“That’s what I meant! I didn’t use the proper verb. I meant I know which emotions I should buy.”
“Are you certain? You have the list of emotions you want to modify?”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you!”
“Why did you come here then?”
“In order to consult with you on the appropriate volume I need to buy for every emotion.”
“But that was and still is the biggest part of the process you had to do on your own! Nobody–I say nobody, not even I–can help you with that, Mary Ann! And you know why that is, don’t you?”
“Yes, I know, Samuel, but I don’t see what the big deal is anyway. I wasn’t completely honest with you. I haven’t opened up to you in full.”
“My point exactly! And as you also know, this is very upsetting.”
“But it’s personal, Samuel! He threatened to…”
“It’s not upsetting for me, Mary Ann! It’s for you! You proved unable to free yourself from the facade of the famous and successful persona you are portraying even in the presence of your therapist! You should know better than to insist on this kind of behavior, but there you are…”
“You're right! I wish I could open up to you completely. But I don’t have it in me, you see, especially after...”
“I get that you obviously have your reasons. I also get that it’s not really a matter of confidentiality. To be forced unwillingly to share won’t do you any good. You should want to share though… You haven’t tried, Mary Ann, and I cannot help you unless you try to help yourself first! I've told you so many times that Caroline Emerson’s medical tech is not a toy! It requires deep analysis of one’s emotional self, experiences, memories, synchronization of your conscious and unconscious mind and last but not least…”
“Yes?”
“It requires a trustful relationship with your therapist.”
"Let me get this right, Samuel. You mean to tell me that all those people who have already done it had to go through with all that?”
“You're not all those people, Mary Ann! You are you! And I know you not only from our sessions but also from your work. I was convinced that a perfectionist woman like yourself would deal with that issue the same way you handle your work. That you wouldn’t leave any parameter to chance regarding your emotions.”
“You're so stubborn, Samuel! You feel you have to protect me, but... but this doesn’t suit me at present.”
“Listen carefully, Mary Ann, because I won’t say it again. We are driven by emotion. Everything we do has an emotional background. Everything, you hear me? If you want to take the risk and buy emotions you're not sure you want, be my guest and do so. But I will not assist you in this reckless emotional path. That's all for today, Ms. West!”
“That’s it? You’re sending me away?”
"I’m afraid so, Mary Ann. You need someone to tell you what you want to hear and I don’t specialize in that.”
“Forgive me, Samuel! I understand. Thank you for your time.”
Mary Ann West left from Dr. Von Holst’s knowing that she would never return! She knew that the doctor was right, but at the moment that was the least of her concerns. Jeffrey’s kidnapping had created several phobias inside her. Some were already there and new ones had surfaced. These phobias were very hard to tolerate. Sergio followed her to the exit and made her feel secure once again. He had waited patiently while she was inside the doctor’s office as a solid and stable rock… a rock that seemed heavy but in fact was nippy and had spontaneous reactions. His reaction speed was demonstrated from the very first day he was hired. He had prevented someone from coming close to her on the street. He swiftly had scanned the man’s face with a device and the man’s name had come up in a list of convicted criminals! Sergio then got ahead of her, said something to the man and placed his right arm around the man’s neck. The man then slumped on the ground, immobilized… and it had all happened in seconds! That’s how precious Sergio was for her.
She had quite a lot to consider about her emotional invasive procedure and without Samuel’s counselling things would be difficult. A new psychiatrist wouldn’t be any good because of her trust issues. She wasn’t ready to confide in anyone! Not even her dearest Bertha!
CHAPTER 8
A SERIOUS INVITATION
Washington, DC
Meanwhile, Caroline’s life had started to move at such a fast pace that it wasn’t easy to keep up with. Her interview at 10 with Mary Ann had dramatically changed her daily routine. It had only been two weeks since the day of the interview and she already regretted refusing the assistance of one of Mary Ann’s experts in P.R. The man had kindly introduced himself over the phone saying he was available to assist her as a representative of her personal relations. This service was provided for free from Mary Ann West’s production team. It was a service that was offered only to guests whose interview had created buzz. Caroline was stupid enough to refuse the service thinking that she wouldn’t be needing help. She thought this was the epitome of exaggeration from their part.
How little did she know... It never crossed her mind that she would find it difficult even to enter the premises of her laboratory and that the phone would ring incessantly from all sorts of companies, professionals, fashion magazines and internet-based industries. Everyone would ask for some of her time. She noted that the 10 with Mary Ann show was far more important to people than the Nobel Prize she had won!
Something had to be done in order to manage the vast publicity over Emotion Markets! Her colleagues at work would soon run out of tolerance cause quite simply the whole situation was infuriating! No one could complete assignments and projects with the phone ringing endlessly. Her mail crammed at the lobby and one of her colleagues had volunteered to keep track of the incoming letters and packages! It was only a few days ago that she had decided it was time to call Mary Ann West’s production team and see if the offer still stood.
“We warned you, Miss Emerson, but you paid no attention.”
“Indeed you have... but I couldn’t dream that this much fuss was even possible!”
