In Another Life

“I don’t know kiddo, I think this thing may have met its end.”

Andrus turned the little robot over in his hands. A few light diodes flashed briefly and it emitted a staccato of grating beeps. Then it fell silent again. Gabriella stood on her toes and watched intently as he tried the age-old dad trick of smacking objects to make them work again.

The little humanoid robot didn’t respond.

Andrus frowned and looked over at his daughter. Mr. Gonk had been their prize-winning sixth grade Science Fair project, which meant two things. It meant a lot to Gabriella, and it was very much cobbled together. He was honestly surprised it had lasted this long.

“Maybe there’s a short somewhere, sweetie, or some solder could be coming loose on one of the motherboard connectors.”

Gabriella frowned and gently took the robot from him, running her fingers along the creases where they’d glued the body together.

“Then let’s open him up and fix him.”

Andrus pursed his lips and bent down to examine the miniature mechanical person again. Gabriella had designed the body herself with the CAD software on his computer, and then he’d printed out the pattern on the prototyping printer at work. The plastic he’d used as stock was never meant to endure, and he could clearly see the stress lines along the bends and near the seams.

“Gabriella, I know Mr. Gonk is special, but he was never meant to last this long. If we try to break the glue and open him up, I think his body might just shatter.”

His daughter scowled at him.

“You’re giving up way too easily, Dad.”

Andrus smiled. His stubbornness was one trait that his daughter had inherited at an early age. Sometimes it made him want to tear his hair out, but most of the time it reminded him of himself trying to puzzle through an engineering problem at the office.

He held Mr. Gonk to his ear and shook him gently, trying to detect any sound that might give more evidence about what was broken. To his surprise, he actually did hear something. A faint buzzing sound emanated, though he couldn’t quite place where in the little robot it was coming from.

“Hmmm, actually there is a buzzing sound, but I can’t tell what part of him it’s coming from.”

Gabriella snatched the robot and held it to her ear. She held it for several seconds, then looked back at him quizzically.

“I don’t hear anything.”

He took the robot again and held it back up to his left ear. Nothing. Frowning, he switched hands and held it up to his right ear. There, a faint but steady buzzing.

“Weird, I can only hear it in my right ear. It’s faint, but it’s definitely there,” Andrus confirmed.

Gabriella was looking at him intently.

He shrugged, “My ears aren’t what they used to be. Try again, you’ll hear it if you hold it close enough to your ear. Like I said before, I bet it’s a loose connection, but I still don’t know that we’ll be able to fix it.”

Gabriella slowly took the robot and listened again.

Andrus gave her a sympathetic look, “Sorry kiddo, I know it’s tough having something like this for so long and then it stops working.”

Mr. Gonk pressed to her ear, his daughter continued to stare at him with a look of concern. Abruptly she set the robot on the table and left the room.

“Gabriella?”

Her voice echoed back in her wake, “It’s fine, Dad. I just need to tell Mom something.”

---

Andrus checked his watch for the third time and sighed. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and stared out the windshield at the mess that was their garage.

I really need to organize that tool table.

He glanced in the rearview mirror at Gabriella, who was fiddling with her tablet.

“Would you please go in and remind your mother that Saturday dinner at Barnacles is a sacred tradition for this family?”

His daughter didn’t even look up from the glowing screen.

“She’s coming. She said she just needed to call the bakery about the cake for the party next week.”

“I appreciate that, but if they run out of Kapow shrimp because we sat in this garage for too long, you’re going to get grumpy Dad for the rest of the night.”

Andrus started unbuckling his seatbelt when Maria burst from the back door, throwing her purse over her shoulder while she jogged. He raised his eyebrows at her through the windshield.

“I know, I know,” she said, throwing open the passenger door and dropping down in the seat.

“Kapow shrimp,” he deadpanned.

She threw him a bemused look.

“Just drive, you weirdo.”

Andrus chuckled and pulled out of the garage. It was a beautiful summer evening, the sun hanging low in the sky, casting everything in a glowing orangish tint. He pulled out onto the boulevard and started making his way towards the harbor district. Not the tourist pier of course. No, this was where the local fisherman brought in their daily fresh catch. His mouth was already salivating. He glanced over at his wife, who was unusually quiet, staring out the window.

