Your Nightly Programing

by Alan VanMeter

  Your Nightly Programing

  Your Nightly Programing

  Midpoint

  Your Nightly Programing

  By Alan VanMeter

  Copyright 2017 By Alan VanMeter

  All rights reserved

  “One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”

  -Aldous Huxley, Brave New World-

  Her first recognition was hearing music, she dreamily recognized the song. It was ‘Love on the Brain’ by Rihanna. She immediately thought it was that damned Cochlear cell phone implant of her boyfriend, Denny.

  ‘Wait!’ she realized as her consciousness solidified more. ‘He had that damn thing removed three weeks ago. Oh crap, it’s the damned alarm! No! Not already.’

  Jessica rolled over and wearily reached to slap the ‘sleep’ button.

  ‘Five more minutes… yes.’

  It was too late though, as she felt Denny rolling out of bed.

  “Time to get up Jess. Come on.” He half yawned.

  “No…” She moaned.

  “Yes. Time to make the damn doughnuts… again.”

  Jess took a shower after he was finished in the bathroom, and when she got out and dressed was happy to see that Denny had made her breakfast again.

  “Thanks again for breakfast, babe.”

  He smiled and joined her at the small table.

  “I know you’re still trying to make up for the cost to get that damn Cochlear cell phone removed.” She half teased, but the other half was serious.

  “Hell no. I should be golden from the last three weeks of making you breakfast.”

  “Oh, so you just got in the habit, or what?” Jess raised her brows.

  “No, this is for something else.” He grinned.

  That stopped her. He was an avid techie and was always interested in having all the latest gadgets and devices, and that could only mean that he found a new one he wanted.

  “Crap babe, what is it this time? Don’t tell me you want one of those penile stimulator implants.” She gave him her challenging look.

  Denny laughed. “You know I don’t need one of those, babe.”

  “No, not yet anyhow.” She shook her head.

  He turned on the TV to the main news feed. The lead story is of the President having nationalized another group of businesses that had opposed him in the final election. Now they will be under his own parent company, and the owners have been arrested for treason. Since this madman had declared himself the permanent president, and that elections will no longer be held, he has moved quickly to silence any and all opposition to him. This drove Jessica insane, and she always let Denny know just how she felt about the rotten situation.

  “I told you that he would become a damn dictator! See!” She pointed at the screen.

  “He’s just doing what needs to be done to unify us, babe. With Russia invading Estonia and all, we need to all come together and support him.”

  “He gave Russia Estonia! Remember?”

  He shook his head. “We had to pull out of NATO, we couldn’t afford it.”

  “You are such a damn moron, Denny!”

  “Yeah, well keep talking like that, and I’ll have to turn you in.” He laughed and raised his eyebrows at her.

  This was the big divide between them, politics. Jessica had sincerely thought of leaving him when it became clear that he supported the monster, but then he was the main bread winner of the two of them, so she stayed. Now she honestly did fear that he might just do what he threatened. She bit her lip and continued eating.

  Things were damn dangerous now, since the dissolution of the Congress and Senate. Even many of the previous supporters of the president in Congress were arrested, and presumably killed. The new media had all been subverted and now they all spoke of how necessary the unification process was, and they showed very little in the way of the resistance movement. On line there were still some videos of the protests being broken up by riot police, and of the mass arrests. There were also some very disturbing ones of renegade supporters performing executions of those they deemed to be non-supporters. All in all it was completely terrifying, and Jessica was frightened beyond belief. The morning news was bad enough, but the nightly news was a massive propaganda assault. She could hardly watch it, and often just went on-line instead, but Denny ate it up, becoming more brainwashed every damn day it seemed.

  Thank goodness for the commercial break, which made everything seem like it was still normal, but she knew it wasn’t. Jessica hurriedly ate, before the news came back on and ruined her appetite. Then a particular commercial aired toting the latest in cell phone technology. It was for a system that was directly wired into a person’s brain.

  “Oh my god!” She gasped. “Now that is damn sick!”

  “No it isn’t.” Denny defended.

  She looked at him with wide eyes. “You don’t mean… that is what you want to try next?”

  “Hell yeah!” He smiled.

  “But your last experience with that damn Cochlear cell phone was a disaster, babe!”

  “This isn’t anything like that, Jess. I’ve read up on it, and there have been zero, absolutely zero malfunctions.”

  “That is dangerous! It has to be! Don’t do it Denny, you don’t want other people having direct access to your mind. Heck, you’re already…” She bit her lip, knowing she’d said too much already.

  “Already what?” He leaned towards her with a menacing grimace. “Already brainwashed? I know you think so, but I think you are the one who is still brainwashed from all that old crap! It’s all been proven to be lies, Jess.”

