"C'mon, Riley, I'm wide open," Bing Bong defended the hockey goal with all he had. A look of determination shifted to confusion when he realized he'd made an error, "Oh! I mean," he tried for determined again, "There's no way you're getting that pass me! Not a snowball's chance in- Hey!"
Swish! Swap! The tiny rubber puck swooped right through the transparent imaginary friend and swished into the net. Bing Bong had to do a double take to make sure it had actually happened, and, when he gathered it had, he jumped for joy! His hat went off to Riley, with his trunk tossing it across the frozen lake while his hands patted Riley on the shoulder.
"Wow, you just keep getting better and better at that! Sooner or later, you're gonna be a Hockey champ! A member of the National Hockey League, whatever that is. I dunno, I saw it on a poster once," Bing Bong continued to laud his six year old best friend.
She gleefully skated to the edge of the lake and untied her skates, and he trailed right behind. He scooped up his bowler hat as they passed, going on and on about how proud he was of her. He started counting on his fingers just to keep track of how many things she could be great at doing.
"Story-telling, definitely the story-telling, you tell an excellent story, I'm telling you. Of course, being a Writer slash Hockey Player slash Astronaut slash Artist slash President is gonna be a busy work day. We should probably look into baking, too, so there's cookies at the end of the day to take the edge off and, hey! I smell cookies right now, you smell that?" Bing Bong went on and on, but it was dawning on him that Riley wasn't paying much mind. "Do you? Riley?" A smile was hard to maintain when you weren't sure how much a smile mattered. But Bing Bong was the type to keep on smiling anyway. "C'mon, let's go inside; Mom's probably setting some cookies on the table now."
Riley was racing up ahead of him, and he really tried to reassure himself that she had heard him; that was proof. Riley had been ignoring him for months, and Bing Bong wasn't quite sure why she didn't talk back anymore. It was really starting to bother him. It wasn't the fact he was feeling ignored; he really worried that something might be wrong with Riley.
While Riley was enjoying a plate of freshly baked cookies, Bing Bong phased out of the world and back into the mind of the small child. If anything was wrong, then he was bound to find the answer there. The only question was where...
As per usual, he wound up in Imagination Land. Sure, it was great to be home and all, surrounded by the bright colors and wonderful mental inventions, but Riley came first! Bing Bong had to make sure Riley was right inside her own head. How was he going to find that out though? He had a hard time thinking a way up but had faith an idea would pop in somewhere.
When the lightbulb went off, it was right over his head. Unfortunately, that lightbulb all too literally went out right over his head. Shattering glass accompanied the cotton candy being going out cold, and it was some time before his hazel eyes opened back up. The view around was not Imagination Land though. No. This place was much, much darker. He couldn't see anything, not even the trunk in front of his face! In a state of panic, Bing Bong realized what had happened.
"No! I've been forgotten! Already?! But the Moon! Riley! Riley wouldn't want this! This is her own mind working against her; that's what I'm saying. I demand to see a lawyer, or, at the very least, a fact-checker. How about someone who just has something nice to say? Something's really not right here! Ooo!" His spiel ended when a bright light blinded him for the moment. He had to shield his eyes with his fingerless-gloved hands to just barely see the shadows approaching him.
The only comfort he had was that this was definitely not the Memory Dump. He hadn't been kidnapped and thrown into a bottomless pit to be discarded. It was little comfort; the fact he didn't know what was going on still unsettled him.
"What's going on here?!" Bing Bong was, of course, scared of the Dark, but he was also afraid of long, long shadows seeming to pop out of nowhere. "Who are you, and what do you want?!"
"Sorry about that," abruptly answered a short mind worker with a deep voice.
"Oh, that's okay," Bing Bong settled back down immediately. Just another friendly part of Riley's mind, after all. He was among familiar company, even if he didn't know the two mind workers in front of him personally. Nothing to worry about. "Lovely winter day, isn't it?"
