[ That earns a deep frown of concern, and she can definitely tell he's frustrated so she tries to push the beauty queen to the back burner and focus, sitting down with him on a little love seat type decorative piece of furniture. ]

I'm gonna try to help. All you have to do is nod for yes and shake your head for no.

[ That should hopefully make it easy, right? Except now she has to think of yes or no questions that can get her to the bottom of things. ]

Could you talk before you were a zombie?