Towards the Farthest Side: A Collection Of Sci-Fi Short Stories And Novelettes

"New Beginnings"

"If you can delete some of your memories what memories would you delete and why?" That's what it said in the brochure, Catherine continues reading through the pages.

"One client went to us, he was a drug addict and wanted to move on, his addiction is already worse, and he had been into many rehabilitation programs, but they weren't successful," one testimony said.

"So, he tried the Initium Novum Program and in one clean swipe of his brain he was a new man. He can't even remember what the feeling is of being into drugs, like he never tried it." Catherine continued scanning the brochure, she could hear the soft hum of the AC in the background, the clicks of the keyboard by the receptionist, and the tap of leather shoes against the tile floors of people walking back and forth inside the white building.

Initium Novum Program, New Beginning. Catherine smiled. She remembered what she felt the first time she saw the program's ad in the hologram tv when she came home from work.

"The human brain has the ability to push back unwanted memories at will, but these memories are always there," the ad said, Catherine caught this and has to suspend her going to the bathroom to take a shower just to watch carefully.

"...these memories return, involuntarily we experience them again when some events happen that trigger their remembrance, like a scent, a word, a name, a place, etcetera. So, the word moving on is not actually true, and the only way to do that is completely erase the memory, like it didn't happen."

Catherine had to sit on the sofa and put on her glasses to watch carefully.

"So, is this safe?" The ad continues.

"Completely safe. 0.01 margin of error. The Program has been tried and tested. The brain uses neuro-electromagnetic impulses to store data, the information is just filtered and collected and then removed from the brain, just like deleting files in your computer storage. Even the strongest of emotions, fear, loss, sorrow, even joy, can be deleted."

Catherine rests her chin on her knuckles, no tv ad ever caught her interest than this.

"But what about if you delete your memories about the people you know and after the process they come to you since it was you who lost the memories, not them and they still remember you, wouldn't that defeat the purpose?"

Catherine nodded unconsciously, as she was thinking the same thing.

"That wouldn't happen. We discovered that human consciousness is like a hive mind. There is a universal memory storage, like a cloud storage in artificial data. Our memories are connected through that universal storage, and Initium Novum was able to access that storage, and by deleting that memory it deletes the memories of connections between people. It is just like you become strangers to each other in a snap."

Too good to be true, this might be a scam.

"Too good to be true, but we have one client who was a rape victim, when she requested to delete the memory of that one event everyone who read or heard about what happened to her also had their memories deleted. Imagine the hope and the sense of revival for that person."

Catherine leaned back at the softness of her leather sofa. Though a little doubtful she is also slightly convinced that this is what she needed. She checked for the monetary requirements and realized that the whole procedure is very expensive and would take her over three years to save for it.

But maybe it's worth all the effort.

***

Three years passed, and Catherine was able to save enough money for the program. At first Catherine just brushed away the idea of admitting herself to the Initium Novum program, convincing her self that the program is not practical as it's expensive and she just hoped that the memory she wanted to erase will just go away naturally. But no, just like what the ad said three years ago, it will never go away unless every trace of the memories were deleted.