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| Courtesy: popfi.com |
Today’s
Prompt:
A picture on your mantle unexpectedly falls
and crashes to the floor. As you go to pick it up, you notice a note hidden
behind the picture. The message is from the future—and written by you. It
instructs you to do something important. What does it say?
Word Count: 1,694
Imagine a line stretching from
your childhood to your deathbed.—Steven Barnes
Hello,
Self.
I
need you to carry out an impossible mission; I need you to terminate Dr. Biat (/be at/) George, CEO at Hi-Brid Corp.
This
missive ought to be in your hands while you are still his Lab Assistant and
while he is yet the Head of Biotech dept. I know the paper in your hand feels
like a practical joke. I know how crazy it sounds if you align it with the fact
that The Doctor, as we called Dr.
George back where you are used to be a pretty nice fellow. Up here in the
future—our future—strange
occurrences have tipped the tides.
The Doctor who is now simply referred to as Chief is no longer the nice guy he’d
always professed himself to be. And he’s got the board right under his
armpit, to boost. He’s been feeding them, I would not
classify his teachings as lies but rather inaccurate analysis. The sickness
runs deep in the veins of the system so that it’s next to impossible to say who is on
your side and who is not. Sometimes, they’re one and the same.
You’re
probably wondering how things came to be the way they are; how situation
plummeted to ground zero. This isn’t the place or time to get bogged
down with details. I realize though, I’m going to have to touch on issues a
little bit if I’m gonna get you to support my cause.
We both were The Doctor’s
favorite. But if humanity
depends on us to stall this veritable human apocalypse, I hope you’ll
be willing to stand up for a worthy cause.
It’s possible The Doctor has started experimenting with the human brain already.
He calls it A Research to Prove the
Immortality of Human Intelligence. Unlike previous researchers who
attempted similar feats, The Doctor’s objectives are highbrow and honorable. The focus of his research is
infant brain. He calls this an attempt to recover what was lost—the genius that would have upped the
cause of the human race had it not been terminated by crib death.
The
depressing thing is nobody really questioned the genius behind the idea. What
did The Doctor hope to achieve when
his research was done and over with? How did he intend to harness the talent in
the dead infant brains if perhaps, he taps into them? Who or what would host
these human intelligences to
translate them into inventions for human benefit? Can’t
blame us though. Just like you can’t blame yourself back there. We were
young and dumb and The Doctor was god.
To us, anyway and I guess that’s the bottom line.
This message is becoming rather long than I
had planned and I really wish I was there to lay it down in person. But the device
that jaunted this letter has a rule: we can’t see eye to eye or something’s
gotta give. It was invented off a Steven Barnes’ statement, ‘Imagine
a line stretching from your childhood to your deathbed.’ There’s only one line and the order cannot
or must not be broken.
It’s
all gone to hell the way the world is over here. The Doctor’s ‘awesome’
plan is about to alter the course of the world as we know it.
The
message trailed on and on but Utom (/who tome/) decided the rest of the details
could wait. Now he had to find proof that the letter was indeed from his future
self and not a hoax passing himself off as someone important. First, the
letterhead was definitely the CONFIDENTIAL type for The Doctor’s personal use. It looked genuine.
Shortly after he came in for the
day’s job at Hi-Brid, Utom placed the papers from behind the picture under the
special ultraviolet light in The Doctor’s
office. If the documents were genuine, the light would reveal a grid of
codes, invisible to the naked eye. The papers passed the test. Next was the
hardest part, his next course of action.
The Doctor was
yet to call in at the office and Utom
did something he would never attempt in his wildest dreams; he went nosing
around in his boss’ personal lab. He was in for the shock treatment of a
lifetime.
Utom opened a drawer after drawer;
he found research papers in the fourth drawer. The Doctor had proposed a theory on some complicated process, what
might become the turn of the century’s invention. He had found the perfect
alibi. The note behind the picture was genuine, after all. Here was proof in
his hands, right in front of his eyes. Utom made to move the papers to a table
for thorough investigation and a slip of folded paper fell out of the heap and
landed on his shoe. He barely noticed. He got to the table then, remembered he
left the drawer open; he had to have an emergency exit option. He returned to
shut the drawer.
