Simon’s favourite types of stories were the ones where books or drawings or things imagined became real. In his notebook he sketched himself a fairy godmother and, sure enough, she emerged from the page and sat with him over cups of tea and biscuits.

She was as kind as Simon had imagined, but she didn’t suffer fools, and she was quick to put him straight on some things.

Like the idea that the things he drew came true.

‘Drawings aren’t like wishes,’ she said. ‘They don’t come true. It’s impossible to imagine something that doesn’t already exist.’

‘But what about you?’ Simon protested. He refused to look at his new companion, concentrating instead on fishing out clumps of soggy biscuit from his tea—the result of overly enthusiastic dunking. 

‘What about me?’ echoed the godmother. ‘And more importantly, what about you?’

Simon’s efforts eventually caused the biscuit to disintegrate entirely, giving his tea an unpleasant grainy quality. The idea that he hadn’t existed until his imaginary godmother imagined him was too much to fathom.

When finally he’d summoned the courage to look into the welcome of her eyes, she’d disappeared. The page in his sketchbook was as blank as his thoughts.

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Would you like to know more about this story? I discuss it in Episode 82 of Structured Visions. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen.