The Receiver — A Short Sci-Fi Story
Short story. Forgetting costs the same as remembering.
He had decided to transfer his memories of her.
To do that, he needed a receiver. Someone who could receive them. Receivers were hard to find, but in the end he managed to get one. Like organ donors, receivers were anonymous.
They were already at the clinic, where the receiver was placed near him, the emitter. A screen separated them. Electrodes were connected from brain to brain. He had to think about the memories he wanted to erase from his mind. Remember them one by one. As he did so, they were transferred to the receiver’s mind and erased from his own.
The procedure was successful.
He thought about her and managed to transfer most of the memories he had of her. They kept him there for an hour and a half to make sure the memories had been erased, and then he was allowed to return home. He felt a little dizzy, but soon noticed an improvement in his mood.
The trees at sunset caught his attention again. The birds sounded beautiful again. Even the neighbor’s dog seemed like an incredible achievement of nature. It was a dog that never let him sleep. But now he would be able to sleep.
He knew it wasn’t only the dog. It had also been the memories of her. He had never been able to forget her. Now only one memory remained in his mind: he vaguely knew he had once had another ex-girlfriend, but he could not remember her face, nor what had happened at the beginning, middle, or end of that relationship.
So that night he went to bed with great anticipation. He expected to remember nothing. To sleep well after a long time. He left his phone in the kitchen, lowered the blinds in his bedroom, lay on his side, and fell asleep.
In the morning, he dreamed.
He dreamed he was with another ex—one he had never liked that much. But in the dream she appeared beautiful, unique, irreplaceable.
He woke up and prepared breakfast—toast with jam and a coffee—and he kept remembering that ex who had never really hurt him, the one he had never thought about forgetting because she had never seemed important.
Suddenly, with the absence of the one who had truly mattered, the one who had not mattered began to take on a significance he had never imagined.
He went out into the street and looked at the neighbor’s dog. It once again seemed like a filthy animal, and its barking already bothered him during the day, not to mention how much it would bother him that night.
He could barely look at the trees. Everything reminded him of a new person, someone he had forgotten on his own in life, not through an expensive anonymous receiver of memories. The flowers looked wilted even though it was spring and they had just bloomed.
He had to do something.
He parked in front of the laboratory and asked to see his doctor—the one who had extracted his memories. He asked him to locate the anonymous receiver. He had to recover the memories that had been erased.
The doctor explained that he would have to pay the same amount. They scheduled the procedure.
For a week he dreamed about the forgettable ex—now unforgettable—until the date of the intervention arrived.
Once again they placed the screen between them. The electrodes were connected. This time the procedure was reversed. The former receiver had to recall the ex whose memories had been erased from the emitter. In other words, he would now become the receiver.
The intervention lasted an hour and a half. They kept him another hour to make sure everything had gone well.
He said goodbye to his doctor and walked out into the street. Although the sun was shining, everything seemed sad and dark. The pines looked dull. The houses gloomy. Living butterflies looked like insects pinned to a painting.
He parked in front of his house and heard the neighbor’s dog barking like the cry of a giant. Exhausted as he was, he fell asleep in the car.
He dreamed of both women.
Suddenly the woman he had once forgotten on his own had a relevance she had never had before. And the memories of the other—the ones he had transferred away—had returned with renewed force.
He woke up, got out of the car, and walked to the bar two blocks away.
He ordered a whiskey. A whole bottle.
His idea was to end like Dylan Thomas.
To forget the world.
To get away from everything.
To erase them all.
To erase himself.
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Chapters 1–27 available to read for free:
Ebook edition (PDF + EPUB, 177 pages so far):
A very unique piece. I wasn't expecting it. The simplicity is effective, evocative. A great read.