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Chapter Two: Imagination

"Agent C! Agent C! Can you hear me?" the small, blonde girl cried into the white walkie-talkie she was gripping tightly. "He's after me! Where are you?"

She quickly peeked over her shoulder to see her pursuer only a foot behind her. He had a slobbery, wide smile on his furry face. Laughter bubbled up out of the girl and she pushed herself to run faster. She leapt over rocks and sticks, landing on flowers and soft earth.

"Agent C!" she screamed through her laughter into her walkie-talkie. There was an odd tinny echo that accompanied her scream with only a second's delay. She stopped running so abruptly, her pursuer had to speed past her in order to slow down. The girl looked interestedly at a bit of white plastic shining in the sunlight not two feet from where she stood. She slowly moved toward it, her smile falling with every step. Lying in the grass was a walkie-talkie that had the same yellow buttons, same curved rectangular design at the one she was holding. She raised hers to her mouth, pressed a button and whispered, "Agent C?"

She was thoughtful for a moment before picking up the other toy and wheeling around to face her panting enemy. "Where did you take her?" she demanded.

The villain groaned and sat down, opening and closing his mouth impatiently.

"In the woods? You monster!" She spun around and looked contemplatively at the shadowy forest.

"Riona!" she shouted. "Where are you?"

"Kay, why are you screaming?" an annoyed voice called down to the girl from the slate blue farmhouse looming beside her. Leaning out of a window on the second floor was a dark haired girl about twice Kay's age.

"Riona's missing!" Kay yelled up at the older girl. "Linus buried her in the woods."

The girl appeared nonplussed. "Stay out of the woods. There are bears in there and I'm not running after you."

"But Ailie-"

"And keep it down, I'm trying to read. Tell Riona too." Without waiting for a response, Ailie slid the window shut and disappeared.

"Useless sister," Kay muttered. She turned her attention back to the forest and began walking toward it. With a mixture of apprehension and determination, she moved from the sunlit drenched grass of the yard to the damp, bare earth of the forest. Kay's imagination exploded with images of animals, colors, lights, and stories. She passed a hollow tree and fancied it to be the home of earth sprites. She nearly tripped on a pile of sticks, which she decided had once been a tiny mouse fortress. Finally, when she came upon a baseball-sized hole in the ground, she believed she'd found where Catriona was buried.

"Don't worry, Riona!" she exclaimed, tossing the walkie-talkies on the ground. "I'll rescue you!"

Kay began digging, dark dirt running over her hands, leaving dusty trails and getting stuck beneath her fingernails. Linus helped her greatly, digging faster and deeper.

"No!" Kay whined, pushing the dog aside. "The bad guy can't save the person he kidnapped."

Linus panted happily and shuffled from side to side, waiting for Kay to push him again. He spotted a nearby stick, picked it up, and dropped it in Kay's lap. Kay frowned and opened her mouth to inform him that villains do not play fetch, when she heard the crack of someone stepping on a stick and breaking it. Linus growled and Kay froze. Was it a bear? Would it eat her? She pictured an angry Winnie the Pooh picking up a tiny person and dipping them in honey.

"Can you speak Dolphin?"

The voice brought Kay back to reality. She moved closer to Linus, putting her arm around him nervously.

"What about Penguin?"

Brief silence. The rustling of leaves, crunching of twigs.

"Will I get to learn how to?"

Another silence. Careless, heavy, shuffling footsteps.

"Why not?"

A shock of vibrant red hair appeared through the needles of a nearby pine tree.

"Riona?" Kay called out hesitantly.

The footsteps stopped. The pine needles abruptly parted to reveal a wide-eyed, round face. "What are you doing here?"

"Unburying you." Kay gestured to the torn up hole beside her. "Linus tried to bury you alive."

"Mom and Dad are gonna bury you alive when they find out you went in the woods," Catriona warned. "You'd better get out of here."

"But you're in here, too."

Catriona made a noise of annoyance and looked contemplative. "The bad guy's running around in here. You go and I'll stay to hold him off."

"He's right here. I captured him." Kay pat Linus on the head.

