What a Piece of Work I Am, the Preface begins: MY BEST FRIEND was my imaginary friend, a boy named Rod, short for Rodney, friend of my own invention. I based him on a boy that I met by chance one day, a runaway boy who was passing through Babbington on his way to somewhere else, anywhere, nowhere, who-knows-where. I brought him to meet my great-grandmother Leroy, because I happened to be on my way to see her, and later, long after the runaway boy had left town, one day when Great-grandmother and I were trading secrets, I confessed to her that I considered him my best friend.