I am called a Day Dreamer. That’s what Dr. Goodall called our kind I was only 5 years old when my imaginary friend, who’s name I can’t remember, materialized in front of me and my friends at school. It made me popular, I could create characters and creatures of all kinds to play with at recess for all the kids and wisp them away in heartbeat.
A few years later more and more kids like me around the world were on the news and I was excited to meet them.
"Can you create something that can break that car, Timmy?" asked Dr. Goodall "It'll look really cool and you won't get in trouble."
I looked at my parents for approval and they gave me a nervous nod and smile. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, a monstrous horned bear creature charged out of thin air towards the car a began to crush it like was an empty soda can. Dr. Goodall was right, it looked cool. The creature evaporated and I turned to the adults to see their reactions but they weren't paying attention to me, instead they were talking to one another.
"He's not the only one we've found Mr. and Mrs. Carson. You will see him regularly and we'll be able to support him and those like him. No one will come after him or you while he's here. People are scared of these children, we all need to keep them safe from the world and themselves." I waved goodbye as my parents left me at the base. 'It'll be like school only you get to make all the things you want.' My mom said with tears on her face.
"Let's go meet your playmates" said Dr Goodall.
I first met Issac, he was younger than me and he liked making giant robots that shot lasers mostly. He was happy playing games were he got to break things. The other one was Durga and she put my imaginary animals to shame. Not only were the more ferocious, they were actually pleasant to look at. So colorful. She was really quiet mostly made smaller animals to play with by herself. Dr. Goodall helped us learn to work with each other and share ideas. We would spend hours and hours everyday coming up with more and more elaborate creations and have them smash up an old building or fight each other. It was fun while it lasted.
One day, Dr Goodall came to our "Play Pen" only this time he wasn't alone. A man in a military uniform came up from behind him. He had a weird smile and talked to us like we on a children's show. We didn't like him much.
"Hey kids. I am General Richards. I have a biiiig problem. A kid isn't behaving nicely like you
guys are. He's being very bad. Can you help me stop him?"
"Why?" Durga asked
"Because he's hurting people and smashing buildings that don't belong to him."
"That's not nice." Isaac said
"That's right Issac. It's not nice at all." He nodded patronizingly.
Durga spoke up "What are we gonna do Dr. Goodall?"
The Director looked distraught but he was able to tell us what we needed to hear.
"Well, Durga. You guys are gonna... help Mr. Richards with the kid who's being mean."
"What's his name?" I asked
The General spoke to me like an adult "Currently, that's not impor-"
"Anthony." Dr. Goodall answered. “And he-uh needs learn how to play nice like you three.”
An hour later we were in the air in a small plane. I don't know how long it took us to get there because I fell asleep but Issac woke me up and made me look out the window see nothing but rubble and fire. We landed at a makeshift airport and we got off there were soldiers who would stop what they were doing and stare at us. We were in a large tent and up front shown a map that was tracking Anthony's movement through the area. General Richards spoke to the troops like we weren't there. "The Day Dreamer is moving westward so the Play Mates will be driven 1/2 a mile south of the trajectory and hopefully neutralize the target."
Isaac shot his hand in the air like he was in school. "Mr. General?"
"Yes Isaac?"
"What's neutralize mean?"
He stammered for a bit and said "It means you stop him from doing bad things."
As we got closer to Anthony we saw that monsters he spawned. 30 feet tall twisted horrors that moved unnaturally and groaned and gurgled. He also made had dragons black as coal that were circling in the sky chasing jet planes and spewing fire balls in every direction. We could see Anthony riding a giant two-headed eagle that crackled with lighting looking over his monsters warpath.
“Ok, Isaac which ones do you wanna fight?” I asked
“Uhhhhh, I think wanna fight the big guys NO! The dragons I wanna fight the dragons.” He looked excited as ran ahead towards the danger with eyes closed and found himself surrounded in gleaming spacecraft that sailed around the battlefield firing lasers at swarms of dragons that disintegrated on “death”
“Durga, you’re gonna fight the monsters while get Anthony, ok?”
“I don’t wanna fight, Timmy.” She was beginning to cry “I wanna go home.”
“If we stop Anthony we can leave and then we can just play again, ok?”
She wiped away her tears and said a soft “Ok” before she shut her eyes and out of the air sprinted a six legged flaming red tiger the size of a school bus that began to tear into monsters.
“NO FAIR!” Anthony yelled. As he swooped down to attack. “3 vs 1 isn’t fair!” He missed us on the first pass, the eagles wings flapped and shook the trees as it rose back into the sky. I made myself a rocket powered griffen to try and chase him down. I tried to knock him off his pet but one of the Eagle’s heads was shooting lighting at me as I got close. I broke off my pursuit swooped under bird and cause it to crash into the Earth before it faded leaving Anthony bruised and scuffed on the ground. I landed next to him I willed away my griffen.
“No fair” he said weakly “You cheated”
“You lose. Make the monsters go away, Anthony.”
“Fine.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head and the monsters faded out of existence.
Durga and Isaac caught up to me and we. Anthony spoke up again.
“I had fun playing with you guys. My Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me go outside and play with the other kids. They wouldn’t let me do anything. Now I can. Will you guys play with me again?”
Before we answered the soldiers arrived and sedated Anthony. General Richards said we did a good job and we boarded the plane for our home as we saw Anthony get carted away. We asked Dr. Goodall where Anthony was going and he said that it was going to be a long timeout. Over time more kids were ‘misbehaving’ and we were sent in to take take them down. We had to. Dr. Goodall used a TE lawrence quote when we were older to explain why we had to be the ones to do it. “‘All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.’”