  She wanted to scream at him, but she couldn’t afford to.

  “I make the money in this house, so if I want a new hardwired cell phone implanted, I’ll damn well do it!”

  That was that, and Jess knew it. No sense arguing with a fool.

  After breakfast he drove her to her job at the lab’s cafeteria, while he worked for the lab as an engineer. She made just a tiny bit more than minimum wage, as a line server. It was all she could find after dropping out of high school. At the time she didn’t have much choice as her step father had raped her since she was fifteen years old. So she ran away the moment she turned eighteen, and got a job at the cafeteria. That was how she met Denny, and he was so smooth in playing her. At first she really liked him, and then quickly grew to love him, even though she knew he had some differing perspectives than hers. He did have money, and a fair amount of it too from his lucrative position. After their fourth date he’d asked her to move in with him, after he’d bedded her twice. She did know how to please a man after all, hell, she’d been educated in that for a long time thanks to her step dad.

  Jessica hated her job, but the customers would never know it by her bright friendly smile which she always flashed. The people of the sorted scientists and military officers who frequented the cafeteria were not her favorite sort either. They all got paid enormous amounts of taxpayer money for working very little as she could discern, and even Denny regularly admitted that the work ethic in any of these institutions was nearly non-existent. All they ever talked about in line was how despicable the opposition was, even before they became illegal and hunted down. She made sure to never say a word of politics here, nor to even give a disgusted scowl at their blatant inhumane banter. It was always so and so needs a bullet in their head, or to be strung up. Many of the men also made lewd sexual comments to her as well, and even some of the women did also! Still, it paid just a tad more than minimum wage, so she bit her lip, and kept the fake smile on her face. Though to her she was surrounded by a world of things, monsters who hated humanity. What she would give to see the tide change, and those who were killing the rational pe
ople, to have the shoe on the other foot. There was no hope of that however, not since the takeover.

  That night at dinner Denny told Jessica that he had made his mind up to have the implants for the latest in high tech wireless direct cerebral communications links performed. She warned him again, only once, but he was adamant about having this new high technology.

  “So you won’t mind having your thoughts made public then?” She asked.

  “Not at all, but I don’t have to worry about that because the company has a strict privacy policy. Besides, all it records are my function commands to the interface.”

  “Sure.” She nodded.

  “Hey, you’ll love it too. I’ll be your cyborg lover.” He chuckled.

  Jessica shrugged, “Maybe you can get some pointers.”

  “Awe, like you don’t love it already.” He patronized.

  She used to love it, and him, but then the profound despise and anger of his had set in, making him more repugnant by the day. It seemed the nightly news was indeed brainwashing him. As he turned the TV on again after dinner, she took refuge on-line.

  Within several long weeks Denny scheduled the procedure to have the newest idea in communication technology hard wired into his brain. Of course Jessica was involved with the ordeal, as she had to drive him home afterwards. His head had been shaved completely bald, and there were six small round bandages on different spots on his head where the tiny holes had been drilled through his skull. The electronic implants were so small they easily fit through the minute drilled holes. Denny was quiet the whole ride, with the occasional giggle, or chuckle as he experimented with his new thought activated cell phone.

  Once she parked in their garage she asked, “So, was it worth it?”

  He held up his palm motioning for her to wait. In a few moments he chuckled, and nodded before turning to face her. “Sorry, I had to finish my call to Doug. You asked if it was worth it, hell yeah! This is crazy sick cool! I am talking to people with my mind… it’s like telepathy, babe!”

  “What the… You were just talking to Doug? How?”

  “It’s so cool! Kind of like texting, but the app is so intuitive that I can form who text paragraphs in seconds. Just by thinking of what I want to say. Then I send the completed text, and a voice synthesizer in the company’s server sends a voice message to whoever I’m calling. It’s bad ass, babe!” Denny was clearly beyond excited.

  Jessica thought about that for a moment. “You mean I don’t have to listen to your phone conversations anymore?”

  “Nope.” He grinned.

  “Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea.”

  That night after an early dinner Denny turned on the damn news as usual, and the lead story was about an attack on a US Navy ship by the Iranian Air Force. Jessica could only think of escaping reality again, so she went on line briefly, and even though she avoided any political discussions, instead following her favorite authors’ posts, there were always some damned politics that creeped in. So she purchased a new ebook from one of her favorite writers; titled ‘Dark Desires’ by Zorha Edwards. It was a sequel to another of her books of poetry that Jessica had already thoroughly enjoyed. In no time she was whisked away to a peaceful place by the author’s expert, and wonderfully imaginative verse.