“Everything ok with the cake? You know birthdays are not a huge deal for me. If it’s edible, I’m happy.”

His wife snapped out of her trance and looked at him with confusion.

“The cake?...”

Her voice trailed off and then her face flashed with recognition.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Was just thinking of something else. The cake is just fine.”

She gave him a small smile, but there was still something in her eyes that was off.

Andrus stopped at the next intersection and gave his wife a quizzical look.

“Maria, everything ok?”

She put on a reassuring smile and patted his leg, “Yeah, sorry, just some work stuff that honestly I shouldn’t worry about until Monday.”

“Alright,” he responded, opting to let it go. Something was obviously bothering her, but it didn’t seem like now was the time to dig.

The traffic light clicked to green and the car ride continued in silence.

---

“Gabriella, you going to eat that bread?”

His daughter stopped mid chew and looked at him incredulously.

“Serioushly?” she mouthed around her fettuccine alfredo.

Andrus gestured at his plate, which was empty of shrimp, but still contained a fair amount of the delicious sauce that was drizzled on the little crustaceans.

“I respect the chef. His sauce is not to be wasted. Half the time you never eat your bread. Fork it over.”

Gabriella rolled her eyes and tossed the garlic toast over to Andrus, who greedily started using it to soak up every drop of Kapow sauce left on his plate. When it was fully saturated he leaned back and slowly started taking bites, enjoying every burst of zinging spice as it hit his tongue. He smiled and let out a satisfying moan.

“Oh my god, Dad,” his daughter said, “you are so embarrassing, you know that? Mom, did you know he did this when you married him?”

His wife laughed and sized up Andrus.

“Your father made his shrimp addiction known to me early in our relationship. It’s something I’ve learned to live with,” she spoke with mock seriousness.

Andrus chuckled, “Don’t worry, if it was you or the Kapow shrimp, you’d win. Gabriella on the other hand...”

“DAD!”

“Kidding, I’m kidding, you two are my number one.”

Gabriella gave her best teenager face, “That is mathematically impossible, Dad.”

“It’s new math, I’m pretty sure the equation works out.”

Andrus laughed and turned his seat to face the duo that was setting up on the stage of Barnacle’s back patio. A white-haired guitarist plugged his battered old acoustic into an amp, and the singer followed suit with an old school chrome microphone. She gave a wide smile and waved out at the crowd.

“How y’all doing tonight?!”

The crowd responded with enough whoops and claps to satisfy the band, so she flashed them a thumbs up and settled onto her stool.

“Well alright then, I think we can play you some tunes. It’s a nice chill night, so I think we can match it with some nice chill grooves. Harry, watcha got tonight?”

The old guitarist started picking out a familiar tune and the crowd clapped in appreciation. Andrus clapped along, but he winced a bit as a sharp pain spiked through his head. He shook his head and tried to focus on the music, but it seemed like something was wrong with their equipment. A low buzzing kept drowning out the notes. Andrus frowned and leaned in closer.

The guitarist started picking up the pace and then brought the song into full swing with the first chords. Maria and Gabriella were both smiling, but the buzzing in his ear was getting louder and louder. Then, the singer came in with her vocals as the guitarist gave the strings a hard strum.

A lightning bolt of crippling pain arced through his brain and Andrus doubled over in his chair. With every strum of the guitar, it crashed across his synapses anew. The buzzing had become an overwhelming drone, the music just a faint sound in the background.

What the hell?

Suddenly he felt a hand on his back and his family came into hazy view. Their faces mouthed noiselessly, looks of worry written across them. He shook his head, trying to clear the buzzing that was drowning out everything.

“I can’t. I can’t hear you,” he said, or at least he thought he said. He couldn’t even hear his own voice.

Maria lifted him by his armpits and he staggered towards the exit. As he reached the stairs to the patio, the pain started to lessen and the buzzing recede. By the time they had reached the parking lot, it was just a tiny sound again, hanging out in the back of his brain. Andrus sat down heavily on a bench. Sweat was pouring from his face, his breathing ragged and heavy. Maria crouched next to him.

“Andrus? Andrus, look at me. Are you OK?”

He nodded shakily.

“The feedback from their amps. It hurt so much. All I could hear was buzzing. I couldn’t hear anything.”

