. He bent over and studied all the ornaments along the mantelpiece above the wood stove, peering closely at each one and stopping at a porcelain spaniel who was gazing up at him with soppy eyes.

“Y-You’re a dream, right? You’re not really here at all. I’m just … I’m still asleep. I’m just having a dream. Aren’t I?”

Sam looked at me and snorted. “Nope. I’m not a dream.”

I scrunched up my eyes and opened them again, but he was still there.

“Wh-What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I told you, Nate! I’m back! Do you live here now? What happened to your old house?”

“I—I … We … We’re just … staying for a bit …”

“We came here once before. Do you remember? The cowboy duvet and the maze?”

I opened my mouth and then shut it again. This really couldn’t be happening.

He sat down on the sofa and picked up something that was hidden in the folds of the patchwork quilt. “Oh wow, look who it is! Mrs. Ellie-Fant! You still have her? After all this time?”

His freckled nose creased up, and he wiggled the elephant at me. I walked toward him, hesitated for a moment, and then quickly snatched the toy from him, stuffing it back into the bottom of my backpack.

“Hey! Nate!” he said, leaning forward. “Have you still got that game we used to play? The one with the little red and yellow circles where you had to get them in a row? What was it called? Connect Four!”

I held the backpack tightly against my chest. “You didn’t play it. I was playing it. You weren’t there. You’re … You’re imaginary, remember?”

Sam’s face stayed fixed in a wide grin, but his glow seemed to fade a little. I carried on.

“I—I pretended you were there and I took your turns. Okay? You’re not real. I made you up.”

He frowned as he thought about it for a bit, and then he burst into laughter. “Oh, you’re so funny, of course I was playing! How could you have played on your own? You’re just saying that because I always won. You always were a bad loser.”

While he chuckled to himself I ran to the hallway.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

I stuffed my feet into my sneakers and then tugged on the front door. It was stuck. Sam stood by my side, watching over my shoulder as I struggled to get out.

“What’s the problem, Nate? I thought you’d be pleased to see me. It’s been so long.”

“Go away!”

I could feel the ice-cold air outside as my fingers gripped the edge of the door.

“How long has it been, do you think? Do you know? Do you know how long we’ve been apart?”

I’d managed to get the door open a bit, but there still wasn’t enough room for me to get through. Sam walked around and leaned against the wall.

“This might surprise you, Nate, but did you know … ?” He laughed a little to himself. “Did you know that it’s been six years? Six years since you decided you didn’t need me anymore? How about that?”

I stopped and stared at his face. His smile was completely gone now, and he looked sad. Very sad. I gave the door a final pull and managed to squeeze out into the frozen air.

“Hey, come back! It’s fine! I’m over it!”

I hurried toward the dirt track, hoping that Mum’s car would be heading toward me right this second, but the road was deserted. All I could hear were the birds and the crunch of the icy ground beneath my feet. I stood and looked in the direction that Mum would be driving back from, and then I began to walk. I shivered. My breath came in white puffs, and my ears tingled with the cold. I skidded on a frozen puddle, and the shock made me gasp out loud. I stopped for a moment to think.

None of this was making any sense. I was miles from anywhere, my mum was missing, and now my old imaginary friend was walking around and talking to me in some creepy cottage. The imaginary friend I’d made up in my head back when I was still using crayons and playing with sticker books. The one I hadn’t seen for six years. This couldn’t be happening.

I shivered again. I couldn’t go far without my coat. What I should do was turn around and go back to the cottage. If Sam was still there, I’d just ignore him until he went away. Easy. I wouldn’t look at him or speak to him and he’d give up and fade away, back to wherever he came from. My stomach gurgled like it had a plumbing problem. I still hadn’t eaten anything apart from the scrambled eggs and those couple of mints yesterday. I was starving. I needed to eat, get something warmer on, and think of a plan. The door was still open when I got back, and I squeezed in through the gap and shoved it hard with my shoulder to close it once more. I could hear a tinkling sound and a voice …

“Oh wow, this is something else …”

I took my sneakers off and tucked my hands into my armpits. I was so cold. I’d have to try to get the fire going again soon or I’d freeze.

The tinkling sound got louder and more frantic as I walked back to the living room.

“No! How did you know that?!”

Sam was sitting on the sofa with my Ask Me a Question magic ball in his hand. It was going into overdrive.

“Nate! This thing is sorcery. I was thinking of a dog and it guessed right. Do you know that it can actually read your mind? This is the best thing I’ve ever seen.”

I was about to point out that if he was thinking of something as easy as a dog, then of course the magic ball was going to guess it correctly. But then I remembered I was going to ignore him, so I shut my mouth and went through to the kitchen.

I looked through the cupboards and found more canned food, which I stacked up on one side. Potatoes, carrots, pineapple chunks. I rummaged around in the drawers until I found a can opener, and then I set to work trying to open the creamed rice. I knew you could eat that cold. I usually liked it warm with a blob of strawberry jam swirled in the middle, but there wasn’t any jam and I didn’t fancy using the stove, so I’d just have to eat it as it was. The opener slipped and I couldn’t get it to stay on the can.

“You’ve got to turn the wheel to get it to grip.”

I jumped. Sam was behind me, watching.

“Once you’ve punctured a hole it’ll be easier. Just keep turning.”

I did what he said but didn’t look at him. The can kept skidding on the kitchen counter. Sam pointed at a tea towel on the work surface in front of me.

“Stand it on that to stop it from slipping.”

I took a couple of deep breaths as I angled the opener on the side of the can again. The tea towel helped to keep the can steady, and I slowly turned the wheel until I’d made a jagged circle. It was open.

I got a bowl from the cupboard and rinsed it under the tap.

“I think you should leave half for later, don’t you? Don’t eat it all in one go. You’ll have something for lunch then.”

I spooned some of the rice into the bowl.

“That’s it. Perfect. Oh, why are you crying?”

I put the spoon down and wiped my eyes. “I’m not. Go away.”

“There’s no need to cry. I’m here now,” he said. I looked at him. There was something about seeing his face again that made me feel safer, just for a moment.

I walked around him and took the bowl into the front room, then sat on the sofa beside the stone-cold fire and began to eat.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset about me being here. We used to be friends. Best friends! Do you remember all those fun times we had?”

I carried on ignoring him and ate my rice. It was sickly sweet, but I was too hungry to care. Sam sighed, then picked up the Ask Me a Question magic ball again and pressed START.

“Could you stop playing with my things?” I said, glaring at him.

He looked at me and then turned it off and put it down. I wiped my eyes.

“I don’t understand. You’re not real; you’re imaginary. You’re in my head, but I can’t make you go away. Why won’t you go away?”

Sam leaned toward me. The yellow of his T-shirt made a warm, buttercup glow under his chin.

“I’m here because you want me to be, Nate. Isn’t that fantastic?”

He had grown up over the past six years, just like I had, but he looked so alive, so well, and so unbelievably happy. He looked the opposite of how I was feeling. I couldn’t understand why he’d come back or why I couldn’t make him go away, but if he wasn’t here, then I’d be all on my own again. On my own in a freezing cold, dark cottage.

I squeezed my eyes together to get the last tear away and took a deep breath.

“You’re wrong, you know. About what you said earlier.”

Sam frowned at me, resting his head on his hand. “Wrong about what, exactly?”

I licked the last of the creamed rice off the spoon and let it clatter into the bowl. “That game you said I was a poor loser at? Connect Four?”

He nodded. “Yes. What about it?”

“It was me who won. Every time.”

Sam looked at me and grinned.