How to make a friend

the long version

As a lonely child, Alice found comfort the same way so many others do - she invented a friend. Sam was always there when she needed him, until one day--he wasn't. Now, Alice's life almost resembles something happy, normal. But when a tragic accident shatters her world Alice has constructed, the sense of isolation that haunted her in childhood returns. And with it, so does Sam. To Alice, he looks and feels like a real person, but how can that be so? And who will decide when it's time for him to leave again?