Andrus looked up and took in a deep breath. Gabriella was staring at him, tears welling in her eyes.

“I’m fine kiddo, it’s ok.”

“It’s not fine, Dad!” she retorted.

“Gabriella!” his wife shouted, throwing eye daggers at their daughter, “NO.”

Andrus frowned in confusion, replaying the dinner scene in his head.

“Didn’t you hear it?” he asked, slowly.

Neither member of his family answered him. His wife bit her lip, he could see gears spinning in her brain. His daughter simply started crying. Andrus blinked hard, trying to focus his thoughts.

Something was not right.

Something was not right.

What happened to him?

“Do I have a hearing aid?” he suddenly blurted out, reaching up to touch his right ear. Nothing was there.

His wife deliberately grabbed his hand and slowly returned it to his lap.

“No, you do not have a hearing aid. You’re OK. We’re going to go home now.”

His wife’s words were calm, but stoic. He rarely heard her talk like this.

Andrus nodded slowly, “Ok.”

Maria helped him to his feet and then took Gabriella’s hand, “Let’s go home. I think I should drive.”

Andrus was too shaken to argue.

---

Andrus slowly made his way to the basement. He and Maria had eventually calmed their daughter down enough that she would go to bed, and he’d finally closed the door to her room a few minutes ago. Gabriella had refused to stop hugging him, insisting that he stay with her until she fell asleep. It had taken a solid half hour of repeated assurances that he was alright before her muscles untensed and she would lie down.

Maria had left them to do a final tuck in, but now he couldn’t find his wife in either their bedroom or the living room. Thinking maybe she had taken a quick walk to decompress, he grabbed a beer from the fridge and made his way down to his workshop in the basement. He was still rattled from what had happened at dinner, but doing some engineering work often helped calm and focus him. Maybe he could fix up Mr. Gonk, and at the same time figure out what the hell had happened to him at Barnacles.

As Andrus reached the bottom of the basement stairs, Maria’s voice faintly wafted from the utility room. The door to it was closed, which they’d never needed to do since Gabriella was old enough to know not to climb in the washing machine. Andrus had never been one to doubt his wife, but he found himself being drawn to the door. He slowly edged up to it and leaned his ear close, though this time he deliberately favored his left. Maria clearly seemed agitated. She was trying to keep her voice down, but the sentences coming out wanted to be shouted.

“No, I don’t want to wait until Monday. It’s gotten much worse in just the past two days. He was practically on the floor in pain for God’s sake.”

Silence as the person on the other end spoke.

“I realize we don’t have the platinum plan,” Maria spat testily, “but if he has another episode in public tomorrow, you’re going to have a lot harder time on Monday. Whatever it is, it’s broken, and it’s getting worse very fast.”

A longer silence this time, then a relieved breath from his wife.

“Thank you. Yes, that’s fine, we’ll be here.”

Andrus moved away from the door as quickly and quietly as possible, opening the door to his workshop and flicking on the lights. Almost on autopilot, he moved straight to his work table, where Mr. Gonk was staring up at him. He grabbed a screwdriver from the wall, though he had no idea what he was going to do with it. His mind raced, trying to calculate all the possible explanations for what he had just heard.

A rustling at the door, then his wife’s voice.

“Hey, how’s Gabriella?” she asked quietly.

He nodded, but didn’t turn around, “she’s sleeping now.”

“Good,” his wife responded.

Silence.

“You feeling OK now?” she asked.

Andrus cleared his throat, “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good, good,” Maria responded again, “I was talking with our doctor, I think maybe we should go into urgent care tomorrow.”

Andrus turned to look at his wife. She looked like the same woman he had always loved, the woman who had helped raise their daughter. This time though, she was also the woman who had deliberately lied to him for the first time in memory. His eyes teared up, but he blinked them away and smiled.

“OK,” he replied softly.

Maria smiled gently at him, “Everything will be OK.”

He smiled back and nodded. He couldn’t think of anything else to do.

She tilted her head upstairs.

“It’s late and I’m exhausted. I think I’m going to go to sleep.”

Andrus nodded again, “I think I’m going to try and work on Mr. Gonk for a bit here.”

“Just not too late, OK?”

“OK.”

