***
I walked outside my apartment early in the morning, it was around 8 am, and I looked around at all the people as they streamed past me in a frenzied flurry of activity. My implant was giving me info about everything in sight. A women n passed me on the street as I headed to my office; the device instantly scanned the internet and used its advanced facial recognition to find out who she was.
Her name was Rachel and she was 37 years old and a mother of three, pictures of her and her kids started to stream past my vision. I had not fully gotten used to the idea of having my brain permanently connected to the internet. The idea that I could know all there was to know about a person without even asking them their name was still very foreign and scary concept.
Rachel smiled at me politely as she passed by; did she know that I knew who she was, or the names of her children?
I continued on my way to work.
I was a manager for a large software vendor company, we disturbed accounting software mostly, our contracts ranged from multinational companies to smaller local outfits.
I walked into the door at 8:30 am and was greeted by my receptionist Linda.
“Good morning Mark; Happy valentine’s day.” she said with a grin. I looked at her through augmented eyes.
“So, tonight is the big night, huh?” she asked enthusiastically
“Yes indeed.” I replied with equal enthusiasm
White box’s appeared around her head, it showed her heart rate and measured and analyzed the pitch of her voice…she was trying to hide something from me, but I could not tell what it was.
But I didn’t need a neural interface to tell me something was amiss, I had known Linda for over three years; I could read her like a book…with or without augmented senses.
I had noticed a general uneasiness from people who knew that I had been ‘upgraded’; I tried to play it off as just paranoia, but there was something not right about how people looked at me now..They looked at me with suspicion and were leery of my presence, like I could see into their souls and somehow know their secrets…
“Bah” I pushed the thoughts from my head, “I’m just being absurd I would say to myself.” But I could still not shake that feeling of being on the outside looking in now that I had been ‘enhanced’
I continued to chat with Linda for a few more minutes then I made my way down the hall to my office.
Upon entering my office, I pulled the leather chair back and sat my desk, there was a stack of papers sitting at the side that I had not even begun to go through, it was all pretty dry material, sales figures, and employee reviews…the usual.
So I picked up a few of the papers from the stack and started to read them, the implant started to automatically highlight items on the page, a yellow box would surround the text and would flash over a highlighted item, it then gave me the opportunity to look up the highlighted text on the internet.
As I was perusing my paper work, the phone rang beside me, it jarred me from my work, so I casually glanced over at the caller I.D…it was Marcy my girlfriend, so I picked up the phone.
“Good morning Marcy, how are you today?” I said cheerfully
“I’m fine Mark.” She replied. “Are we still on for dinner tonight?”
“Of course” I replied
We had planned to go out for dinner for the last two weeks; it was our one year anniversary today. We had met a year and a half ago; Marcy had worked in another department at the company at the time, but since then had gotten another job.
“What is it Marcy…you seem distracted is there anything wrong?” I asked concerned
“No, its fine Mark, I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”
“OK, I look forward to it, love you!”
“…I love you to Mark, goodbye.”
There was something in the tone of her voice that made me feel uneasy, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, so I simply shrugged it off and continued with my paper work.
The day progressed unhindered like most; it was around 5 pm when I had completed all of my assigned work, so I got up and grabbed my coat from the hook behind the door. And proceeded out the door, I walked down the long narrow corridor to the main entrance, I saw Linda still sitting at the desk; she smiled at me as she saw me approach.
“Ready for the big night Mark?” she asked with a grin.
“Of course I replied; I have been waiting almost 2 weeks for this night, I and Marcy have been together for a year today.” I said with an air of excitement.
“Well, I’m hopeful everything goes well with you tonight Mark; have a great night.”
“Thanks Linda; I will.” I replied, happy to be getting on with my day and to be seeing the women that I loved.
With that I made my way out the main entrance and down the street to the restaurant.
It was only a short walk from my office, and I had planned to meet Marcy there at 5:30pm, I looked down at my wrist watch and it was 5:15 pm; I had plenty of time to spare.
So I decided to head to the flower shop across the street from the restaurant to pick up flowers for Marcy before dinner. I walked into the flower shop and the fragrant aromas hit my nose as soon as I stepped through the door.
My H.U.D lit up like a Christmas tree; I knew every type of flower just by looking at it, the information swarmed over my senses, dazzling me in array of multicolored information boxes and text streaming across my peripheral vision.
I picked out the flowers that I wanted, and headed for the counter, the women at the counter smiled at me as I approached carrying the bundle in my arms; I laid it down on the counter between us.
“For your girlfriend I assume?” she said warmly and politely.
“Why yes in fact, tonight is our first anniversary.” I replied.
“Congratulations!” she said eagerly, “She is very lucky to have you.”
“Thank you, But I am the lucky one.” I replied candidly
The clerk glanced down at my selection, then back up with a smile.
“Wonderful selection; these are…” I cut her off before she had a chance to finish her sentence.
“Rosa anemoniflora!” I said cheerfully; fully unaware of how rude I had just been, blindly cutting off the women’s speech before the words were out of her mouth.
