Harvey the Pooka and Charles.

Harvey is a Pooka. Pooka’s originate from old Celtic mythology, a fairy spirit in animal form, always very large. The Pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one. A benign but mischievous creature very fond of rumpots and crackpots.

Harvey’s sixteenth human friend was Elwood P. Dowd. To Elwood, Harvey appeared as a six foot invisible rabbit. Elwood and Harvey enjoyed each other’s company. It was a journey of much happiness. Then one day Elwood died, as is true with all humans, and Harvey found himself alone again. Elwood’s death was almost more than Harvey could bear. For that reason most Pooka’s shy away from human friendships. The cycle of discovery, friendship, sickness and death saddens the normal jovial Pookas.

Harvey and Elwood P. Dowd

With a broken heart, Harvey choose to break the cycle, leaving human friendships to humans. Instead Harvey travelled the world to see humanity’s wonders. He watched humans from the shadows. There were times he was careless and stayed visible too long, resulting in a sighting from the corner of someone’s eye. The bewildered witness would wonder what it was he saw in the boundary between light and dark.

Two years ago Harvey’s travels brought him to a country far away called The Confederacy of Dunces. It was a dark Sunday evening when he heard the sound of a human child crying from an upper window in a home on Willowby Lane in the village of Coverdale. He entered the bedroom of a small boy crying himself to sleep. There was something in the boy’s face that reminded him of a younger Elwood P. Dowd. He watched the boy until the boy’s tears stopped and the child fell asleep. His brain urged him to continue on his journey. His heart told him otherwise.
“ Humans and Pookas need each other.” Harvey whispered to himself. “Humans remind us of life’s beauty and wonders, something easy for immortals to forget over the centuries.” Harvey stayed. His seventeenth human friend was a young boy named Charles Chip.

Charles quickly understood that only he could see Harvey. He learned not to talk about his six foot rabbit friend. Nobody would believe him anyway.

Harvey knows Charles will die someday, and when that day comes he will cope with the loss. But until then, Charles fills a void in Harvey’s life, and Harvey is a friend the boy will learn to cherish.