Maria walked over and hugged him, a long hug that he disengaged from long before she did. She kissed him on the cheek and then made her way upstairs. After her footsteps had faded, Andrus turned back to the worktable where he’d set down the little robot and screwdriver. He picked up Mr. Gonk and flicked on his power switch. This time more lights came to life, though they still flashed erratically. His optical sensors dilated and contracted, attempting to focus in the dim light. Broken speech came from his speaker.

“Ello...I...Mr. Gonk. Who. Who. Who are you?”

Andrus let out a heavy breath.

“I’m not sure.”

---

Andrus groggily awoke to the buzzing of his alarm clock. Warm sunlight was streaming in through the bedroom skylight, and his eyes reflexively pinched shut as his hand fumbled over the nightstand to find the clock. He finally found the rounded metal of the timepiece, and his finger instinctively moved to the top to find the off switch. As if he’d been shocked, his brain suddenly erased the fuzz of waking up and became razor focused.

This clock doesn’t have a buzzer.

His eyes snapped open and he stared at the silent clock. This clock had a simulated bell chime, he now remembered he’d specifically picked it out because of that feature. His jaw clenched and he smacked his right ear with the palm of his hand. The buzzing stopped.

Andrus let out a long breath.

“It’s going to be ok,” he said to himself. He let out another slow breath.

“Maria,” he said softly, “I think it’s getting worse.”

He turned to face his wife, but the only thing that greeted him was her crease in the bed. He touched the indents. The sheets weren’t even warm anymore. When he’d finally made it to bed last night, it had been late, nearly midnight. He’d been married long enough to know his wife’s sleep signs. Though her back was to him and she wasn’t moving, he had known she was still awake. Her breathing was too short, her body too rigid. He’d been too exhausted to say anything, so he had just gotten under the covers and drifted off into a fitful sleep. Now she’d risen far before her usual time, and without the usual peck on his cheek.

Andrus blinked back a rogue tear, put on his slippers, and padded downstairs. The voices of his family drifted from the kitchen. They sounded happy, genuinely happy. A pan scraped on the oven burners, followed by an inviting sizzle. They were cooking breakfast, which wasn’t necessarily abnormal, but not something that happened regularly either. His family tended to fall to the easy default of cereal and toast most days. The smells promised pancakes, and he gingerly poked his head around the doorway, not sure if this was supposed to be some kind of surprise. Gabriella saw him instantly and flashed a smile.

“Hey Dad, we’re making blueberry pancakes.”

This was his favorite breakfast, a well-known fact.

“They smell great. What’s the occasion?”

His wife stepped over to him and gave him a hug.

“I know last night was hard for you, so we thought you might like some pancakes.”

“That’s really nice of you, it really is,” he started, but then continued with an embarrassed look, “but, uh, I think whatever this is might be getting worse. I think I should go see the doctor soon.”

Gabriella’s spatula hovered in the air, her eyes searching her mother’s face. Maria simply stepped to him and put her hands on his forearms.

“Actually, I called again this morning and they’re trying out a new service. They’ve got a mobile unit that makes house calls. I told them we’d like to try it out. They’ll be here in a couple of hours.”

Andrus realized he was rapidly reaching the point with this situation where he didn’t know what was truth and what was fiction. He searched his wife’s face for clues, but all she gave him was a warm smile and a squeeze on the wrist. He stared silently as she guided their daughter back to the burning pancake she had been neglecting.

“No, no, no,” Gabriella sputtered as she flipped the little disc, revealing a burnt black underside.

“It’s fine,” Maria said calmly, “It’s all going to be fine.”

“Ok,” Andrus said, to no one in particular.

---

The van was nondescript. HealthU Services was written in simple block lettering on the side, with an equally generic slogan printed underneath. A single person exited the vehicle, dressed in unassuming slacks and a button-down shirt. As she closed the door, she grabbed a small laptop from the passenger seat, but made no move to retrieve any other equipment.

Andrus slowly set down the tools he’d been organizing in his garage for the last hour, and watched the young woman ignore the sidewalk up to his front door and walk deliberately up the driveway instead. She quickly spotted him through the open garage door and gave a warm smile and single wave. He instinctively returned it and walked out to meet her. Their paths intersected at the entrance to the garage.