“I scanned them with my N.A.C; I had it installed about 6 months ago; it’s truly been a godsend.”
“Oh…well I hope you enjoy them.” She said sheepishly; trying to hide her obvious shock at my intrusion.
“Thank you, I will” and with that I paid for the flowers; grabbed my bundle and proceeded out the door.
I started walking down the street slowly making my way to meet Marcy for our anniversary dinner, when suddenly I was blindsided from behind by a group of kids that bolted past me, paying no attention to their surrounding; let alone me.
I was knocked to the ground and the bundle of flowers went sailing through the air and landed in the middle of a large muddy puddle a few feet away. One of the kids stopped momentary looked back at me with a look of disgust and then rejoined his friends as they ran down the street.
I got up from the ground and brushed the dirt from my shirt and pants, I then looked around to see if anybody had witnessed what had transpired. But all I could see were hordes of people all absorbed and immersed in their private worlds all attention was on their personal music and communication devices, nobody had witnessed the kid’s bull me over, what’s worse if they had I doubt they would have cared.
I then walked over to the flowers that lay crumpled and mutilated on the ground, they had been tarnished and tattered by the kid’s stampede, I picked them up and bits of fragmented red petals floated softly to the earth, I brushed off the dirt and mud from the wrappings around them. Some of the roses had their petals crushed and the stems had been splintered.
I made a small sigh then glanced down at my watch; it was 5:25 I better get going if I did not want to disappoint Marcy al thought given the current circumstances an
d the ruined flowers I’m not sure I could entirely avoid that.
I then hurried down the sidewalk to the end of the street, I hit the button impatiently waiting for the crosswalk to activate…it seemed to take an eternity before the light finally flashed green.
Before my foot even hit the pavement a red card bolted in front of me, I could hear the tires screech to a halt as the driver noticed me trying to cross the street, I glanced over at him, and he was busy with a phone in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. He sneered at me as I passed him in the street, like somehow I had in convinced him as I was trying to make my way to the restaurant. I had invaded the sanctity of his life for the briefest of moments, and due to his fleeting attention (which had almost cost me my life) his day had been tarnished.
I gave it no more thought as I stepped on to the curb and headed towards the restaurant, I greeted the doorman politely as I walked through the door.
Waiting in the front room was Marcy; she looked at me and my tattered flowers and greeted me warmly.
“Good evening Mark. How are you tonight?” she looked down and the back up at my mangled clothing “Busy day Mark?”
“I’m good dear, for the most part.” I handed her the mangled mess of roses, she took it somewhat reluctantly; she looked at them and then smiled at me.
“Let’s go eat. “ I suggested; and we both walked up to the hostess.
“Good evening miss, how are you today?” I asked politely
“I’m well thank you; will that be for two?” she glanced at myself then over to Marcy.
“Yes, the reservations are under Bird.” I replied.
“Very good, let me take you to your table.” She grabbed two menus from the stack beside her and we followed her past the rows of people sitting and eating, bits of conversations streamed through my ears; my implant was busy gathering data about everything that crossed my senses.
I now had the ability to read people like books, all the sudle nuances of human interaction had become bits of information to be analyzed and cross examined; what used to once be a simple conversation turned into a data mining exercise. I was starting to lament that fact somewhat, I had started to feel disconnected from the rest of reality…disconnected from life.
The hostess took us to a seat in the back of the restaurant; she placed the menus’ on the table and smiled as she walked away. I took off my coat and put it on the back of the chair; Marcy did the same.
We both took our seats at either end of the table; the white table cloth gracefully covered the table and drifted to the floor; there was a small red candle in the center of the table; already lit.
I sat across from Marcy and stared into her green eyes, they shimmered like emeralds in the candle light; she smiled back at me…albeit a bit uneasily…
“Is there something you want to talk to me about?” I asked; there was something going on with her, I could easily tell with or without an augmented sense of reality... She had sounded so …distant over the phone this morning.
“…it can wait until after dinner sweetie.” She said with a sheepish smile.
“As you wish” I said slightly frustrated at being shut down like that
I glanced down at the menu before me and opened it to the wine selection. We both decided on a bottle of red and the prime rib; and patiently awaited the server to attend to us. No sooner had the thought left my brain then a tall man in a white suit and black tie approached our table.
My implant fired off information as it scanned the man, his name was Michael Bloomberg and he was 29 years old, father of one. He was 2 meters in height and weighted 65 kilograms.
“Good evening Michael; how are you today?” I said kindly
“How did you…oh; you must have one of those new neural interface chips.”
“That would be correct” I said smugly
I glanced over at Marcy briefly; she had a slightly embarrassed look on her face.
“Well then…” Michael continued “Have you made your selection for this evening?”
“Yes we have, we will both have the steak, and a bottle of red please.”
“Very good, sir I shall return shortly with your wine and food; enjoy your evening.”