"There's another one."

"No there's not. You said there was only one bad guy and Linus was gonna be him."

Catriona walked out from behind the tree and stamped a foot impatiently. "Kay, can you please get out of here?"

"Why? We're spy partners, and partners don't split up unless one of them is kidnapped."

"I'm not playing Spy."

Kay looked as though she'd been slapped across the face. "Why?"

"Because I'm doing stuff with him." Catriona pointed to the pine tree beside her.

Kay blinked. "What is he?"

"An angel."

Kay stood up and walked over to the tree. She reached up to one of the low-hanging branches and pet the needles. "He has pretty hair."

"Not the tree!" Catriona groaned in exasperation. "The man standing right there." She once again pointed at the tree. "Can't you see him?"

Kay stared determinedly at the space Catriona was pointing to. "Oh yes."

Catriona suddenly turned to glare at the space. "What do you mean she can't?"

Silence. Catriona's frown deepened.

"You can really see a man there?" Kay asked, awed.

Catriona gave a short nod, still looking very unhappy at this new discovery.

"And he's a real angel?"

Nod. "You can't tell anyone, Kay. Not your friends, not Ailie, and definitely not Mommy and Daddy. Do you promise?"

Kay stared at her sister in utter solemnity. "I promise."

"Pinky-promise?" Catriona extended her pinky finger to Kay. Kay wrapped her own tiny pinky around it and they shook. And so it began: Kay became the lookout for Catriona and her angel. They communicated via walkie-talkie, Kay alerting Catriona of when people were looking for her, and Catriona informing Kay of where she was going and when to expect her return. Kay never questioned her sister about what she and the angel were doing.

Not once did Kay breath a word of this to anyone else. She managed to smoothly convince her family that she and Catriona were playing certain games when they asked where Catriona kept disappearing to. She would go so far as to pull out all of the toys necessary to make her lies appear true.

Despite all of Kay's careful measures, their parents still somehow found out about Catriona's angel.

"Is this your whole job? You're just supposed to follow me around?" Mrs. Dawsen caught Catriona demanding of a doorframe.

"Stop jumping. The bunny is supposed to be funny, not scary." Mr. Dawsen heard Catriona whispering to the couch arm as they watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"You wouldn't want to eat this anyway. It's Angel Hair." Catriona muttered to her plate of spaghetti during dinner.

"Riona, who are you speaking to?" Mr. Dawsen asked.

Catriona's head snapped up in surprise. "Nobody."

Mr. Dawsen gave his wife a knowing look. "Do you have a new friend?"

"No."

"Riona, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. I had an imaginary friend when I was your age. Me and Lawrence were friends all the way through sixth grade."

Mrs. Dawsen snorted into her water glass.

"You had an imaginary friend until you were in sixth grade?" Ailie asked incredulously.

Mr. Dawsen's face flushed red. "Well, yes. It was perfectly normal. I didn't have any brothers or sisters..."

"Or friends?"

"Ailie," Mrs. Dawsen said in a warning tone. "I think it's cute." She kissed her husband's cheek.

"Lawrence?" Ailie muttered under breath.

Mr. Dawsen ignored her. "What's your friend's name, Riona?"

"Um..." Catriona looked over her shoulder at the wall. "He doesn't have one."

"What do you call him then?" Mrs. Dawsen put a forkful of spaghetti in her mouth.

Catriona shrugged. "He's an angel."

Mrs. Dawsen froze with another forkful of spaghetti halfway to her mouth.

"What about 'Gabriel'?" Mr. Dawsen offered.

Catriona wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Ezekiel?"

"He's an angel?" Mrs. Dawsen looked at the wall as if she could actually see him, her expression unreadable.

"How about 'Not Real'?" Ailie pushed away her plate. Mr. Dawsen threw her a disapproving look. Before they could say anything though, Kay spoke up:

"Alonzo." She didn't look at Catriona or the angel when she said it, instead focusing on getting her noodles around her fork.

Catriona grinned and nodded. "I'll call him 'Lonz' for short."

Kay smiled at her food.