"Hi, Ed, I'm Mr. Preston." He walked in and sat across from me at my table.
"Hello Mr. Preston, uh why are you here?" I said, a bit confused, no one except for my daughter ever visits me.
"I'm here so you can talk," He said while leaning back in the chair while crossing his legs.
"Talk about what?" I asked, still very confused.
"To talk about your loss."

Well, let me start from the beginning. When I was little, I didn't have many friends, except for one, his name was Grimms. And we had some crazy adventures. But no one else could have with Grimms like I could.

Um, Ed, quick question. Why are you here, ya know in a mental hospital?" Mr. Preston so rudely interrupted.
"Like I said, some think I'm crazy." And I continued with the story.

Well Grimms and I used to go on these crazy adventures. One that I specifically remember is when we went to a waterfall. Grimms always liked to go to unique places. We would go into my closet and then go anywhere we wanted. This time when we went into my closet, it was already ready, no setting up to do or anything. We could just go into our little secret world, and we did just that.

He took me to a forest. In the forest we fought off everything: lions, tigers, and even giant snakes. Together, we could do anything. Finally ,we got to his beloved waterfall and it was beautiful. It was like a movie scene, crystal clear waters and beautiful lush forest all around. The only noise you could hear was running water and the chirping of birds. We stayed there for hours just talking, about everything. I think the talks we had are what I miss the most.
"It's okay, it’s good to talk about these things, we've all lost someone some time or another.” Mr. Preston said sympathetically as he stood up and walked around.
“Do you have any other memories with Grimms?” He added and turned back around to face me.
“I have hundreds, maybe too many, but thats okay, how many would you like to hear?”
“Actually, I want to hear a rather recent one.” And with him saying that, I started yet another story.

“Well recently, I came here, although its not a very entertaining adventure it was one that meant a lot. I was nervous about the move, leaving my life long house to come to a place with crazy people, people crazier than me. But Grimms, he was there, finally.

Let me backtrack a little, for the past 50 years he went away to go start a family, as did I. That’s what people said was my “sane years”. From my twenty first birthday to my seventieth. During this time I had a family, and I was thought to be normal again. Then Grimms decided to have a visit.

When he came for the visit, he never left. So I was thought to go crazy again, and I was brought here.

Back to the story. He was with me, he helped me pack and calmed me down. Grimms was there. He helped out so much with the move. Then when I was all settled in he was once again, my only friend. I didn’t get along with any of the other patients, so we just sat in my room and talked like the old days. Like I said, not a very interesting story, but to me it was the best one.

“Very good Ed, but one last story, do you remember his death?” He seemed very interested in this question.

“Why yes I do, not very well, but I remember a little.” And I went off into my story world.

A little bit before the death I was put on medicine, I was told it was supposed to stop “ my visions and extensive imagination”.

Then Grimms and I decided to go for a walk, a long walk. We were walking and talking and then he just disappeared, right out of thin air. I was quite confused ,but I thought it was just Grimms trying to pull a trick., he always liked to joke.Then I called his name and a blur of a lady rushed past me. When she did I heard her say in a hushed, wind like voice, Grimms is gone. Since then my visions and imagination has stopped. I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary.

“Well, that is very good to hear, Ed. I’m glad to know that the medicine is working.” As he said that my nurse, Carla came in with my lunch.

“Here you are Eddy,” And she placed my lunch in front of me.

“Carla, can’t you see I have a guest please go get him a meal as well.”

She seemed a bit confused, said sorry, and then went to go get more food.

While I started eating, Mr. Preston and I had a great talk. When Carla came back in and without a word, put the food down, at the seat open, not the one that Mr. Preston was sitting at, then quickly left. I soon found out that he, too, knew Grimms and we started talking about how great of a person he was, always able to make you laugh with his crazy ideas.

It was great to know that I could have another friend like Grimms, one that actually knew and believed me that Grimms was real. He was about to leave so we were saying our goodbyes when my daughter came in for her daily visits. I asked Preston to stay and meet my daughter.

“Hi dad, how are you?” She said

“I’m doing fine, thank you, Mr. Preston I would like you to meet my beautiful daughter, Natalie she---” And she interrupted me.
She came over to the table, put her arm around my old shoulder, looked me in the eye and said “Dad, who are you talking to?”