“Calm down now... there is no need to sound so nervous. I'll take care of it ASAP. Just tell me if you need me to send one or two people,” said the woman on the phone.
“What can I say… it seems to me that even a dozen people won’t be enough.”
“I assure you, Miss Emerson, that the people we send are especially trained to handle these specific situations. I’m thinking Hans. He’s one of our best! So just give Hans some time and you’ll see that everything will be under control. Just stop worrying and focus on your wonderful work, doctor.”
The woman’s reassurances had put Caroline at ease. Mary Ann West’s crew knew the job all too well. This Hans person would carry the burden of the incoming mail from now on. All she had to do was put up with this disruptive frenzy for a few more hours. She laid back her office chair and decided to devote some time to reading tweets and letters that came through the mail. She went to the lobby and got a handful of envelopes. She thought it was romantic that some people insisted on communicating in the traditional way! It was quite a hassle compared to e-mails.
She began reading tweets with #e.m and saw that people’s reactions were more or less the same as before. There was distinct hatred and malice between the lines some had written. The swearing phenomenon had intensified since her interview at 10 with Mary Ann. Hashtags of bitch, cunt and antichrist were attributed to her and were actually gaining ground. She was accustomed to that! Every now and then there were some serious tweets between the insulting ones. True skeptics had joined the debate with philosophical questions and dilemmas. The morality of Emotion Markets seemed to concern the open-minded. A great portion of them saw the necessity and usefulness of Emotion Markets but were tackling the ethical issue of her discovery and consequently emotional invasive procedures. In a sense, this way of thinking was a reward for Caroline. The effect of her discovery on those people was to get them involved
with their emotions! Why they had them, what experiences had caused them, if they can evolve them and if it was ethical to make emotional adjustments with the few minute long invasive procedure. #EM was rapidly becoming the most frequently used hashtag on the web. If people were as involved with their emotions before as they were now, her discovery would probably have little use for the society. If only people paid attention to their emotional self… if only they respected their emotions.
She turned the TV on and stumbled upon the news. Her stay in this office would end soon since the first building of the Caroline Emerson Foundation was almost ready. She had so many memories here... everything had started from this very office. This was no time to get sentimental over meaningless things. But still… this laboratory, its furniture and decorations were the surroundings in which everything had taken place. Her sparkling, complex ideas were transformed into a research study and then into the medical tech of Emotion Markets. She picked up an envelope from the stack. It was light blue in color with a US postage stamp on it. The sender’s handwriting was intriguing! The name and address were beautifully aligned although clearly handwritten. She opened the envelope without caring if it would be a letter of gratitude or hatred. It could be either two and still it wouldn’t affect her. Everyone had the right to express their emotions freely. The least she could do was read what they wrote since she too had interfered in people’s emotions. She was the moral perpetrator…
It had been three days since she last read a letter from an individual.
Dear Caroline Emerson,
I longed to write this letter to you, but I wasn’t sure of its purpose. I decided to mail it after all because I believe in sharing my thoughts over Emotion Markets, especially with you, its inventor. I’m a 58-year-old housewife, married with two adult children. I realize this is of no interest to you. I even doubt my letter will ever reach you...
I am most likely one of the first people to take a chance on an emotional invasive procedure. I did so in full conscious and after I had discussed it with my husband. You see, me and my husband saw the emotion market as a solution to our problem. A solution that I was willing to try! I have been suffering from mild chronic depression for several years. So long as I continued my medication I would be ok, but when Patrick (my husband) and I heard about Emotion Markets, we considered it to be a more permanent solution, despite the annual warranty duration. I hope that you aren’t in need of any kind of medication doctor, but take my word for it, it isn’t nice to feel that you need medication in regular daily doses. The daily routine of swallowing pills, fearing I would skip a dose or run out of pills was unbearable. Although the medication really made me feel better, I couldn’t forget for one minute that I was ill. Being a very proud woman, this acknowledgement was hurtful. As you can see, visiting an EM was redeeming for my soul. Good results came immediately and still remain promising five months later. Depressive thoughts subsided right from the start, giving way to a more upbeat and lively attitude for life. I zealously resumed my hobby (pottery) and was day by day transformed into the woman I once was. A lively, upbeat, full of energy woman, now in my sixties. Unfortunately, I’m not the one with the problem anymore, but my husband Patrick is.
My husband has not been able to forget about my prior situation. He has tormenting thoughts that my emotional health will worsen after the effect of the emotional invasive procedure withers out. I, on the other hand, don’t share his worries. We can no longer live happily together because Patrick is consumed with thoughts of anguish and controversy. He questions many of my decisions by saying that they are a result of the joy that I bought from the emotion market. He is afraid that the acquired joy will make me have great expectations in life. I’ve changed, doctor, and I'm very glad that I have, but Patrick has remained the same. He could be happy for me I guess (I'm sure he wants to be), but unfortunately this is something he can’t control.
At this point, I'm sure that you are tired of reading about me, but I will continue to write with the hope that this letter reaches you and perhaps you’ll find the time to reply (fingers crossed).
