Bad Guy

BadGuy from Bladford Shingley on Vimeo.

For those who don't know about Bad Guy, here's how he's evolved over the past few months:

A few months ago, I started playing a little game with Jane. I pretend to be a bad guy chasing her around the house. I catch her and she says "Help me! I have to get away!" Then I maniacally rub my hands together while delivering a villainous monologue about how evil I am. That's when Jane breaks free and runs to safety.

A few nights later, Jane decided to see if she could squeeze through a small opening in the rocking chair. She got stuck and started yelling for help. I tried to pull her out, but her head would not go back through. Luckily we were able to fit her whole body through the hole. The next day I heard her in her room saying, "Help me. I'm stuck! A bad guy got me! " I went into her room and she had her foot in the rocking chair. She was pretending the chair was a bad guy.

Bad Guy then became her invisible friend. She would run around the apartment saying "Ahhh! Let me go!" It wasn't long before we started hearing bad guy talk. He has a much lower voice than Jane, and he sticks his lips way out when he talks.

They must have worked out their differences, because they started to become good friends. I would go into her room and hear a conversation like this:

J: Hey bad guy, do you want to play with crayons?
BG: No, I don't want to.
J: Why not, Bad Guy? It will be fun!
BG: No it won't!
J: OK Bad Guy, you don't have to play.
BG: Well, maybe we could play with these toys.
J: Good idea. Thanks for sharing, Bad Guy.
BG: You're welcome.

He stopped being bad. He just started being kind of boring and negative. The funny thing is that Jane can usually turn his negativity around. It's great to see how she responds to her friend who never wants to do anything fun.

I think she's starting to rub off on him. Now, if you ask bad guy what he likes to do, he says "I like to dance." He's been working a lot lately, but he's still around quite often.

Jane now has another invisible friend named Two-Jane. I try not to pay attention to Two-Jane because she has an obnoxiously high voice. Hopefully she'll find a job far away from here.