Episode 3
Imaginary Friends
Dive into the mysterious world of childhood imagination. Ever had an imaginary friend who seemed a bit too real? This episode will make you question what's possible in the realm of childhood wonders and ghostly encounters.
Join "Sascha", "Alice", and "Leslie" as they share gripping stories of their childhood companions, Coco, Charles, Dr. Tom, and Meredith. With intrigue around every corner, you'll be left pondering whether these friends were mere figments of imagination or something more significant.
DRAMA: AN AURAL EXPERIENCE™— Season 1: Anthology
Episode 3
Title: Imaginary Friends
Starring: Caturah Brown as "Leslie", Dara Kramer as "Alice" & Samantha Lacey Johnson as "Sascha"
Written by: Jeffrey James Keyes
Original Score by: Manuel Pelayo & Giancarlo Bonfanti
Marketing Director: Madeline Corcoran
Associate Producer: Matthew Solomon
Directed, Sound Designed & Executive Produced by: Aaron Salazar
...
Presented by AKS IMMERSIVE
*** Please, wear headphones. For the best experience.***
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Learn more about our Cast & Creative Team: drama-pod.com
Transcript
Drama and oral experience.
Speaker B:Please wear headphones for the best experience.
Speaker A:Episode 3 Imaginary Friends Sam, did you ever have an imaginary friend when you were a kid?
Speaker C:Coco and Charles.
Speaker C:They taught me how to play poker.
Speaker C:By the illumination of my childhood light bright while my parents were asleep.
Speaker B:Dr.
Speaker B:Tom was a pretty intense orthopedic surgeon.
Speaker B:He came on my fifth birthday and stayed until I was six.
Speaker B:Every night when the lights went out, he'd show up and enroll elaborate pictures of the human body and give me lectures on anatomy and physiology.
Speaker B:I was inquisitive at first and this pissed him off.
Speaker B:He was always firm with me, told me if I got too loud, had too many questions, or didn't remember what he taught me the night before he he would make it so I wouldn't wake up.
Speaker B:Most toddlers can't even tie their shoes.
Speaker B:And here I was every night learning the skeletal, integumentary, muscular, nervous, sensory, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive systems.
Speaker B:And this was just the first semester of his lecture.
Speaker B:He'd always say.
Speaker A:Mine came to me in the daytime.
Speaker A:I grew up in the Midwest in the 80s when parents used to let their kids climb trees, swim in rivers, chase fireflies, get stung by bees and go insane in the wilderness.
Speaker A:There was a huge forest just behind my mom's house where I'd go to pick wildflowers when I was a little girl.
Speaker A:One day I met Meredith who said she was six just like me.
Speaker A:Meredith had freckles and strawberry blonde hair and looked like a real life strawberry shortcake.
Speaker C:Coco wore a beret and she and Charles used to chain smoke.
Speaker C:Charles smoked Camels and Coco swore buy clove cigarettes out of a long cigarette holder.
Speaker C:She told me she was a modern day Zelda Fitzgerald and could always keep up with the boys.
Speaker B:Dr.
Speaker B:Tom taught me about anatomical organization.
Speaker B:If I didn't remember the definition of a term verbatim, he threatened to execute my mom and dad.
Speaker B:That's what he used to say.
Speaker A:Meredith and I could count spots on on ladybugs, hunt for four leaved clovers and chase butterflies.
Speaker B:Most children learn about their bodies by singing head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Speaker B:I was busy sweating over the difference between the sciatic, femoral and lumbar nerves.
Speaker C:Charles and Coco wanted to train me to be the greatest poker player in the whole world.
Speaker C:They gave me the history of the greatest poker players.
Speaker C:Stu Ungar, Chip Reese, Johnny Moss, and Doyle Brunson, the godfather of poker.
Speaker C:Coco decided I was destined to become greater than any of These men.
Speaker C:It was time a woman showed these boys how it was done.