He
saw the paper lying on the floor, folded up and unread.
The
room whirled around him. Utom felt like he’d come back full circle. The folded
paper looked familiar; a replica of the note he found behind the picture that
went smash on the floor in his apartment.
“You gotta be kidding me,” he
said as he bent over to snatch the note off the floor where it dropped. A nasty
taste to fill up in his mouth; he felt a lump in his throat. Another rip in
time had occurred. As he unfolded the note, Utom could only wish for the best.
Dear Self,
The
note bagan but this time, Utom had a queer feeling it wasn’t intended for his
eyes and ears.
I would suggest
you wrap up your game while you’re still in command. Plans are underway to blow
you out of water. Speed up your research and get the hell out. I’m counting on
you.
Send in the clone
to eliminate Members of Board who are gonna oppose your finds and proposals. You
can’t succeed in this mission without a reshuffle of the present administration.
Wring those losers guts and get them to install you as CEO, that’s the only
alternative if you crave to succeed.
I hope you’ve
initialized a process for arranged ‘crib deaths.’ I’m kind of running short on
babies and baby-brains up here.
PS: Kill Utom,
your lab assistant first. He’s at the helm of the resistance. Annihilate him
and get rid of the body. On second thought, the body might come in handy as a ‘host’ for one of your infant intelligence. Get rid of his puny
brain and get him upgraded with one of the brains retrieved from the deceased
infants.
CHIEF.
Apparently,
the future Utom wasn’t the only one who had access to the Postal Service of Past
& Beyond. And without doubt, the two future dudes had a desire to off the
other’s past self.
Utom had only this one chance to
set things right. He couldn’t tell if The
Doctor had seen the note or not but he didn’t want to wait around to see.
Things have already gotten out of control as is and if he didn’t act now, he
might not live to become his future self.
He
set The Doctor’s personal Laboratory
on fire, starting with the research papers containing the advanced process of
human cloning and the note from the mad scientist’s future self. The flames had
begun to spread when he stepped out of the laboratory. He had to hurry soon
there would be a massive explosion that would rock the entire structure. He
stepped outside as the flames began to build up and was greeted by an
unpleasant surprise.
A
man stood a few inches from the door. Utom was going to ask him to leave the
room immediately or he was going to call security for unauthorized entry when The Doctor’s voice came from behind the
man.
“I suppose you thought you could
win this war, Utom?” He stepped out from behind the man and Utom saw he was
holding in his hand what appeared to be a copy of the note from his future self.
The one Utom had discovered among the bundle of research papers and destroyed
in the fire, which now engulfed the laboratory.
The Doctor
registered the knowing in Utom’s eyes and said, “I believe by now, you have found
the note and know what this is all about. You see, my future self thought you
might get to one of the notes before me and sent two copies instead of just one.” He turned to the man Utom had seen
earlier. “Have you met the future of the human race?” He said making a sweeping
gesture like a magician showing off his legerdemain. “Let me introduce you to
my newest invention, Aaron. And Aaron
meet Utom, he is at present, d.o.a”
And
with that pronouncement, the clone moved in swiftly on Utom and pinned him
against the door. Utom was still holding on to the door handle. He pressed it
down. The clone, Aaron was strong and he would have squashed Utom like a bug if
given the chance. The man and the clone rambled into the burning room as the
door slid open.
Utom
had the length of an exhale to slip from underneath the clone and grab for lab
equipment. Aaron was on top of him the next minute propelled by some bastard
form of adrenalin. Utom had found what he wanted. He turned the hose of the Bunsen
burner and directed it at Aaron’s
eyes. The flames flared and licked up the clones eyeballs. He screamed and
rolled off Utom.
The
mad scientist entered the lab in a mad rush when he heard the yell of his
clone. Utom came up against him with a gas cylinder and drove it into his thoracic
cavity with all the strength he could muster. There was a gasp as The Doctor sprawled on the floor beside
his invention.
Utom
dropped the cylinder, lurched out of the lab and locked the door behind him.
Eneh Akpan
June
13, 2013
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