Deja Vu

by Dave Krenitsky

 

Bob stared at the key fob in his hand and wondered why his door remained locked. He shook his head as he realized that he had been pressing the button to start his car. He opened the door and leaned against it as it locked behind him. Memory uploads didn't usually leave him so fuzzy minded. Removals had that effect but the memory clinic only did the usual monthly backup.

He stumbled to the couch and plopped down. The last time he was this foggy was when they had removed the memories of a particularly horrendous accident he had seen. Or that was what the log of the incident had said. He could have the memory back if he wanted but he had kept it for weeks until the legal issues were resolved. All he remembered were nights of no sleep and terrible dreams that woke him in a cold sweat. He laid back and slept.

In the morning he rolled off the couch and walked unsteadily to the shower. The cold shower left him feeling a bit better and he poured himself a large cup of strong black coffee. He wondered if he was coming down with something. The news came on and he watched all the non-events. There was some anti-government rally going on but the protesters didn’t seem to be organized.

He took a sip but the coffee burned his lips and coffee spilled down the side of the cup. He opened a drawer and pulled out a coaster. Below the coaster was a picture of him and a young woman. He picked up the picture. He and the woman were in each others arms and getting ready to kiss. He had no memory of who she was. On the back was a note, “Love you forever, Susan” and a date a few months back.

At the bottom was a logo from The Silicon Valley Historical Preserve and a notice: Before electronic storage was developed people had to carry around physical images. This image was created by squirting thousands and thousands of tiny droplets of ink onto the paper. If you lost it it was gone forever.

Bob dressed and headed out the door. The memory clinic should be able to refresh his memory of the woman.

# # #

Bob entered the clinic and went up to the desk. "I think you made a mistake on my upload yesterday."

"My name is Barb. I'll be happy to help you. Oh, and we don't make mistakes. Since the government took over control of all memory clinics there have been no recorded incidents of errors or problems."

"Well, I found this picture of myself and a woman but I have no memory of her."

"May I see the picture?" Barb asked.

Bob handed it over.

"We don't get many physical pictures anymore. At least not with people your age. Some of our older clients still have them and bring them in. I'll scan it and do a search and we'll see if anything pops up from facial recognition." She slid the image into a slot and waited. Her eyes widened and she paled. "Oh my."

"Is there a problem?" Bob asked.

"Oh, ah. Yes. No. I'll have to call my supervisor. Could you follow me please. I'll take you to a private room."

"So there was a problem." Bob said.

"I'm not authorized to discuss it. Please my supervisor will be along very soon. He'll tell you all you need to know." Barb opened the door to small room and lead Bob in. "Please have a seat." She closed the door behind her.

Bob looked at the single chair in the room. It was bolted to the floor. He tried the door but it was locked. The only other feature was an air vent high up on one wall. He tried the door again then checked his phone but it indicated no service. He sat down and waited.

# # #

Several minutes later the open opened and two large men entered. One held the picture out to him. "Is this yours?"

"Well yeah. You can see me in the picture. Who is that woman? Why can't I remember her?" Bob asked.

"Do you have any more pictures?"

"I don't know."

"Doesn't matter," the other man said. He brought an injector to Bob's neck and fired it. Bob swayed and both men grabbed his arms to steady him. "Take him to the lab. They've got instructions to clear out the memories of the picture. Plus they'll add in a little about his apartment being burglarized. This will be recorded as erasing that trauma."

"And Barb?"

"She's in the chair right now. Erasing the last half hour is easy. The memories haven't made it to long term memory yet.. Keep him here for a couple of hours. I'll take a few men and search his apartment for more pictures. We'll leave it a mess. And have them wipe your memory of the woman. You're not cleared at that level."

"Yes sir," the first man said.

"And give him a whack on the back of the head. Not too hard but enough to raise a bump."

# # #

Bob stood in front of his door and pressed the buttons on his key fob until it opened. Inside everything was thrown about and drawers pulled out from their cabinets. All he knew was what the police had told him. He had been surprised by a burglar and attacked. In emergency care after the police determined that he had not seen the burglar's face they had let him get the memory removed. He fell into the couch and stared at the mess. His head still hurt.

He turned on the news. A young woman's body had been found. Her picture came on the screen. The police were asking for help in identifying her and anyone who knew her was asked to contact the authorities. The woman looked vaguely familiar but such feelings of deja vue were becoming more common. His friends had mentioned that too.

 

END