Past Lives - ParalyzerPygmalion, in high school, alone. All his friends have girlfriends, he has internet porn and podcasts. He forms an idea one day in computer literacy class: he'll make a fake girlfriend. It'll give him something to do, he thinks, and someone to be (sort of) devoted to. He starts constructing her profile. He collects pictures of places--oftentimes driving way out into the country to visit little kitschy tourist spots--and photoshops his girl (with her composite face) into the foreground. Sometimes she's with him in the photos, and other times she's by herself. What gives him pause, as he's working and looking over the pics, is that she looks sad or slightly disappointed in the pictures where she's with him, but happy and lively and altogether fun-drunk in her solo photos. He wonders. Maybe they're a couple that functions on high drama. Maybe she's unstable. Maybe he's a sadsack downer. Whatever. I'm in a relationship now, he thinks. I've got to work to make this work.[BUY Tapestry of Webs]