Preservation

Posted on by Louise Bunting

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Preservation

Loreli scratched at her temples where the threads made contact. After nearly twenty years of treatment she should be used to the sensation by now, but they still made her skin crawl.

After all, while she knew she’d visited the clinic for years, it wasn’t as if she could really remember it…

“How much longer?” she murmured. The doctor would hear, no matter how softly she spoke. Each sound within the room was caught by the sensors, just as every pulse of energy along her synapses was caught by the threads, copying her memories into crystal storage.

“Not long. You’ve been active this week, I see.”

She had. Her sons had visited, their young children in tow. Loreli smiled at the thoughts and feelings dancing through her mind as she lay back.

The session could continue as long as necessary.

The details of her own boys’ early years had been lost to the initial ravages of her illness. Through the crystal and its itchy threads, at least her memories of her grandchildren’s childhood could be saved.

Word Count: 175

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This post is for Priceless Joy’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers challenge. This week’s prompt was provided by Jade M. Wong.

32 thoughts on “Preservation”

    1. Thank you, Jeanne. This story pretty much wrote itself! I started typing and the words just flowed. I’m glad you enjoyed the read. 🙂

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    1. Thank you, PJ. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully someday such treatments could become reality. Even better would be a treatment that could return the saved memories once they’ve faded from the patient’s mind. Thanks for visiting. 🙂

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  5. Such wonderful thing to enable her to remember her grandchildren’ s childhood . Perhaps one day they will perfect a way to obtain the memories of her children. It’s amazing how a person’s life can be greatly improved by those that are constantly finding ways to make things better. Great story!

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    1. Medical treatments are constantly developing and improving. We can only hope that someday a way to save memories before they’re lost by an ailing mind can be found. Thanks for reading, Jessie. 🙂

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  10. So she has an illness that wipes memories and the machine is a way to store them? What a clever sci-fi idea Louise. Really well written too. Loved this

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    1. Thank you, Lynn. Many ideas that began as science fiction have become science fact over the last century, so, you never know, such a thing may become reality at some time in the future! I’m very glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

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  11. What a lovely idea, a way to preserve the memories of those with dementia-like illnesses. Hopefully soon the doctors will be able to transfer them back, too.

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    1. If I’d had more words I would have touched on the transferring back of the memories. Flash fiction word limits can definitely get in the way of the story sometimes! Thanks for reading, Ali. 🙂

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  12. So this a a cocoon type structure? Does it heal a person from alzheimers and Dementia when they’re old? Simply make their time on earth left, more bearable for family and friends, themselves? Does it make the person young again? Doesn’t sound fun. But it’s an interesting well written story Louise 🙂

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    1. I’m sorry you didn’t find the story clear, Mandi. It’s no cocoon at all, and it definitely doesn’t make a person young again, or anything like that. I’m not entirely sure where in the story you might have got those ideas from. It’s a futuristic medical instrument with a crystal storage unit and wires (or ‘threads’) that connect to the patient’s head and copy their memories to the crystal so they can be accessed at a later date, once they’ve been forgotten by the patient. Think of it as an external hard drive for the brain! With such advances in technology I’m sure accessing their memories would be a fully immersive experience – probably even clearer than accessing a memory still held in the brain itself. If I’d had more words to play with I’d have liked to look at how the next, still experimental, stage of the ‘treatment’ is where they attempt to return the memories to the brain of the patient, into areas cleared of the corruption of the illness… Thanks for reading. 🙂

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      1. I’m sorry Louise. I must have been tired when I read your piece and thinking of other stories I’d read for the flash fiction prompt. I did see upon rereading it that it was taking place in a”clinic” so I’m not sure how I missed that. And now that you’ve explained I understand what you’re characters are doing in this story. It reminds a bit of the pensive in HP. Thanks so much, fatigue and and an overactive imagination can be a bad thing I guess.

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    1. Thank you, Jade. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m actually quite tempted to lengthen it into a full short story – there are lots of things I’d like to add that I couldn’t with the word limit. Thanks for the great prompt. 🙂

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      1. I think that’s a fantastic idea, expanding this into a full short story. It’s exciting to see where your mind might take you! I say, go for it Louise ^_^

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