The issues that now concern us as a couple are:
Must Patrick too have the emotional invasive procedure in order to modify his emotions that restrain him from feeling happy for me?
Is there a chance that all this becomes an addiction that we’ll be unable to control? We thought we may as well wait until the warranty period expires and then decide. If, however, Patrick doesn’t proceed with his emotional invasive procedure, will we be able to coexist in harmony as a couple?
The reason I'm asking is because my husband now feels emotionally disadvantaged compared to me. I don’t like this at all, doctor. He questions my judgment about things and he is convinced that I have thoughts I would never have, had I not visited the emotion market. He says he doesn’t recognize me anymore.
Meanwhile, my joyful attitude in life has started to annoy him. He thinks his opinion doesn’t matter anymore and that we’ve only fixed my problem in order to give him one.
In the post invasive emotional procedure session we had with one of the psychologists in the EM, we truthfully talked about all these issues. The expert’s opinion is that my husband must support me during this healing period by visiting an emotion market himself. He suggested that Patrick should modify emotions such as stress and fear because those exact emotions are what’s really keeping him from accepting my new emotional state.
However, we are cogitative people, doctor, and can’t help but wonder... What’s the end to all this? What’s the border between healing therapy and commercial exploitation of Emotion Markets? After all, an Emotion Market is a business not a charity.
Upon finishing I want to stress that this letter is not intended to judge or make accusations. Personally, I think that your discovery deserved winning the Nobel Prize! It’s inspiring to think that so many others, just like me, who suffer in their souls, can be cured by a simple visit to an EM. What troubles me, doctor, is that I love my husband and I want to support him and stand by him the same way he did, in all the years that I suffered from depression. I’ve opened my heart to you. If you have reached this far, I thank you dearly for spending time to read my thoughts. I would really be grateful if you could advise me on the matter.
Jenifer (and Patrick) Snyder
The woman had indeed opened her heart in this letter. Her in-depth analysis of their problem meant that these people were taking their emotions seriously. Caroline was pleased with Jenifer Snyder’s positive results from her emotion market experience. The issue that had arisen with her husband, though, was alarming. The couple had only cared for the emotional healing of the wife. It was not yet determined if one-sided emotional healing would be the way to go for life-partners. It was logical that the husband felt he had an emotional disadvantage. A sudden double knock on the door disrupted her thoughts. Peter, her colleague, was smiling with a restless look behind his thick spectacles.
“You have to see this personally, Caroline. It looks important!” said Peter as he handed her an envelope.
The envelope was official; it had an impressive watercolor and two seals. It was yet another invitation – from the administrators and official organizers of the PATOTTM (People Are The Only Thing That Matters) annual conference. PATOTTM was a global humanitarian organization, with huge capitals and power. This organization was often accused of promoting their goals and projects in an excessive manner.
Environmental and animal activists were PATOTTM’s most acknowledged rivals since they were getting nothing from the seemingly endless funds that PATOTTM was distributing around the globe. Their argument could be expressed in a single question that recently had actually been asked by one of Greenpeace’s official spokesmen.
“Why does PATOTTM continue to ignore the fact we people are not alone on this planet?”
PATOTTM’s reply to the question was considered provoking by the press for its simplicity.
“PATOTTM is aware that w
e humans are not alone on the planet we temporarily inhabit. Nevertheless, our primary and only interest is humans and the evolution of their societies around the world. Everything else is collateral.”
It was funny that some people just couldn’t accept this response from a multi-billion dollar non-profit organization! The valuable actions of PATOTTM were countless – hospitals, nursing homes, vaccines in non-developed countries, schools in others that lacked educational infrastructure, viable and safe internet for children, bridges and dams in places where there was clean water shortage.
Caroline admired PATOTTM’s work. It was a great honor that the invitation was signed by one of the keynote speakers of the annual conference There was a clear reference to possible financing of her research and of course the lump sum payment for her appearance at the PATOTTM conference. They were actually paying her $100,000 to give a 10-minute speech. Not shabby at all! All these proposals and invitations were a result of the enormous projection of her appearance on the 10 with Mary Ann show. She decided to respond positively to the invitation without consulting anyone. The topic of her speech was open for her to decide and she was delighted that such a strong organization wasn’t trying to mold her. There wouldn’t be any sort of fixed questions or predetermined placements that would serve the purposes and actions of PATOTTM. Only her own placement on a topic of her choosing. In essence they respected and trusted her. The reason for that was quite simple. They shared a common goal! Humans… PATOTTM apparently recognized that emotions are what prompt humans to act! Everything is driven by emotion! On second thought, everything seemed too good to be true… In any case, PATOTTM had made a very good impression with this letter. She would contact them to accept the invite.
She thought that the time to improve her social status was right. In her many years of research and hard work, she hadn’t cared at all about her appearance and status. These aspects of her life seemed unrelated to what she was trying to accomplish. She had pressing matters to handle in her spare time. Suddenly spoiling herself with the lifestyle she deserved seemed like a good idea.
EMOTION MARKET: the Tailor of Hearts - A gripping psychological thriller Page 7