Memory Care
by Max Olesen
- Cold Heaven Life Enhancements Laboratories Transcript #1661904
- ATTN. Dr. Eartha Oberhauser
- Date/Time: 2/11/65; 09:36 am/PST – 09:54 am/PST
- Patient: Michael Carney (male, 64); cranial preservation.
- Transcript contents: patient brainwaves; verbal conversation with patient’s son Kyle Carney (male, 32); Bo support request at 09:38 am/PST.
His eyes fixed upon nothing
- Hi, Dad. Good morning. How are you?
- [silence]
- Dad? You awake? How’s it going? I spoke to them about what you told me. Dr. Oberhauser said she would look into it. Get them to monitor your leakage better. No problem there … She said she’d fire them for the other thing, if … if there were any evidence. There isn’t, though. Obviously. Has it been better?
- No. I told you this already. I always tell you this.
- I know it isn’t exactly what you want, but it’s important to me that you’re happy, Dad. I’m happy if you’re happy. Aren’t you happy if I am?
- [silence]
Like a long-legged fly
- Dad? You awake? Dad? [silence] Assistance. Now, please.
- Welcome to Cold Heaven Life Enhancement AI support interface. You can call me Bo. Thank you for your request. How may we assist you today, Mr. Carney?
- Yeah, I think my father is drifting again. I’ve complained about this before. Are you routing enough power to his unit? I’m training as an engineer, electrical, so …
- Thank you for your query, Mr. Carney. You can call me Bo. System monitoring indicates power supply for this unit currently stands at 96% and holding. As per both company policy and federal regulations, this has been designated as an adequate supply to ensure client consciousness and coherence, as well as limiting cognitive drift. Do you require further assistance?
- No. But I want to talk to Dr. Oberhauser before I go today. Can you let her know?
- Thank you for your request, Mr. Carney. It has been recorded, forwarded, and filed. Do you require further assistance?
- No. Dad? Dad? Can you speak? Are you okay?
- No. I told you this already. I always tell you this.
- Are you sure you’re not drifting, Dad? You’re repeating yourself.
- Please, Kyle. Please stop this.
- Dad, come on, don’t worry. I’ve already talked to Dr. Oberhauser about them not cleaning you up and about the, uh, other thing. What you told me. I don’t like it any more than you do. [silence] Anyway, are you sure it even happened? You seem like you’re drifting. Maybe you’re getting hallucinations too. Dr. Oberhauser told me that can happen with heads when they’re siloed. I’m going to talk to her before I leave about your power supply. Get them to run a diagnostic on that. Get them to run some cognitive tests. Maybe your meds need adjusting.
- [silence]
Like a long-legged fly
- Dad, it’s not a big deal. I just got mine adjusted.
[plastic blister pack pops twice]
[water bottle unscrews]
- They started making me take the yellow ones. Last month. Did I tell you that?
- [swallow]
- I don’t like the yellow ones much. The blue ones make me bloated, but these make me all fuzzy. That’s why I don’t know if I told you about them already. Dr. Taylor said that they do the same thing as the blue but without the bloating, so you know … They give me dry mouth too.
- Kyle, did you bring the book?
- [unintelligible] … no. I forgot again, sorry.
- You forgot? You didn’t bring it last time either. I asked you.
- I forgot. I told you. These new pills. They make me fuzzy. Anyway, can’t you remember all those poems without it? You always could before.
- I wanted to see the book. Allie bought it for me when we went to Ireland, for our anniversary. We went to Thoor Ballylee, Yeats’ Tower. Do you remember?
- [water bottle unscrews; swallow] Well, I wasn’t there, obviously, but I remember you were both gone for, like, a month. That sucked.
- I wanted you to read me the poems. We went there for our anniversary.
- Dad, I hate those damn poems, you know that. You memorised all of them anyway.
- Kyle … please … nothing moves.
- Dad, I’m sorry. I couldn’t afford the full package anymore. You know that. You didn’t leave me enough.
- Please. End it.
- [silence]
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
- Please, Kyle. End this.
- Dad. Stop. You’re overreacting. Believe me, I don’t like the idea of any techs not cleaning up your leakage, letting it sit and get moldy, or … fooling around with you, or whatever. I told Dr. Oberhauser that. It’s not appropriate, not professional. I pay for you to be cleaned twice daily, eyes, nose, mouth. Besides, without any video, there isn’t anything we can do about the other thing. It was on the fritz apparently.
- Snot and tears dripping into my mouth for a week is the least of my worries, Kyle. The fluids they pump into me smell like burning carrots, but that’s not the worst either. When they do their rounds, after hours, when they’ve turned the cameras off…
- Jesus, Dad, cut it out. Don’t say anything. They record us, you know. I’m liable. Dr. Oberhauser said if any of the other clients hear you talking about it again …
- It’s not like having arms made a difference. Nothing moved then either. I can’t close my mouth, my eyes. I feel it all, taste it all.
- I already said I was sorry, Dad. I couldn’t afford the body anymore. It cost too much. I had to cut costs. [silence] Sorry to put it that way. I shouldn’t have said ’cut’.
- Please pull the plug, Kyle. You unplugged her already. You set her free. I’m grateful you did that.
- [silence]
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
- Please, Kyle. Nothing moves. You set her free. Set me free. Why are you keeping me like this? Why are you doing this to me?
- Dad, look … I’ve already apologised for that too. I know you’re not actually grateful, but I couldn’t afford both of you. [silence] I had to make a choice. You didn’t leave me enough.
- I didn’t leave you anything for this. I never asked for this. She never asked for this.
- Has Bridget come to see you? I haven’t talked to her in a while.
- Bridget has never come here.
- Really? Jesus. I mean, what the hell is her problem? Did she come when Mom was here?
- Bridget has never come to this place.
- Well … [silence] what the hell? I told her to come see you. I’m not asking her to help pay for it, though that wouldn’t kill her.
- [silence]
- This is a good facility. They take care of you, help me take care of you. In a few more years, they’ll figure out a cure and then we can get you out. Get you a cloned body, or a prosthetic, whatever you want. I’ve been reading about new treatments they’ve been working on. Do you want me to read some articles to you? They aren’t poetry, but I’ve got them queued up. I’m going to show them to Dr. Oberhauser. Jonah sent me one from Germany about programming nanobots to repair the nervous system. [silence] They’ve done it to a fruit fly and a zebra fish. Hasn’t worked yet.
- [silence]
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
- Dad? Don’t worry about the money. I’ve been cutting down … reducing expenses, saving up. I’ll get you to Germany, or China. Good things are happening in China. Wherever I need to get you, I will. When it’s the right time.
- [silence]
- I wish Bridget would come see you.
- Kill me, son. Please kill me. Please. Nothing moves.
- … Tell me you love me again.
- [silence] I love you.
- I love you, Dad.
His mind moves upon silence.
- Transcript #1661904 End: 09:54 am/PST