  Too soon Denny was calling her to come to bed, but she did not want to put the book down, it was far too good! Still, she had already fought this battle with him before, with Denny declaring that he couldn’t sleep unless she was safely beside him. She figured it was just that he hated being woken when she came to bed, that and his ever present need for control. Tomorrow was another work day anyhow, so she reluctantly set the book mark and turned her computer off. He fell asleep before she did, and then his snoring kept her awake a while longer. Finally she was able to nudge him to roll over, and she snuggled into her blankets. Then he started talking in his sleep, something he’d never done before, that she was aware of anyhow.

  “It’s not true? Ohhh.”

  She blinked and sighed.

  “I know that’s not. Because I liked the lie I guess.”

  After she nudged him again, shutting him up, she finally was able to fall asleep.

  In the morning he again made her breakfast, but when the TV was turned on he only watched a few minutes of the national news before switching to a local station. That was something he’d never done before.

  “Why the local news, babe?” She asked.

  “Oh, not much going on nationally. I can turn it back if you want.”

  She shook her head, “No, no the local is fine. I’m just surprised that’s all, what with all the stuff going on about Iran.”

  “Yeah, but something isn’t right about all that.” He frowned.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Did you ever read about the Gulf of Tonkin incident that spurred the US into a major military commitment in Vietnam?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well supposedly the North Vietnamese attacked one of our Navy ships, and so we went to war, but it was exposed later to be a pure lie. It never happened.” He sighed.

  “Holy shit!” She gasped. “Wait, do you think that is what the story about the Iranian Air Force attacking our ship is, a lie?”

  “I think it might well be. I do know a thing or two about the Iranian capabilities, as well as our own, and those planes would never have been able to get close to our ship.”

  “Wow, what’s gotten into you, babe? That goes against the administration, and you know what that means.” She had wide eyes looking at him in disbelief.

  “I know, it’s treasonous talk.” He nodded.

  “You’d better not mention this to anyone besides me, Denny. Don’t worry, I won’t turn you in.”

  “Likewise, Jess. I’m sorry I threatened you with that too. I would never do anything to hurt you. I was just…” He stopped.

  “Just what?” She pressed.

  “I don’t know, I guess I was just trying to piss you off.”

  “Wow. It’s alright, I didn’t believe you anyhow.” She lied.

  On the drive to work Jessica gazed out the window at the Capital building in the distance. She could feel the corrupt evil that those who once occupied its halls exuded, like a stain that would never go away. They had allowed all of this to happen, and they had received their just rewards after the President consolidated his absolute power. Then they were dispensed with, seeing as the new dictator didn’t need them anymore. He still called himself the President, but everyone knew he was just a tyrannical dictator, at least everyone who wasn’t completely brainwashed by the relentless propaganda. It had been a while since anyone had dared to march in a protest against the new regime, the military and police armored vehicles on nearly every block gave testimony to the utter suppression of any dissent. The political posts on line recently were mostly propaganda supporting the new unified government, but every now and again someone would be brave enough to speak counter this totalitarian authority. These brave souls usually stopped posting soon afterwards, and it could only be assumed that they had been seized, and removed. Jessica hated everything about how the country had become, but there wasn’t a thing she could do about it, nor that anyone could.

  It was a long day on the serving line, with more of the usual propaganda talk by the customers, as well as a lewd sexual remark or two hurled her way. Then after lunch cleanup, she went to sit in the now mostly empty cafeteria to wait until Denny got off work. It was an hour a day that she had to herself, a precious bit of time which she usually spent reading, and this day was no different. Just at a crucial part in the story she read, someone interrupted her.

  “Hi Jess. How are you doing today?” It was Patty, one of Denny’s co-workers and friends. She sat down with a cup of coffee.

  “Oh, hi Patty. I’m alright, how are you?”

  “Doing okay, I guess.”

  “Is something the matter?” Jess feigned worry, as she wasn’t too fond of Patty. They few times they h
ad met, mostly at Christmas parties for the lab employees, Patty had seemed jealous of her, and a bit spiteful too.

  “It’s just that I found out today that the lab’s budget is getting cut. I don’t know if I’ll have a job soon.”

  Jess made a real grimace, she certainly didn’t like the sound of that. “Oh no!”

  Patty leaned in to whisper, “That damned moron will take everything for himself, and to hell with the rest of us.”

  “Do you mean… the President?” Jess whispered back, looking around for unwanted ears listening.

  Patty nodded. “He’ll get us all killed, and then he won’t have shit.”

  Jess could only stare at her with wide eyes. She sure didn’t expect Patty to be so rational.