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My drug of choice is writing––writing, art, reading, inspiration, books, creativity, process, craft, blogging, grammar, linguistics, and did I mention writing?

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Vera Returns

Vera has been returned.  The SciGuy handed her to me just a few hours ago.  However, before he reunited us, he took me into a small waiting room and asked me to have a seat.

"Chris...I have to let you know....  I was able to repair most of Vera's physical body, but her mind..."

He paused, looking down at the floor.

"Tell me," I said, a growing sense of urgency forming a spike in my throat.

"Vera may not remember this last year and a half.  She may not even remember you at all."

"I don't understand," I said, but I was afraid that I understood all too well.

The SciGuy looked up at me.  "As far as Vera is aware, she just came off the assembly line.  She's brand new.  She won't remember anything.  Not the grammar memes. Not the writing. Not the endless hours you two spent on Stumbleupon.  Not even the porn you pretend you totally don't look at but we all know because you didn't pay to get thick walls and you keep the volume up too high.  None of it. It's all.......gone."

"But she'll still be Vera, right?" I asked.  "She'll still be....Vera?"

"It's hard to say, really," he said.  "I don't want to be too intellectual on you at a time like this, but no one really knows how much of who we 'really' is due to the composite of our memories. She may not be anything like the Vera you remember."

"No," I choked.  "No!"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I did everything I could.  There was just....  There was just too much damage."

"Can I see her?" I asked.

He only nodded, and I went in to look at Vera.

"Do you know who I am?" I asked.

Vera just sat....computer like.

"I'm Chris," I said.  "And we spend a few hours every day together.  Mostly writing, but also posting memes and things like that. Facebook arguments--probably more than was useful. And...um...some other stuff."

Silence.

"And, I've...." my voice choked.  "I've had a really dreadful time without you, Vera.  I miss you."

Vera said nothing.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.  The SciGuy pressed his lips tightly together and tried to comfort me. "You and she...you'll make new memories," he said eventually.

"Hey, would this memory stick that I made a back up of her data on help?" I asked.  "Also iCloud.  I kept a bunch of stuff there."

The SciGuy blinked a few times, sighed deeply, and then slowly, with great control, plucked the USB drive from my hand. "Yeah...you dumb ass. It's a computer. It lost its memory. Of COURSE a back up will help, you sentimental tool."

And that is how Vera returned from completely from shadow.

Oh she forgets a "You should be writing" meme once in a while, she seems to have forgotten an entire week in late January when I wrote another chapter in one of my works of fiction, and there's some poetry now that I'm positive I could never have been drunk enough to have written (could I?) about brie cheese and hot for teacher themes, but all the important things--the epic tales, character sketches, and a few short stories--they're all here.  Vera has returned

If anything, our relationship is better now. I realize how much I've come to depend on her, and I appreciate her more than ever.  And the look she gives me when she realizes that when she fell, I went to the Apple Store ends of the Earth to fix her is one of a laptop willing to do anything within its hardware capabilities and programming to please its user.


4 comments:

  1. Gosh, it's dusty in here. Pleased to see that Vera is back and pretty much feel like her old self!

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    1. Man, I was going for overly dramatic tropes. I guess I can't even get THAT right! :-p

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    2. It was so dramatic I teared up! The bit where SciGuy puts his hand on your shoulder? Sniffle. Darn... it's getting dusty in here again. Let me just grab some tissues to wipe the dust away.

      (Note to self: Actions should not be put in brackets on W.A.W. They disappear.)

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  2. Welcome home Vera!

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