“Hello, Andrus,” she said, smiling again. It was a warm smile, not the clinically detached polite one he usually received at the clinic. The woman made no offer to shake his hand.

“Hello,” he responded, “I’m sorry, have we met before?”

“Yes, yes we have,” she responded, but gently without any sense of malice or annoyance.

Andrus frowned.

“I’m sorry, for the life of me I can’t recall your name. I’ve been a bit off lately.”

“That’s perfectly fine. My name is Ophelia. I’m here to help you.”

Andrus glanced at her utilitarian van again, “You’re a doctor?”

Ophelia nodded, “I am.”

Andrus let out a deep breath, “OK.”

Ophelia stepped closer and looked him directly in the eyes.

“You’re not crazy, Andrus,” she said earnestly.

Andrus let out a nervous laugh and shook his head.

“You’re not crazy,” she repeated, “Everything has an explanation, and from one engineer to another, I promise you that what is happening to you has a perfectly logical explanation. More importantly, it is completely repairable.”

Andrus frowned in confusion, “What kind of doctor are you?”

“The kind you need,” Ophelia responded matter of factly, “and if you’ll let me in, I can explain why.”

Andrus stared at her, searching for intention and explanation. She held his gaze with confidence, her lips forming a reassuring half-smile. Andrus had always appreciated that in his line of work, there were always clear answers and that at the heart of it he was always in control. No matter what, he controlled his machines with instructions, and he controlled the power switch. It frightened him to think that there was something wrong with his own body that he couldn’t explain, much less control. He wasn’t even sure how he felt about this mysterious stranger who seemed so sure she understood him. The pragmatic engineer in him knew he only had one road, though.

He motioned toward the back door.

---

“How about this?” Andrus asked, pointing to some wicker chairs on the enclosed back porch.

Ophelia smiled and nodded, “This works just fine. Let’s take a seat.”

She opened her laptop, set it down on a coffee table between the two chairs, and extracted a small device from her pocket that looked like a mutant camera/laser hybrid. She clipped it to the lid of the computer and pointed it at Andrus.

“This is just a scanner, it’s going to examine you while we talk.”

The tiny device hummed to life and the eye glowed a soft green.

“Ok,” Andrus responded, “Where do we start?”

“We have two options. Sometimes our patients like to ask questions first, but we recommend allowing us to speak first and explain some things. It tends to help, and makes the treatment quicker. In your case, it has yielded the best results.”

Andrus cocked his head, “How many times have we met before?”

Ophelia crossed her hands and looked at him deliberately, “Would you like to ask some questions?”

She didn’t say anything more, but Andrus had enough social acuity to understand when he was being led. He leaned back in his chair and raised his hands.

“No. Please continue.”

Ophelia smiled, “Thank you. Policy dictates that the client always chooses the method for the explanation phase of treatment. That said, this always goes more smoothly when you let me give you some background first.”

It still bothered him a bit how familial she was, how everything about this conversation made it seem like this was one of many they’d had before. He pushed those thoughts to the corner of his brain, the analytical side taking over in its thirst for answers. He nodded for her to continue.

Ophelia pulled out a badge from her back pocket. She showed him a younger version of herself, smiling underneath a logo that read Lifeform Robotics.

“My name is Dr. Ophelia Li. I work as a client support specialist at a company called Lifeform Robotics. Our charter is to improve the lives of our customers through radical and experimental engineering solutions.”

“I’ve never heard of your company,” Andrus said.

Ophelia nodded and slipped her badge back in her pocket, “We are deliberately secretive about our work. In some cases, it’s the only way for our projects to have any chance of success. The project you are involved in is our most sensitive, but also our greatest achievement.”

Andrus’s pulse started to quicken as his brain began calculating potential endpoints to Ophelia’s narratives. Like most people, it jumped to the extremes before it started pulling back to more realistic explanations. At the risk of sounding crazy, he decided a simple question would be best.

“Maria said I don’t have a hearing aid. Was she lying?”

Andrus’s brain computed another divergence.

“Or, is my entire inner ear mechanical?”

Instinctively his hand reached up to his right ear, his fingers probing into the canal. Everything felt like he expected. Soft tissue ending at the eardrum. His hand fell away as he looked at Ophelia in confusion.

“It doesn’t feel like an implant, or anything like that.”

