Forward Re-Write: Training

Sorry that's it's been so long, but here's a longer chapter to make up for it. 

3. Training

     Head still spinning from the implications of the bearded man’s words, Dom was led into a small room with dark grey walls that looked as though they’d be soft to the touch. A metallic chair rose smoothly out of the center of the room. It was lined with black padding, and a series of colored wires ran down the back into the floor. Several patches illuminated on the seat, beckoning him forward.

     The bearded man had been babbling about the procedure as they walked through the hallway, but Dom had not heard a word. As he came back to awareness, he heard the man say, “Please, have a seat and we can get started training the interface.” He motioned with a sweeping gesture to the blinking chair. A nervous lump formed in Dom’s throat.

     “Training?” he asked, shooting a nervous glance at the tangle of wires.

     “Yes Dom,” the man said, giving a slight chuckle. “How can we expect to find your mind if we haven’t trained the interface to see it? We’ll start with a few baseline memories. It’ll become clearer as we continue.” There was a flicker of impatience in the man’s voice, but it was quickly replaced by a plastic smile.

     Feeling a little queasy, Dom stepped forward and sat down in the chair. The cool padding inflated, molding to his back. The bearded man pushed a few buttons on in the wall, and the chair tilted backward. A blip of green light raced across the panel and the man clapped his hands together. “Looks like we’re all set here Dom. You’re going to feel a slight pinch.”

     Before Dom could respond, he had the distinct sensation of a thousand needles prodding his back. Whatever pain he felt was quickly numbed, giving way to an uncomfortable warming sensation that spread across him. The feeling made Dom grimace, and the bearded man made a clucking sound.

     “Don’t worry about it Dom. We need them to track your vitals, besides, it’s all in the form you signed. Standard procedure. Try to relax.”

     Relaxation was the last thing on Dom’s mind. The possibilities of the future spun before him like a roulette wheel. How far up would he move at the firm? How long would he stay with his wife? What would his son grow up to be? A cool spike ran up his spine as the ultimate question pierced his thoughts. How will I die?

     “Looks like we’ve got a good read on your mind. I’ll be in the next room, monitoring you throughout the trip,” said the man, once more eliminating any time for Dom to think.

     “Trip? Am I going somewhere?”

     “In a sense yes. Again, it’s all going to make more sense once we begin.” He flashed Dom another saccharine smile, clearly meant to put him at ease. It was practiced, and actually helped a little. “Alright, we’re all set, if you don’t need anything else, I’m going to leave the room now, but don’t worry, I’ll have you monitored at all times.”

     “Good to know.”  

     The man was walking out of the room when he turned around. “I almost forgot, you’ll need this.” He pulled out a tan piece of plastic and handed it to Dom. “Put it in your right ear. It’s a simple radio to keep us in contact. I’ll keep you informed of how much time you have left as we move forward.”

     Dom pushed the plastic piece into his ear and heard a low buzz. The man left the room and the grey panel closed behind him. Instantly, Dom was lost in the uniformity. Every surface in his vision was a matte grey, and gave him the impression that he was floating in an empty space. It was uniquely calming.

     “Can you hear me?” The crackling of the man’s voice brought Dom crashing back to his chair, rooted once more in the moment.

     “Yes.”

     “Alright then, to fully locate your mind, we’re going to have to walk you through a few basic memories.”

     “Locate my mind?”

     “Once more I’m afraid I can’t go into too much detail about it, you know non-disclosures and all? If we told everyone, we’d all be out of a job.” The man laughed, but it sounded hollow and false through the earpiece. “In a most basic sense, we take your old memories and use them as anchors through time. The more anchors we have, the easier it is to locate future anchors. Make sense?”

     “Yeah, seems pretty straight-forward.”

     “It isn’t,” said the man, annoyed. This flutter was once again replaced by the false serenity the man had worn since Dom first arrived. “Ok, any problems going back to your tenth birthday?”

     “No.” Dom thought the question, strange, but it had begun to make sense in the context of it all.

     “You sure? No family traumas around that point?”

     “No,” Dom said, feeling annoyed. The chair suddenly felt like a psychiatrist’s couch, the last place he wanted to be.

     “Good, we like to start with something benign to ease you in. This is going to feel a little weird…” The grey room shook and blurred as though the building were the epicenter of a massive earthquake. A bright tsunami of color enveloped him, turning like a maelstrom, but still he could feel his body, tethered to the ground by the soft padding of the chair. It centered him as everything else shifted to a much brighter and vibrant setting.

     In an instant, he was sitting at a park bench, surrounded by bright light. The soft air of pine wafted through warm summer air. Slowly, dust particles hanging in front of him came into focus, and then a series of brightly colored packages, stacked high atop a table. A pair of hands waved before his eyes, small, like a child’s. It was a strange feeling for him to realize that they were his hands. The world moved at a snail’s pace and wound a lazy path into focus.

     An emotion drifted into his awareness. Child-like excitement that had lain dormant for years bubbled to the surface. Questions raced through his mind. What’s in the boxes? Images of the presents he had wanted jumped like flash bulbs, and then he realized; he knew exactly what was inside them. “A book, a video game, and a sweater from grandma who dies in October,” he said, not realizing that it had been aloud.

     “A good memory. That will make this process a lot smoother.” It was the bearded man speaking again.

     “Are you ready to open presents?” The voice was his mother’s, young and bright, untouched by age. The lines he remembered in her face were no more, replaced by the taught elastic of youth. The sky was blue, vibrant, and free of concrete behemoths.

     “Yeah,” said an excited voice that must have been his, for it resonated as if it were coming from inside his brain.

     “Alright, looks like we’ve got a pretty good read here. You ready to move on Dom?” It was the bearded man once more.

     He wanted to say no. A piece of him wanted to stay in this child’s body forever, reliving moments that made him feel again, but the omnipresent timer on his experience loomed in the back of his mind. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

     “Intoxicating isn’t it? It gets even better. For the next memory, we want to go to a more impactful point. Let’s see, according to your chart that means,” the man paused for a minute “April 20^th 1998.”

     “What happened that day?” Dom couldn’t figure much out besides how old he had been.

     “I can’t see the events, just the dates. It would be a breach of privacy.”

     “Ah.” The thought of his memories being private assuaged a modicum of his growing trepidation.

     “Are you ready to move on?”

     Dom was not sure what would come up, but was addicted to the process. “Yes, I am.”

     “Ok, hold on.”

     The room shifted and blurred once more, pausing at the grey nothingness, and then exploding in bright orange color. Dom was standing on a rooftop, warm sun on his face, looking out over the city, and standing next to him was his father.