Hey guys!

Yesterday, while I was searching through my notebooks and trying to figure out what I could make today, I came across one of my old notebooks from school.  I didn’t realize that I had any of these with me—honestly I’m pretty surprised that it wasn’t at my parents’ house.  Well, my curiosity got the best of me, so I took a look through it, and I quickly discovered that it was REALLY old: I hadn’t written in it since I was in first grade, way back in 1994.

It’s filled with “diary” entries that a 6 year old would write, mostly about friends and sports and my brothers and a lot of spelling errors that I won’t even try to correct, stuff like:

“April 9, [1994]: Me and Kevin trew [threw] a base ball. Then Mom told us we had to eat and we did. Then Joe came over.”

It’s filled with stuff like that.  Well, almost.  The entries go on:

“April 26 [or 28 maybe? Can’t tell], 1994: Mike came over my house today. He brot [brought] a fotball [sic] and we threw it. It was fun.  Joe wanted to play but he coldnt [couldn’t].”

Reading old stuff you’ve written is always strange. You don’t remember any of the things you wrote about, and frankly, the subject matter is so ordinary that it feels like it could have happened pretty much any day.  But, even though I don’t remember what happened, I still remember most of the people I was with, and even some of the feelings expressed in these entries.

“May 10, 1994: Today I went to Joe’s and we watch a movie. It was sceery. Mom was mad.”

But I don’t remember Joe.

“June 3, [1994]: Today was a fun day. Then joe came over.”

I’ve wracked my brain, but I have no idea who Joe is.  And yet, he’s in so many of these entries.  At first I thought he must have just been one of the kids in my grade (I’m sure there was at least one Joe), but I don’t remember being this close of friends with any of them.  Maybe I was… I don’t know.  I texted my mother to see if she remembered my hanging out with anyone named Joe.  I was sure that she would have to know.

“June 18 [or 19], 1994: Today was the last day [of school, I guess?]!  we had a haf day. Joe brought me home and I swam in a pool.”

But my mom didn’t know.  “You weren’t friends with anyone named Joe.”  What?  I can’t imagine that my mother wouldn’t have been around when I was 6.  How did she not remember who Joe was?

 “June 18 [or 19], 1994: Me and Joe and Mike were in the woods today.  We played with stiks. Joe hit me and made my hand bled.  It hurts.”

Hmm.  Well, after a bit of searching yesterday, I was able to find a phone number for Mike’s mother.  I called.  When she didn’t pick up, I left a voice message.  Sort of awkwardly, I asked how Mike was doing and how things were.  But I didn’t mention Joe.

“June 25, 1994: joe told me i coudnt see Mike anymore. I was vary sad and cried.”

Today, when I woke up, I quickly found that a text message had been left on my phone.  I figured it was from Mike’s mom, or maybe from Mike.  I didn’t know exactly who sent it.  But it said:

“Please do not call again.”

“July 1, 1994: did you know that the woods is very dark at nite? i had to go there, it was vary alown [alone?]”

Then Mike called.

His voice sounded like he was whispering, but he spoke quickly, as if he needed to get off the line as soon as he could.  As if someone were listening.  After some time rambling, I finally asked him directly,

“What’s going on?  Who is Joe?”

He paused for a second, I thought he was going to hang up.  Then he said:

“When we were kids you used to always talk about this guy who you hung out with.  I guess you could say he was an imaginary friend?  You called him Joe.  I always thought it was a joke, but it really started to weird me out.  Finally, you stopped talking about him.

“But then, a couple years later, my sister, Ann, who was younger than us, started talking about some guy named Joe.  That really freaked me out but I still didn’t know what… what was happening.

“And then, the day before her birthday, she disappeared.  She just… I don’t know.  I don’t know what to think.”

 “July 18, 1994: today I saw joe. He sayd it was fun. I beleved him. He sayd I did it. He did not scarre me today”

This is the last entry that mentions Joe.

“July 19, 1994: today I had the best birthday party ever!”