Frankie has an imaginary friend named Crocko.
Crocko is a tiny mouse, and he first started making appearances in 2010. He lives in Frankie's wall next to his bed, and Crocko's door is a place where the paint is chipped a little bit. Crocko used to be in charge of choosing our bedtime lullaby. Slowly, he started showing up more. One day at church Frankie pointed to an empty pew and said "that bench is empty because Crocko and his family are sitting there."
Then Crocko started traveling. We would hear a plane fly over us, and Frankie would say "Crocko is on that plane. He's going to California." (Or Salt Lake, or North Dakota, basically places Frankie has been and can imagine.) We have learned more recently that Crocko has a very large family, and they are all named Crocko. They can be told apart because they all have different colors of fur.
At our pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Jeremy's parents, Frankie informed Nick that "All of the Crockos are flying out of that vent and coming to dinner!" The Crockos can move very fast, and they will often go with us wherever we are going, usually beating us there. Crocko loves the park and going exploring outside. (Something we've been doing more of.)
I've become fond of Crocko and his family. I'm glad Frankie has a bunch of little invisible buddies.
And I'm jealous of how often they get to go on vacation.
