The Many Lives of Adam Capello

Chapter One - My Awakening

Chapter 1 – Questions March 30th 2061

I'd been nervous of course, who isn't? And had considered joining that small club of people who prefer not to know, but the peer pressure was so great, so high, so expected. Why is it that people have to interfere in my life, expect me to want to delve so deeply into my past?

And so I found myself with my "guide" at my side going to my first Awakening. My guide is very pretty, nineteen, auburn hair, a great figure that she shows off in tight sweaters and even tighter jeans and she's a real chatterbox. So of course I fancy her, I'm fifteen years old, I fancy most girls.

Millie held my hand (unfortunately in a motherly way) looked at me with those big brown eyes of hers and soothed me into submission. She has been through this process already of course, and even though she'd had doubts when it had been her turn, her parents were even more worried about being seen with a daughter who only has a limited set of life memories. It's amazing with all this accumulated enlightenment how people are still trapped by their wish to fit in.

My parents are next door, they'd opted not to watch and that suited me fine. Looking into my past lives was going to be weird enough without having my parents watch me absorb some of my past characteristics. Millie talked me through it.

"Don't forget Adam, during Awakening, you relive the past life in real time, which makes it feel very real. As such, all the old habits of voice control or language and personality traits come back as if they'd never left. You might not be a teenage boy anymore; you could be any age, sex or creed."

Mum and dad might see their fifteen year old son suddenly become a seventy year old judge or a thirty year old hooker, anything can happen. When you come out of your session, the years fade away and your current present day identity re-asserts itself. It takes control but leaves you with the benefit of that past knowledge / experience, not all of it of course, but enough to make a real difference.

New languages are a common plus, although ironically, this has had the effect of transforming modern English, French and Spanish into a new tri-universal language. People are so comfortable with it, a new amalgamation is forming. "Frenglish" seems to be the cool language of the day. That, mixed with text speak and gadge keeps everyone on their toes. I could of course try to learn it all just as me, but what's the point, all that effort, all that studying, just so I can keep my current core identity intact? Don't forget the extras such as science, literature, history; everything! You just can't catch up with thousands of years worth of experience in one lifetime of study.

Okay, so you don't necessarily need all that experience, but some employers have started requesting at least your last three Generations (3G's) listed on your CV. The world has gone crazy trying to unlock the secrets of the past in an attempt to deal with the problems of today. The total collapse of the world's economic system in 2027 had left everything in tatters. Savings had gone, society had broken down and it all had to be rebuilt from the bottom up. Thank goodness for Martin Kale.

Martin Kale

Martin Kale had come to most people's attention through his T.V show. He was an expert in human psychology, hypnotism and theology, and that's just for starters. He understood the human mind in a way that set him so far apart from anyone else that it worried people. His specialism, if you could call it that, was in how other people like himself could use or abuse their insight, mostly in the form of con artists, showmen, shaman, witch doctors, faith healers, psychics and of course, politicians. These people had used their "powers" of observation and control to manipulate others around them.

Martin Kale was a savant; an individual with amazing cognitive skills and a didactic memory, usually seen in people with autism. Unlike most people with autism though, savants are able to communicate in a near normal way, thereby having all the benefits, with few of the side effects. In fact he was a savant amongst savants if you know what I mean. He never agreed to an IQ test, saying it was too rough an instrument, too clumsy to truly illustrate an individual's intelligence and even though I think it was just a cover, I'd say I have to agree with him.