194 Cynthia's Crack

David said she was hallucinating. She believed him. Indeed, no one else could see the crack three feet in front of her.

"Cynthia, you take medication for a reason."

"True," she agreed.

She and David had been engaged for months, but he was beginning to doubt his commitment. After all, one must weigh judiciously the gene pool in which one's gametes swim. Cynthia's was polluted with this hallucination.

She was functional, however; recognizing that what she saw was imagined made him very forgiving.

She only saw the crack when she was with him, but it was definitely for her--from her?--following in tandem with her movements and ambulation. Yet, when she distanced herself from David, it evanesced.

She stopped informing David when it appeared, for it began angering him. Yet, she was curious. What machinations were at work in her brain or her soul that made it appear and disappear,--with or without him--respectively? She needed to find out.

She lay in bed with David one night, still awake while he slept. Above her hovered the crack, bordered in black with a silver streak vertically down its middle. She touched it, and she felt a rush of equanimity. It responded to her, in kind.

She spread its borders, widening it as big as her. She could move it, and so she did, over her. When she did, David lay alone in his bed.

Within this portal's embrace, she and David lived their entire lives. They raised children. They were happy. Decades passed. They grew old together. The crack was still there--she just hadn't paid attention.

One day, in her 80s, she remembered the world from which she had come. She reached for the crack and stepped through. A moment after she had left David's bed, she reappeared, young and engaged. She had seen--had lived--what their entire lives were to be. And it was wonderful.

That morning she told David, who declared their wedding was off.

Cynthia got over David.

But she discovered she had a new crack for every lover she had. Therefore, these were not her cracks. Each person in her life had their own crack, which she found hysterical when she ended up marrying a plumber.

_________

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

For Friday, July 12, Day 194 of the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge

366 WORDS (without A/N)

Title-accompaniment photo was AI-generated but the wise cracks weren't.

---THIS CHALLENGE GRINDS ON, 366 WORDS AT A TIME:

There are currently three surviving Vocal writers still participating in the insane 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge:

• L.C. Schäfer, challenge originator

• Rachel Deeming

• Gerard DiLeo (some other guy)

Read them. Support them. Pray for them. And don't crack up.