Ophelia looked directly at him and spoke calmly, “It feels just as real as any human’s, but your instincts are correct. Your ear is synthetic.”

Andrus’s eyes narrowed, “Synthetic and mechanical are different definitions in my line of work.”

Ophelia smiled gently, “In mine as well. Your ears have some mechanical components, but much of it is living tissue.”

Briefly, Andrus’s feelings changed to amazement.

“So that means it wasn’t built, so much as...”

“Grown, yes.”

Andrus snapped back to the reason they were sitting here.

“But something in it is broken.”

Ophelia nodded and pursed her lips, “Unfortunately, yes. We’ve had a batch of auditory receptors that have had issues with the conductor failing. It’s one of the few mechanical pieces in the entire assembly. Somehow they are picking up electromagnetic waves and registering them as a kind of feedback. That’s the buzzing you are hearing. It likely increases in intensity around certain electronic devices, especially when they emit a lot of energy.”

A sense of relief washed over Andrus. As an engineer, order and logic were what most gave him calm and comfort. Though parts of his brain were needling him that there was so much unexplained in this story, knowing that everything that was happening to him was simply the result of a broken piece of machinery was a massive weight off his shoulders.

“You can fix it?” he asked.

Ophelia nodded, “Absolutely, I can fix it this morning.”

Andrus smiled and leaned back in his chair. Now the questions were starting to creep in. He cocked his head and looked quizzically at Ophelia.

“I have no memory of having a synthetic ear installed. Or why I would even need one.”

Ophelia took a deep breath and looked steadily into his eyes.

“Andrus, this is the part that will be more difficult for you to accept. Over our sessions, I’ve become better at this portion of our treatments, but I would be lying if I said it will be easy for you to hear. Please stay calm. Focus on every word I say.”

Andrus tensed, but he forced himself to stay calm. He leaned forward. The tiny camera on Ophelia’s laptop calmly tracked his movement, its green eye focused on his face. Ophelia glanced down at her laptop, her eyes scanning something on the screen. Her lips subtly moved. It looked like she was reading notes. Maybe a transcript of a past conversation? Andrus racked his brain, searching his memories for the doctor, but her face was completely foreign to him. If they had truly had this conversation before, he had absolutely no recollection of it.

Ophelia’s eyes raised again to meet his. She composed herself and began speaking in a calm, deliberate voice.

“Andrus, you were in a car accident.”

This at least triggered a flash in his brain.

He nodded in response, “A year and a half ago. Someone broadsided our car while on the way to dinner.”

“That’s correct. A person was checking their mobile phone and went through an intersection. They hit your driver’s side door at 40 miles per hour. You were badly injured.”

Andrus’s memory of the crash itself was fuzzy, but the last statement seemed a little excessive. He remembered the impact, the airbags deploying. Everything after that was blank until he woke up in the hospital, but he didn’t remember being severely injured, just some bruising.

Ophelia was examining his face closely.

“It’s very likely you do not remember how severe the crash actually was. You were in critical condition. An ambulance transported you to St. Mary’s, which is one of the hospitals we partner with.”

Andrus’s chest tightened. With the explanation of his ear, he’d begun to feel some relief about this entire situation. Now the tension returned. This was another mystery that he somehow had no knowledge of.

“That’s not how I remember it,” he said softly.

“I know,” Ophelia said gently, her eyes flashing to the screen of her laptop.

“What is that thing scanning?” Andrus asked, motioning to the glowing mechanical eye that was still tracking him.

“It’s scanning your brain activity. One of the things it can estimate is your stress and emotional strain. What I’m about to tell you will be very difficult to accept, and one of my responsibilities is stopping this session if your brain can’t cope.”

Andrus could feel his heart pumping faster, but the analytical side of his mind was still in control.

“I’ll be ok.”

Ophelia smiled, “Yes, you always are.”

“What happened at the hospital, and why can’t I remember it?”

“Your injuries were extremely severe. You underwent extensive surgery, but after it all, the only thing keeping you alive was a respirator. The doctors slipped you into an induced coma. Your chances of any kind of meaningful recovery were very low. That’s when we approached your family.”

Andrus’s mind was processing again at light speed. He thought back to his shower this morning, to the memories of his body as he cleaned it.