Speaker A:My dad was out of the picture, and my mother was a workaholic.
Speaker A:Back in those days, we had a little help from the state, but she worked long hours, and I was pretty much on my own Every summer.
Speaker C:Mom and dad were really involved with my upbringing.
Speaker C:They watched me like a hawk, making sure I became the perfect little girl they always dreamed of having.
Speaker B:My parents didn't understand why I looked like I had been hit by a bus every morning.
Speaker B:I was the only kid they knew who actually enjoyed taking naps.
Speaker A:She became curious whenever I brought up Meredith at the dinner table.
Speaker A:What do her parents do?
Speaker A:Had I been over to her house?
Speaker C:Normal girls play with dolls and stuffed animals.
Speaker C:I was obsessed with cards.
Speaker C:Mom and dad didn't understand this.
Speaker C:The Barbie Dream House I got for Christmas was covered in dust.
Speaker C:My My Little Ponies tucked neatly in shoeboxes for safekeeping.
Speaker C:Cabbage Patch Dolls all lined up on the windowsill.
Speaker B:One night, I didn't remember exactly where the Tensor fasciae Latae missile was, and I thought Dr.
Speaker B:Tom was going to give me a lobotomy.
Speaker A:When I asked Meredith where she lived, she ignored me at first.
Speaker A:But then I became persistent and told her my mom wanted to meet her.
Speaker A:She looked down, and when she looked up, her eyes were dark, and she told me to drop it.
Speaker A:Why couldn't we just have fun and play without bringing our parents into it?
Speaker A:Especially since my mom cared more about working than taking care of me.
Speaker A:She said that she was sent to play with me because my mom wasn't there to look after me.
Speaker A:This didn't make sense, and I told her she hurt my feelings.
Speaker A:The second I said that.
Speaker A:She reached out her arms and pushed me, but instead of falling down, it was as if someone picked me up and flung me across the field.
Speaker A:I looked down, and my legs and arms were all scraped up, and I turned around and started running, and I cried all the way home.
Speaker C:Coco and Charles started pushing and pushing me, drilling me on strategy and how I should be more careful with body language and physical awareness.
Speaker C:They go over everything I ate each day.
Speaker C:They wanted me to grow into a bombshell so I could walk into any casino and trick people into giving me what I deserve.
Speaker B:My parents took me to a sleep specialist because they didn't understand why I wanted to take so many naps.
Speaker A:When I got home, my mom was getting back from work, and I jumped into her arms and told her what happened.
Speaker A:She looked down, and when she saw my cuts and Scrapes.
Speaker A:She almost lost her mind.
Speaker A:She forbid me from leaving the house and going to see Meredith.
Speaker C:One night in the middle of our card game, my mom barged in my room.
Speaker C:The second the light went on, Coco and Charles vanished.
Speaker C:My mom wanted to know why was I awake and sitting at the table with my cards when I was supposed to be asleep?
Speaker C:Her nostrils flared up.
Speaker C:Was I smoking?
Speaker B:The specialist gave my parents instructions to monitor me while I slept.
Speaker A:I was relieved when I saw it was raining the next morning.
Speaker A:I knew Meredith would be angry for not meeting her to play.
Speaker A:But the rain was a better excuse than my mom forbidding me from going outside.
Speaker C:Mom found Coco's pack of cloves on the Candyland table and didn't understand where I got them.
Speaker B:I started to freak out as they sat next to me that night.
Speaker B:What would happen when Dr.
Speaker B:Tom showed up and saw them sitting there?
Speaker A:Even though it was daytime, the house was dark because of the rain.
Speaker A:I was in the basement when I heard a knock at the door.
Speaker A:Mom instructed me to never open the door for strangers.
Speaker A:But whoever it was at the door kept knocking.
Speaker C:I told her that Coco had left them.
Speaker B:They sat there all night.
Speaker C:Who's Coco?
Speaker B:We tossed and turned, pretending to be asleep.
