He was determined to never return back home but I think his hunger pangs got the better of him, that eventually made him dismiss his, what he claimed as ‘strong’, but brief period of determination.

Little did I know then that this encounter with a little boy would prove to be the beginning of a friendship I was likely to cherish, forever.

Since that day, I would take off from Grandma’s every afternoon and meet Ben at the same lane.
We would talk for hours interrupted by frequent shared laughter about everything, starting from our mutually favorite cartoons to how is it like up in the city, he told me that he’s never been to one.

I could’ve barely imagined that I would make a friend here, my only friend, who was more like a little brother I never had. He was fluent with all kinds of places, places that were never explored before, places people weren’t even aware existed and we would go to each one of them. I knew when I go back home, I’d be taking along fond memories, framed in my mind.

Soon the time for me to head back to city was just two days away. As sad as that made me, it also made me look forward to the next vacation which by the way, I never thought I’d be looking forward to. I thought of presenting him with some confectionary that he so loves and a friendship band as a souvenir along with it, so that his ten year old mind can manage to remember me till the next vacation. Bound to my week long habit, even today I took off around noon with gift wrapped chocolates and a band, waiting at the lane.

But he never showed up.
It took me quite some time till it got dark, to realize that he was not coming. Albeit it was not very usual of him, I didn’t spend my time contemplating it much until the next day again, when he didn’t show up.

“I can’t believe Ben forgot that I’m supposed to go back tomorrow.”, I uttered to myself with evident disappointment, while suddenly, the thought of meeting him myself struck me. I rummaged my memory for a while to remember bits and pieces of the way to his home and in no time found myself walking past the lake that he mentioned about the day we met and later to the small town that he possibly lives in.

The sun slowly shied itself turning the firmament darker by the minute and as it did, I sped my search. It was not much trouble for me to find him since it was a surprisingly small town and one could actually come back to the point they begun their journey from, in less than an hour.

I found him running around with a bunch of other ten year olds when he spot me first. He looked quite hesitant at first but then he managed to smile back when he saw me waving at him.

As he walked towards me, I could hear his friends screaming “Ben, where are you going?”
He chose not to respond to them.
“Here, I’m going back tomorrow. I brought these confectionaries for you and oh! I have something else for you too.. you want to see what it is?” , I pulled out the band from my pocket, “It’s called a friendship band. It’ll remind you of me. Here, wear it this way”

As I was trying to slip it through his wrist, he said the most astonishing words to me.
“I’d rather not take any of it”, he said, quite coldly.
It hurt me, but I didn’t reveal it.
“Alright Ben, but, can you atleast tell me why didn’t you come to meet me at all in these two days?”

He was silent for a while with his stare fixed at me.
He finally began,“because.. you had become the best friend I never had but ..you’re not real”
I was left perplexed.
“When I told mum and dad about my newly found best friend, who lived at upper lake side bungalow, they..they told me I was imagining things.”

“What?”
“ Of course I didn’t believe them at first but they told me that an old couple, the Collins, used to live there and had met with a terrible accident last summer while heading to the airport. The tragedy was, they weren’t the only ones in the car, they also had with them their granddaughter North Collins.”

The air around me turned chilly, as we held on to the friendship band from either ends, I never felt lighter and soon the only thing left of me was the band that he held on to from the other end.