“I don’t have a single scar on my body. If I was injured that badly and yet I’m standing here today, how is that possible?”

“One of our most experimental programs involves extensive organ replacement. We’ve perfected the ability to grow most organs, as well as create hybrid body parts that are a mixture of tissue and mechanical pieces.”

“My ear is one of your components?”

“Yes.”

Andrus paused before asking the next logical question.

“How much else of me was replaced?”

Ophelia looked him directly in the eyes, “Everything except your brain.”

Time froze. Andrus was keenly aware of his breathing, his heartbeat, but he suddenly questioned if any of it was actually real. Did he actually have a beating heart, or was it just a mechanical pump that moved blood? What about his voice? Did it sound like this before, or had new vocal chords given him a new tone? Did he even look like his previous self, or was he now wearing a new man’s face?

Ophelia’s laptop was beeping, but she kept looking calmly into his eyes.

“Andrus, look at me. You are still the same person you were before. We scanned and copied the exterior of your body. You look exactly like you did before. We believe the soul is in your conscious brain, so we took it from your old body and put it in your new. You are still Andrus Martinez.”

“I’m a clone,” he blurted out, angrily.

“No,” Ophelia said, shaking her head vigorously, “This is still your original brain, we simply moved it to a new vessel.”

“Who agreed to this?” Andrus asked, an edge to his voice.

Ophelia took a deep breath before answering, “Your family made this decision on your behalf. They didn’t want to lose you. As a father. As a husband. We gave them an option so they wouldn’t have to.”

Andrus blinked rapidly as his brain continued to process his new reality.

Ophelia leaned forward, “Andrus, please remember that everything that was done was out of your family’s love for you. Because of what we did and because of what they decided, you are sitting here today, living your life with your wife and daughter.”

Andrus blinked away tears in his eyes. He was still wrestling with this new identity, this new definition of himself, but the intention of why he was here was much easier for him to accept.

“Gabriella knows, too?”

“Yes. We’ve found that in order for this to work, the entire family needs to know.”

“Except for me,” he laughed ruefully.

Ophelia smiled gently, “We’ve had families who have chosen to reveal the truth. The results have been very mixed. So much depends on one’s definition of a soul, of the person’s religious beliefs. The best results have always been to have a client live ignorant about the origins of their new body.”

Andrus’s curiosity was beginning to take over again, helping calm his heart rate. An important question from the beginning of their session flared up again in his brain.

“I keep getting the feeling that we have had this conversation before.”

“We’ve had to make repairs to your body three other times. This science is still in its infancy, and the human body is the most complex thing we’ve ever studied.”

“I don’t remember ever meeting you, or anyone like you, before,” Andrus responded.

Ophelia tapped the little metal eye on her laptop.

“This is monitoring you, but it is also tracking your brain activity to a very detailed degree. We know which neurons are connecting to form the memory of this conversation. We also have a technique to disrupt those connections. After we’re done today, I’m going to erase this entire session from your mind.”

“You can change my memories?”

Ophelia held his gaze steadily, “No. We can only destroy, not create. All we can do is remove real memories. It’s a power we take very seriously, and we’ve perfected the technology to be very, very precise.”

A silence hung in the air. Andrus let out a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. Ophelia’s eyes periodically darted to her computer screen, but always rapidly returned to his face. Andrus stared into the backyard, unsure of how to continue the conversation. Did it even matter? He apparently wouldn’t remember it anyway. A scrape of a shoe behind him shook him from his paralysis. He turned to see Gabriella standing at the porch entrance. Her lips quivered and he could tell she was on the brink of tears.

“Hey, kiddo,” he said gently, instinctively giving a reassuring smile.

“Hey, Dad,” she responded, her voice cracking.

Her eyes searched his face questioningly. He smiled back.

“Unless Dr. Li has another revelation in her back pocket, I think I know everything now,” he said, more calmly than he expected.

Now his daughter did burst into tears and ran over to hug him. He held her tight, softly repeating that everything was ok. He let her release from the hug first, her sweater arm coming up to wipe the mascara running from her eyes. She turned to look at Ophelia.

“I’m sorry doctor, I know I’m not supposed to come in.”

Ophelia smiled, “It’s ok, Gabriella, I’m glad you did.”

