If You Could See Me Now

Author : Cecelia Ahern

Remember some time ago I reviewed a book by this author named – “A Place Called Here”.. ? I promised you that over time I’ll be reviewing other books by her. And here I am fulfilling my promise. “If You Could See Me Now” is another beuatiful book written by Cecelia Ahern and just like all her other books this one has a magical touch to it.

The two central characters of this book include a young lady in her late twenties, unmarried and successful interior designer and a guy also in his late twenties who’s job is to make people smile. Now you’d say, that isn’t really work is it. As a matter of fact, it is for this guy, because he is an imaginary friend – someone who becomes visible to you only if you believe in miracles, and need emotional help and support.

Yes I was a little taken aback by the theme too, and to be honest, I didn’t know that one of the central characters was imaginary, or else I’d never have ventured reading this one. It would just seemed a little too kiddish. Only after reading through about 3 chapters was it made clear that the guy was an imaginary friend. I contemplated for some time, and then decided to give it a shot. Well guess what… it worked!!

Elizabeth Egan is a successful interior designer living in a beautiful house on the Fuchsia lane in Baile na’ Crothe, somewhere in Ireland. She takes care of her younger sister’s son Luke, practically raising him on her own, since her sister is too busy partying and living an adventurous life ignoring her responsibilities.

Elizabeth’s father lives alone on his farm house, her mother having walked out on him, her and her then six-month old younger sister. Such bitterness having struck Elizabeth at such an early stage in life, she had taken on full responsiblity of her sister and raised her with minimal help from her father, who was simply too heart broken to raise two kids alone.

During the years that Elizabeth grew up, completed her studies and started working as an interior designer, she had some relationships, the most serious ones of them being with a guy named Mark, from New York. She was so happy with him that she even decided to leave her native place behind and move to New York with him and work there. But her sister’s actions always were the cause of her embarrasment and worry, and despite of Mark’s endless efforts in making her see how her sister was ruining both of their lives, Elizabeth just couldn’t leave her baby sister to suffer the consequences on her own. She had to protect her.

This eventually costed Elizabeth some very good opportunities in her career, and of course cost her Mark. She was back to Baile na’ Crothe, and before she knew, her sister was pregnant. What was worse, after giving birth, she resumed her old habits of taking off without leaving even a note leaving behind the wailing child. Guess she had inherited her mother’s qualities. It was time for Elizabeth to step up again and take responsibility. And now, Luke was six years old, and lived with her.

Things were going pretty much the same way until one day, Elizabeth noticed Luke taking and smiling to thin air. Strangely, he kept making gestures and talking to the air. Luke had also started speaking thing backwards. Like he would tell her that she was a gnirob. On asking what that meant, Luke said it was a word used for people who were boring and that Ivan had told him the word.

She thought this was wierd and when she asked Luke about it, he said he was playing with his friend Ivan. But she couldn’t see anyone around who fit the description that Luke was giving. When this continued for a few days, she looked up imaginary friends on the internet and found out that kids of the age of Luke made imaginary friends all the time and they lasted for a maximum period of 3 months. So Elizabeth decided to let Luke have his fun and play along.

Everything was finr, til one evening when she was really depressed, and was crying, she saw a strange man standing at her kitchen door. She assumed him to be Sam’s father. Sam was Luke’s friend who had come over to play, and Elizabeth thought this man has come to pick him up.

The guy continued to come to their place everyday, and Elizabeth would talk to him about things she never shared with anyone. He had such an effect on you that you just couldn’t hold anything inside. It had to flow out. Soon, they became very good friends. He had told Elizabeth that his name was Ivan and he was from a place called Ekam Eveileb. What Elizabeth didn’t know was that this Ivan was the same Ivan, Luke’s friend, Luke’s imaginary friend!!

Days went by, and somehow, Elizabeth started finding courage within her to face her fears and accept her disappointments. Before she knew it, she had fallen in love with Ivan and Ivan with her. It could be perfect for the two of them. But then Ivan’s supervisor and friend Opal showed him that they could never be together since she would keep growing old and Ivan would remain the same for ever. And a few years down the line, she would stop seeing him. And then it would be so painful for both of them, since Elizabeth wouldn’t be able to see him while he would be standing right infront of her, and he couldn’t possibly watch her wait for him endlessly.

That’s when Ivan disclosed to Elizabeth that he couldn’t stay with her and had to leave. He couldn’t do it directly, so he said it to her in her sleep. Elizabeth woke up feeling restless. When a few days had passed by and there was no sign of him, she began to get worried. On making inquiries, she was faced with the most bizarre truth of her life – she had fallen in love with a man that didn’t exist in the real world. On thinking hard about all that Ivan had ever said to her, she was left with just two words – Ekam Eveileb. On hearing them, Luke smiled and said, its the same backward language that Ivan taught him. Before long, Elizabeth firgured out what it meant – Make Believe.

But by now, Ivan had taught Elizabeth to face her fears and accept disappointments. She knew she would always love him and she also knew that she would never see him again, but somehow, inside, she was a contented, happy woman, who knew Ivan was around her somewhere, watching her.

I know, unusual story… but I like stories which describe the complex emotions of love, trust, and feeling the presence of someone you love. Nice read!!