"Eh. A little too much for me. It's only a matter of time before Riley gets a chill."
"When she gets sick, we handle the brunt of mental back-ups, ugh," the other one bemoaned.
"Yeah, I guess that's true," Bing Bong nodded in agreement. He thought it was lovely, what with the snowflakes, snowballs fights, and snow forts and all, but to each their own he supposed. "I have a teensy-weensy question though, if you don't mind. What's going on!? Riley already seems to be sick. I'm really worried about her." Bing Bong stated his case, pacing to and fro in front of the apathetic workers. "Her Imagination-Stabilizer has gotta be on the fritz or something-"
"There is no Imagination-Stabilizer, you dingba-" one worker tried to cut him off, but their partner hushed them up.
"Let him have this. It'll help to tell the guy the bad news," he tried to whisper, but Bing Bong's floppy ears picked it up.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh boy...well... Okay, buddy, let's put it this way. Something is wrong with Riley's imagination. She can't really interact with it as much right now."
"That's terrible!" Bing Bong gasped. "So what's being done about this, exactly?"
"Everything we can do. Unfortunately, you're going to have to lie low on the inside until we figure this out."
"Will that help?"
"Of course!"
"Then you got it. I'll do anything, if it'll help Riley. You see, we're going to the Moon one day in a rocke-" In his enthusiasm, his foot tapped a little red wagon with a pair of broom sticks tied to the side of it. "Hey! How'd my rocket get here?"
"Uhhhh, that would be so that you can...uhhh..."
"So you can work on it in the meantime! Gotta get those calculations just right, you know? Don't want to wind up on Saturn, or or or the Sun! Woa! That wouldn't be pretty."
"No, you got me there," Bing Bong replied. "It really is Rocket Science. Well, I'd better get to work on that!"
Smiling from ear to ear, Bing Bong took the little red wagon by the handle and dusted off his bowler hat. He looked to the left and right of him, but all there was to see was white; endless, bright light spanned from horizon to horizon, causing him to bite his lip in agitation.
"Say, how do I get out of here?"
"First door on your left." The lead worker who'd explained the situation to him casually tossed a thumb over their shoulder and pointed to the only break in the great blankness.
"Oh. I didn't see that before; thank you. You coming? There's plenty of room in the rocket!"
"No, thanks, we're good. Still some work to do in this headspace. But you're free to go about your business. Thank you for your time...and sorry for smashing a lightbulb over your head, buddy; all we had on us."
"Think nothing of it. You coulda just asked though, too. I'm very agreeable."
"Oh," the mind worker replied curtly.
"No problem. I'll see you two later. Be sure to get back to me when the problem's all sorted out! Thanks!"
Heading out on his way, rocket in tow, Bing Bong was out of ear shot when the two mind workers looked to each other and started talking among themselves.
"You really shouldn't have lied to him, you know."
"What was I supposed to do? Besides, he'll forget about in a couple of days.
But in a couple of days, Bing Bong was standing in that same headspace, alone, shutting his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could. A few weeks later, and he hadn't missed a day yet to try to get out of the mind and back to, hopefully, see Riley. Day after day after day, all ending the same, all in the same blankness- but Bing Bong never managed to get out. His hopeful heart lasted until Riley was ten and until he finally accepted that he'd been lied to. Nothing was going to be fixed. Maybe nothing was ever broken. Just him.
A candy corn piece fell into the rocket, then a wrapped piece of toffee. Bing Bong curled up with his face in his knees and cried. He finally realized that he was never going to see his best friend again, and the part that hurt most was he couldn't even dare to tell himself that she cared he never would.
In that blank headspace, Bing Bong broke down, surrounded by piles and piles of candy. It seemed odd to him for that to be there. He'd always thought of crying candy as helpful, but it didn't look so appetizing anymore. Nothing did. He was all alone. That thought echoed into the farthest space. All alone. As good as Forgotten.