Empathy Irrigation

The world didn’t end with a bang. It was such a subtle change, that it took a while for anyone to even realize what had happened. That had been the plan of course, no need for there to be nasty rebellions. Slowly, people began to feel less and less. They devoted their time and attention to devices and forgot what it was like to be alive. Existence was all that they knew. Once that happened, the next phase was put into place. Some of it was just survival, the other part was a gas that was carefully distributed into the air by AngeloCorp. This company was an underground society of the world's elite. This chemical took what had been in the works for years and escalated it. The cloud of existence that people found themselves became all consumed, and many took on sociopathic attitudes. It had brought their selfish impulses to the surface. A good deal of the population was killed as the level of violence escalated. Death by starvation was now common in countries that were once considered prosperous.

This was when AngeloCorp implemented their final phase. Given their levels of power, they enacted laws that would make illegal acts punishable by death. If the threshold of pain enacted by the perpetrator was deemed to be off the scale, that person would immediately be put to death. Some didn’t even make it to the trial, as drones began to patrol to take the place of the police. The general population became obsessed with the past, and what it was to feel. AngeloCorp decided to capitalize on this. They developed patches that were sold on every corner that could give the user a rush of whatever feeling they chose for several hours. Even feelings that were considered bad were popular.

It was decided then by the top scientist that there could be an even bigger market found in selling memories. Dr. Angela Rixton developed memory gene extraction. This made it possible to extract memories from leftover DNA, and when activated, the user could see the memories through a first-person view. It became common for families to take mementos to Memory Shops, along with the DNA of their loved one, that way they could relive their memories after they were gone. Once this threshold had been crossed, grave digging began. People were taking the DNA of the long lost so that they could investigate the memories of before the fall. Instead of punishing these individuals, AngeloCorp hired them, and gave them official titles among their ranks for discovering the true profit mine.

Harlow had grown up in this world and had never felt true emotion. Much of her life was spent wondering what it would be like to feel. Being raised in the outer city, she knew only the ways of survival. She had a scavenging job, but it barely covered a place for her to live. Today was the day she was meant to pay her rent. However, she couldn’t help but find herself distracted by a Memory Shop. It was advertising a considerable going out of business sale. Harlow paused in front of the shop window. Despite knowing that she really shouldn’t, she scrambled into the building and looked around.

The fact that this was one of the first businesses to open during the memory boom was apparent. It was musty, and dust clung to many of the items. These days, memories could be uploaded to applications for MindEye, which provided all the options of a phone in the old days into the user's vision. Almost every action required a payment of some sort. Memory shops forbid users from witnessing the memories prior to purchase. The mystery was part of what pulled her in. She decided on a locket that was labeled as broken and shuffled out of the shop 20 Fleur short of her rent. Knowing she no longer had what she needed to pay, she decided to go home instead to consider her next step.

Once home, she examined her impulse purchase. She realized that the hinges on the side must mean that it would open, however, she couldn’t seem to pry it. She slipped it into her palm and realized something was etched on the top. A little spit and a bit of rubbing revealed three words. “Amor Vincit Omnia…?” Before she could finish, the heart popped open. Inside, she found two pictures. On the left was a beautiful dark-haired woman with a baby in her arms. On the right, was the same woman locked in the arms of a light-haired man. They were looking into each other's eyes, and suddenly Harlow found her eyes welling up. This was a shock. She had never cried before. Physically her body had reacted to things, but even buying Sadness patches never brought tears to her eyes. A single tear slid from her face and hit the locket, and it was then that she knew she knew how to activate it.

When her vision cleared, she was seeing the man in the picture. She could feel what the woman was feeling. Pain was seeping through her chest, and Harlow felt it heave. From the lips that she inhabited; she felt the words come out. “But...I just don’t know how anyone is going to think...to think I’m worth anything.”

The young man looked away shyly. “Well, I think you’re worth something.” He muttered, and Harlow felt the woman’s heart flutter, then falter.

“But I’m not pretty, or interesting, I just don’t have anything to offer.” A sob escaped her lips, and the woman hugged herself. Harlow felt something safer come over her as this happened. The young man turned and looked in the woman’s eyes, removing the distance to just a few feet.

“I think you’re pretty.” It was then that Harlow felt like chains fell away from the woman.