Speaker B:Sweetie?
Speaker B:My mom asked.
Speaker B:What's wrong?
Speaker B:He's going to be mad at me.
Speaker B:He's going to give me a lobotomy if I don't pay attention.
Speaker B:Who?
Speaker B:Mom wanted to know.
Speaker C:Who are you talking about?
Speaker C:Dr.
Speaker C:Tom, Coco, Charles, My friends.
Speaker A:Meredith.
Speaker A:It was Meredith at the door.
Speaker A:I knew it was the knocking kept going.
Speaker A:Knock, knock, knock.
Speaker A:And then I'd wait and hear nothing but the rain.
Speaker C:I started telling mom about Coco and Charles, how they had every night.
Speaker B:I told her about how the latissimus dorsi inserted into the humerus and where it connected to the vertical column.
Speaker B:And how mad he was going to be if I didn't ace my pop quiz this evening.
Speaker B:And how I was scared of getting a lobotomy.
Speaker A:I couldn't focus on anything except for the knocking at the door.
Speaker A:I climbed the stairs from the basement, and with each step the knocking grew louder.
Speaker C:Mom shook her head.
Speaker C:How dare I lie to her?
Speaker C:Where did the cigarettes come from?
Speaker C:Did I steal them?
Speaker C:How long had I been smoking?
Speaker B:Clearly I had an overactive imagination.
Speaker B:But how the hell did I come up with Dr.
Speaker B:Tom?
Speaker B:And how did I know so much about the human body and aerobic and anaerobic muscle activity?
Speaker A:By the time I got to the top of the steps, I was out of breath.
Speaker A:I put one hand to the door and felt the vibration of the knocks.
Speaker A:I knew who was on the other side.
Speaker C:Mom held me in her lap.
Speaker B:Mom couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Speaker A:My mom told me not to open the door for anyone.
Speaker C:I didn't know if I should tell her everything, but I did.
Speaker B:I told mom everything that night.
Speaker A:I knew if it was her, that I should let her in.
Speaker A:She'd probably want to apologize for being so mean the day before.
Speaker C:She said that sometimes kids have imaginary.
Speaker B:Friends and that these imaginary friends are dreams and ideas, compositions of things we overhear throughout our day, and that it's our mind playing tricks on us.
Speaker C:I didn't buy it.
Speaker C:I knew Coco and Charles were really there.
Speaker A:I reached up to the doorknob and undid the lock.
Speaker A:The knocking stopped and I took a big gulp as I turned the knob to the right.
Speaker C:They told me I'm going to be the greatest poker player in the whole wide world.
Speaker B:He told me he's going to give me a lobotomy if I miss a.
Speaker A:Lecture even once when I open the door.
Speaker A:I expected to see Meredith, but instead there was no one there.
Speaker C:Mom cracked open a window and then climbed into bed with me.
Speaker B:That night my mom told me I would be okay, that she would make sure nobody would give me a lobotomy or punish me for not paying attention when I should be sleeping.
Speaker A:I went outside, and when I stepped into the yard, I felt the cold rain on the back of my neck.
Speaker C:Coco and Charles never came back to visit me.
Speaker B:I didn't have another proper anatomy lesson until high school.
Speaker A:I looked up into the sky and watched as droplets soared down around me.
Speaker A:The next day, I went to the forest to pick wildflowers, but Meredith wasn't there.
Speaker A:I went again and again, but she was nowhere to be found.
Speaker A:Later in life, I decided Meredith was probably an imaginary friend.
Speaker A:More often than not, imaginary friends are.
Speaker B:Harmless products of overactive imagination in childhood.
Speaker B:At least that's what I told myself.
Speaker A:But what if, maybe, just maybe, there's more to them?
Speaker A:They seem so tangible.
Speaker A:What if children have a special sixth sense?
Speaker A:If they're capable of seeing and relating to actual ghosts, wouldn't that be something Sam.
