Cynthia's Zone

Simple Cynthia sat there staring off at the wall. She shifted her eyes to the ceiling fan and zoned out. She shifted her eyes to her coffee cup. She zoned out again. She shifted her eyes to the rim of her cup. She sipped her coffee. Her eyes went back to the wall. She zoned out again.

Cynthia was a plain lady. She only wore light blue sweaters and white pants. She had a lady bob haircut. She often sat wide eyed. Mouth open. Zoning out. Cynthia would zone out perhaps too often. Where was she going?

"Hey Cynthia, come on back from Mars, wouldya? Uh-ha-ha-ha!" said Ted. Ted was the guy who made great jokes and laughed at them.

Want to know where Cynthia would often go when she zoned out? Okay I will tell you. She was in a remembering place. She was remembering a man who was a real stud from her younger years gone by. His name was Brandell. He wore a flipped up collar, cool sunglasses, and was adventurous.
"Hey Babe, come for a ride." Brandell would say.

It was a memory line that Cynthia would repeat all the time. "Hey Babe, come for a ride." She would play it on a loop in her brain. She'd imagine the way Brandell's chest looked in the sunlight. It was so smooth. You'd have to be a fool to not want to kiss his handsome and studly chest.

Often Cynthia would talk to Brandell in her zoned out memory.
"Hey Babe, come for a ride." Brandell would say.
"I'd love to."
"Feel this fantasy-wind blowing in our faces!"
"Wow, I'm a princess, and an angel, and a butterfly, and a mermaid! I can be all these things."
"That's right. Let's choke your parents to death, baby."
"Okay."

Then she'd snap out of it, realizing she took it too far and too dark. But still, the Brandell memory was strong, influential and got her through the days. She talked to him all the time.

"Hey Babe, come for a ride." Brandell said another day, in her fantasy.
"I want to. I am stressed about all the other things in my life. I wish I could get away. With you."
"Babe, you can." said Brandell.
"It sure is a comfort to talk to you. I like us talking." confided Cynthia.
"True. But who needs talk when I'm this handsome?" said Brandell.
"Ha ha that is true too." said Cynthia, in her fantasy.

Brandell in the zone-out zone was the only real friend and romance she had. The only person she felt safe talking to.

One morning she decided she'd had enough of her empty dead life. She was going to find Brandell for real. She knew if she could see him he would help her reinvent her life. She could be living life as it had only been lived in the zone-out, but in the tangible zone! They could ignite each other, excite each other. Go for rides. "Hey Babe, come for ride ...come for a ride ...come for a ride." he echoed.

She did all the proper modern day searches that people do and tracked down his info. She hadn't seen him in so long! She called him on the phone.

"Sure, I remember you." said Brandell
Cynthia's body throbbed with life,"Would you like to meet?" she asked.
"That sounds fun." he said.

Cynthia went to meet Brandell and he was real fat and bald and even his facial hair that he didn't used to have seemed to be bloated. He was twice as boring and miserable as Cynthia.
"Here's a picture of my wife and fat kids." Brandell's fat kids had gray hair.

Brandell had been too much of a hunk and had always only gotten everything he wanted. When he hit a certain age things weren't as easy, so he gave up on life real quick.

"Well I'm out of things to say." Brandell said in real life. That seemed to be his new catchphrase, replacing "Babe, come for a ride."

Cynthia left defeated. This hadn't worked out as planned. But she at least took solace in the thought that she could go back to the zone and spend time with studly young Brandell.

Cynthia went to zone out into her coffee, eagerly seeking the Brandell of her fantasy. But he was gone. A ghost. A smear. A memory smudge. Young Brandell had been replaced. Only the fat, bald, slurry Brandell remained. She dug and dug and dug through her fantasy, only finding the modern Brandell. "Well I'm out of things to say." he'd say. She had deleted him and replaced him with the updated version.

What would Cynthia do now?