She motioned at her computer screen.

“As soon as your father saw you, every measurable stress marker dropped.”

His daughter’s eyes were still puffy and red, but a smile broke the last tears cascading down her cheeks.

“Can I stay and talk to him?”

Ophelia nodded, “I think that would be just fine. As long as your father agrees, and as long as you stay in sight of the sensor.”

Gabriella turned to him, her eyes hopeful.

Andrus smiled warmly, “I’d like that very much.”

Ophelia picked up her phone and stepped towards the patio door, “Take your time, I’ll just be in the next room.”

Gabriella picked up the chair Dr. Li had been sitting in and moved it directly opposite his. When she sat, their faces were mere feet apart. She let out a nervous laugh.

“I’ve had this conversation a million times in my head. Now that it’s happening I don’t know where to start.”

Andrus reached out and gently held her hand.

“I can’t even imagine how hard this must be for you to have this secret.”

Gabriella’s face contorted, “I’ve almost told you. So many times.”

Andrus let out a deep breath and smiled, “I’m sure. But, I’m glad you didn’t.”

His daughter visibly relaxed and she let out a nervous laugh.

“Really?”

He nodded firmly.

“Really.”

“But, don’t you want to know the truth?”

Andrus paused for a moment, looking at his daughter’s face.

“It may be hard to believe, but even in this short time I’ve had to process this all, I think I’ve decided it doesn’t matter. I still get to be your father. I get to be with your mother. I get to live my life with you both, to watch you grow up. That’s the best life I could wish for. It doesn’t really matter how that has been made possible. It just matters that it is possible.”

“You’re not mad? You didn’t have any say in any of this.”

“You made a decision that kept us all together as a family. How could I be angry about that?”

Gabriella frowned slightly, “When things like this happen, when they have to come visit you...I worry. Maybe we didn’t do the right thing. Maybe... I might lose you again.”

His daughter’s insistence on fixing Mr. Gonk, her earlier comments about his well-being, their meaning crystallized so much more clearly now.

Andrus held his daughter’s hands tightly, “Luckily I’m a lot tougher than your little robot.”

---

An hour had passed when Ophelia gently knocked on the patio door.

“I’m sorry, but I have another patient in a couple of hours. I need to get that ear fixed up.”

Andrus nodded. He and Gabriella had chatted for most of the time, but then eventually they’d both fallen silent, simply taking in the beautiful day together. He rose and wrapped his daughter in a warm embrace.

“I love you, Dad,” she said, her eyes watering up again.

“I love you, too, kiddo. I’ll see you in just a bit.” he responded.

She squeezed his hand and walked back into the house.

Ophelia stepped back to her laptop, it’s little mechanical eye still faithfully tracking Andrus’s head.

“Everything ok?” he asked.

She nodded, “Just fine. All of your vitals are in the green, all of the memory paths have been mapped.”

“Good, good,” Andrus responded, taking in a cleansing breath and staring out at the lawn, “So what now?”

“I have to put you out in order to fix your ear. You’ll wake up back in your garage. It’ll be a little disorienting, but your wife has always been good at bringing you back on track.”

He nodded and settled back in his chair. After a moment he looked up at the doctor, who was busily preparing a syringe.

“Thank you. I mean it. Thank you for all this.”

Ophelia set down the syringe and met his gaze.

“You’re very welcome. Don’t tell anyone, but you’re my favorite. You deserved this second chance.”

Andrus smiled in return, “Well, let’s get to it then. I don’t want to remember a thing.”

Ophelia chuckled, “Don’t worry, you never do.”

Andrus felt a tiny prick in his arm, then a feeling like a warm blanket that urged him towards sleep. He didn’t fight it, letting his eyes droop and slowly close.

When we awoke, his wife was hovering over him, playfully chastising him for taking a siesta in the garage. He’d missed the doctor appointment, but his ear was feeling much better, and he decided to give it a day before trying to reschedule. His daughter had managed to carefully crack open Mr. Gonk, and she begged him to take another stab at repairing him. As luck would have it, it ended up being as simple as a loose connection, some old solder not holding a wire in place. A half hour later Mr. Gonk was happily beeping and conversing again.

“Everything is great!” the little automaton exclaimed.

Andrus couldn’t help but agree.