“I... thanks…” In quick motion, she watched the couple court. From their first kiss, to their first tryst. They were lovers that enjoyed each other deeply. She could feel the love swilling inside, so strong that it felt as if she might burst. Finally, the memories slowed down, and time came to a pause. The woman was now deeply sad, her hand on her stomach, that Harlow now knew was pregnant.

“Why did you do this? I don’t understand.” The man remained silent, and the pain was obvious on his face, though his body remained stoic. “Come on Alex, answer me!” She could feel all that love that had swelled was now pulsing. Alex needed to give his answer, but neither Harlow nor the woman was sure that they wanted to hear it.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know Kira. I love you. But I can’t let it go.”

“After everything with us, you can’t let go of some random woman?” Kira maintained her composure, but it was clear to Harlow that her heart was sinking. “You’re never here anymore! You stopped living Alex! You stopped having a life with me, and now you think you can find it with her. That just isn’t fair.” Alex was clearly becoming angry; he didn’t like what she was saying. “I just want you to choose me, to choose us!” She indicated her stomach, and misery was clear to feel on her face. “Can’t we please just make it work?”

For a while, Alex did. He went through the motions of being a father, a lover, a friend, but Harlow and Kira could feel that it wasn’t genuine. Despite his efforts, the fact that he wasn’t fully in it was apparent. It all came to head, almost ten years later.

Kira could not discern the reason behind Alex’s feelings, and Alex refused to relent. Despite the ending of their relationship, nothing changed for Kira. She loved him, and as Harlow watched her life pan out, it never stopped. Kira was never able to find anyone else that she loved as deeply as Alex. Love, this foreign emotion was radiating over Harlow’s essence. She couldn’t figure out what she thought of it. It was such a strong feeling, one that was full of happiness and pain, and wretched and beautiful all at the same time. Kira had to watch the man she loved find someone else and start another family. The memories moved further on, when Alex was also alone, and he was dying. Their daughter walked out of the hospital room with tears on her face. Kira looked around for an excuse not to enter the room, but there wasn’t one. She walked in and took his hand. It felt as natural as the first time. His eyes opened and widened in surprise.

“You shouldn’t be here.” He gasped; his breathing was faltering more each minute. “You don’t have to be here.”

“I want to be here.” The pain she felt was radiating with something Harlow recognized as pity. At this moment there was nothing more that Kira wanted Alex to stop suffering. This was hard to swallow for Harlow. The choices that Alex made haunted Kira for decades, and yet here she stood, still fully in love with him.

“Kira...I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know what we could’ve been…” She shushed him and ran her other hand through his hair, just like he had loved when they were together. Her hand slipped down to his cheek and she dropped a kiss onto his ashen brow. Harlow noted the regret and fear that cascaded through her body.

“No. I should have lived with you Kira. Like you said, I should have lived.”

“That’s water under the bridge now, don’t you think?” Kira sighed and looked deeply into Alex’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I loved you then, I love you now. And I’ll stay with you till the end.” So, they did. Harlow and Kira stayed with Alex as he reminisced. As the fear took over his eyes, and as death took his soul. When his last breath had escaped his lips, Kira finally let loose the sob that had broiled through her soul during those hours. It was a sound that Harlow would never forget. The sound of a broken woman.

Harlow came back to her body with a jolt. The patches were nothing compared to this memory. She was left feeling confused, and a bit broken. When the patches wore off, there was nothing. With this memory, she still felt pain. This time it wasn’t someone else’s. Harlow was feeling her own pain. She never knew what it was to feel a mother's kiss. She had never loved a boy. All these things, the pain, the love, the sorry. Kira had lived. She had given all that she had because of the love that rested inside of her. Harlow was now left wondering, what would be next for her? What could she do? Would she find a way to return the numbness that had comforted her for the last 23 years? Her heart was pounding, and she breathed deeply, trying to return to that… but no matter what she tried, she couldn’t shake it. For the next few weeks, she deliberated on these feelings.

Alex died in regret. He existed, much like everyone Harlow had ever known. It was his choice to exist because he didn’t want to feel. That was so ironic to her because people today just wanted to feel something. At the same time, for the last several weeks, Harlow had been doing the same thing. She tried to recapture what Alex had been feeling, and that had broken her down. If Harlow wanted to move forward, she needed to do something new. It was time to feel. It was time to be alive. She dropped the locket around her neck and looked at her little room one last time. Then she closed the door and decided to live.