She can’t read; she can’t count; she doesn’t even know her own age. But she is caring, creative, inspirational, and extraordinarily gifted in the art of listening. In the novel “Momo,” Michael Ende’s unconventional character, Momo, is a little girl who is known to her townspeople as the go-to fixer in times of trouble. Even when soul-sucking parasites plague the city and its people, Momo still provides her friends with a temporary, and eventually everlasting, liberation from a time-consumed society.

Anyone and everyone in the mere vicinity of Momo seems to suddenly emanate creativity and imagination. If I could meet Momo, I would simply begin talking, knowing that because of the exceptional way she kindles insight in those she speaks to, I would naturally find a myriad of things to ask her: perhaps about struggles I’ve dealt with or about her thoughts on the color blue, or maybe about whether she believes in an afterlife. Regardless, just imagining a single conversation with someone so deep-hearted and empathetic lifts my spirit in a way that only an imaginary, legendary character like Momo can.