With that Michael took our menus and strolled away. Marcy and I continued to make small talk.
No sooner had he left, Michael returned with our food and drinks; we both knocked the glasses of wine together to celebrate our one year anniversary.
We spent most of our meal in silence as we ate; I looked around at the restaurant at the large crowd that had gathered there, it was Valentine’s Day after all.
After we finished our meal Michael returned with the desert menu, but we both declined; I was rather interested and anxious in what Marcy had to say. It had been consuming me all day.
“So what has been on your mind my dear?” I said trying to hide my anxiety behind a mask of calm.
“Well Mark…”she started her green eyes darting back and forth, the light flickered and bounced off them; her face became tense.
“I think we need to go our separate ways…” she said hoarsely as the truth finally revealed itself.
She was breaking up with me.
“You’re breaking up with me…”I said with a mix of shock and anger.
“Why?” I said trying desperately to hold myself together as the shock of what she had said was starting to wear off. The grim reality was slowly setting in.
“It’s just that…”she paused hesitantly; trying to find the words that would best comfort and insulate the harsh truth behind therm.
My implant scanned her face; it looked for any signs of deceit or trickery…it found nothing…she was telling the truth.
“You have been absolutely wonderful to me…But you have changed so much in the last 6 months; it’s almost as if you’re a different person, every since you got that thing in your head…I hardly recognize the man you have become. You are a stranger to me now.”
Her words dug into my very soul as they tore their way into my heart; she was right; the implant had changed me in ways that I could not even comprehend prior to getting it. I had become a shell of my former self; it had had opened new doors to my life that previously would have remained closed and simultaneously closing doors that were once open.
I sat there stunned and taken aback by what she said.
“Marcy…” I stammered feebly trying in vain to say something, but the words would not come.
She sat across from me looking at me sternly, and continued to speak despite my obvious shock.
“Ever since the implant procedure, it’s like you have become a completely different person, your mood has become so introverted, I feel that you love that chip more than me. I have also noticed that your relationships with others has suffered as well, you no longer are patient with people, your curt, rude…impulsive. “She said to me, never ceasing her gaze.
“So I think that it’s best if we leave the relationship on a high note, it’s best if we depart while we still care for one another, but I cannot continue with a man who has become so…robotic…so machine like.”
“I’m sorry Mark, I love you…I really do, but I can’t stay with you.” With that she got up from the table and grabbed her coat and put it on. She walked over to me; she put her hand on my shoulder and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek.
“I’m sorry Mark.” She said again this time with a tone of sympathy “I love you.”
With that she walked away, my heart sank as I watched the women that I love walk out of my life forever.
The server had returned with the bill in his hand, he saw something was amiss and quietly placed the bill on the table in front of me, then made a quick exit.
I looked at the bill and angrily crumpled it in my hand. I grabbed the flowers that Marcy had left lying on the table and took them with me. I got up and retrieved my coat from the back of the chair. I walked swiftly up to the counter to pay for dinner for the women who had just left me wallowin
g in my own self loathing and despair. I paid and made a hasty retreat from the restaurant.
Outside it was starting rain, “what an adequate ending to a horrible night” I thought.
I looked up as the rain started to cascade down to the earth; the sky had turned a deep grey and ominous ready to tear open.
I started my way down the street, but not before heaving the flowers which had now become a symbol of my discontent into a nearby trash can.
I looked at all the faces as I passed them in the street; my implant lit up as each new face passed by, revealing some small fragment of each person. “Did they know what just happened to me, did they even care.” I wondered vainly as I slowly walked down the cold wet street towards my empty meager apartment.
I had almost made it home, my apartment was nearby, and the last leg of my journey required me to cross the street then walk a couple more blocks. I walked up to the drearily cold crosswalk and hit the button with some force, partially out of anger...More so out of despair.
The light struggled to turn green as the traffic flew by...I waited for several seconds then I heard a familiar ding as the cross walk sign indicated I could cross. So I started down the water soaked road toward my home when suddenly I heard the loud screech of tired round the corner.
I looked at the car as it was barreling down on me; my implant fired off and gave me the cars current speed and heading.
The driver was fiddling with his phone, so I doubt that he would had time to stop even if he had seen me. The car was going about 60km/h and only a few meters away. I tried to dodge it but it was too late, I heard a sudden screech of tires on the asphalt as the driver looked up at the last minute but it was too late. I could feel the cold wet steel as it thrashed and ripped into my flesh. The car struck with such force that I was knocked to the ground,
My head hit the pavement almost knocking me unconscious, I could see a large pool of crimson colored liquid pooling around me, it was warm to the touch, it was my blood…my implant flickered as I watched the blood wash away in the rain, it tried to stay active but to no avail, I was too badly injured from the impact. I heard a car door open and a man was standing over me yelling at me in a panic and asking if I was alright. But I couldn’t answer. I tried to speak but no sound came out.
The last clear image that I could recall with any level of clarity was Marcy’s smiling face, as the world faded to black.
-The End-
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