And Jeannie with the television static for hair sits in her apartment waiting for something to happen again. Illuminated in black and white, she lies upside down off the bed, picking at her fingernails.

 

It’s Saturday night, and while everyone else is at the bar discovering who they are, Jeannie is laying in her bed, legs sprawled out before her, toenails unpainted, and a tear or two resting on her cheek. She holds a cell phone in her hand, but there’s no connection outside her dreams. 

​

When she finally falls asleep, he finds her. He sneaks into her apartment building through the keyhole on the lock. Carefully, he scales the hallway walls, follows the winding staircase up and up and up, until he finally arrives at her apartment door. He crawls underneath and meets her in the forest.

 

He is her hero in a top hat, coming to her in the haze of dreams. When he finds her, her hair changes to cotton candy pink. They join hands right away and run for a time. They dine with kings and queens and find each other again at masquerade parties. He takes her hand and leads her out to dance; it is as though they can anticipate each other’s steps.

​

"What’s it like being the girl with the television static for hair?” he asks sometimes. Jeannie never knows what to say, so she always just answers the same as before.

 

“I much prefer being the girl in pink from your dreams.”

 

“The girl of my dreams, you mean?”

 

She smiles, blushing fiercely. He always knows just what to say.

 

In the morning she always wakes up wishing he could be there beside her. As she combs out her television static hair, she aches for the pink. In her dreams, she has crystals for her eyes, but when she wakes up they’re only stones.

. . . 

​

I’ve been studying Jeannie for awhile now, learning about her habits and her dreams. She’s not like the other women in the simulation. I can’t confirm it, but something about her feels real.

 

They’re all here for the same reasons, of course: for different men to use them as they please and decide if they’d like their own version in the real world. I’m just the computer, keeping things running.

 

The others in the second partition of the simulation can’t see Jeannie or any of the women with television static hair; instead, they’re on vacation or here to escape diseased and broken bodies. They are all completely unaware of what’s going on beneath the surface. Sometimes I consider telling them the truth, but it’s really not my place. I'm just the computer.

 

When the men arrive, the television static women come alive. They are finally seen. The men see them as they truly are: young, beautiful, and vivid. The others in the simulation think it’s a time of celebration—a time for a wedding—but Jeannie never seems happy about it. Pieces of the truth linger in her mind, but I know she’s not fully aware yet.

 

At first, I liked watching the women and making sure the system keeps running, but Jeannie has been here so much longer than any of the others that I wonder if she’ll ever get to leave. I want to help her but I can’t.