Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  “Okay, darling. If you must, you must. And it’s to help someone. But I could join you. I’m dying to see your counseling side – the serious schoolmarm.”

  “Can be distressing, BC. Don’t take sorrow lightly.”

  “I’m very sorry, Esme. I didn’t mean to be silly. Tragedy is terrible.”

  “Okay, I’ll call you from there. It’s in Munich, his home with Deepti. I’ll tell her you’re going to pop in.”

  Esmeralda called him, almost immediately after entering the apartment in Munich, and BC showed up a few moments after her call. On entry into the apartment, he saw an unkempt, distraught male sitting at a table, holding his head in his hands.

  “Look, Charlie, at who has come to see you. The famous BC, himself,” said Esmeralda. “Cheer up. You’ll never be alone. Humanside is human, Charlie. They die. It’s very sad, but they have limited life spans, and must eventually pass away. Fatal accidents and murders are routine, you know, which are violent deaths, but otherwise illness could claim them, and the least violent death is the most common and most expected – old age. What to do? We can only love them while they live, and honor them after death by remembering all the good times we shared with them. They’ll never die while we live. One such ending has occurred in your life, Charlie. Now you have to be strong. You have this wonderful life-companion. Look at how miserable she is, seeing you so sorrowful. Sorrow? Of course you must feel sorrow. You have lost someone you cared for deeply. And that person is never coming back into your life. He, if he knew, would count himself blessed to know how much he meant to you. Get a hold of yourself. Do it for Deepti.”

  “It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t my fault,” groaned Charlie.

  “Your fault? Charlie, you are in Screenside and your brother died in Humanside. It cannot be your fault.”

  “I should have been watching. I could have overridden the command. But I was having fun in the Chinese flop jet.”

  “Flop jet? Tell me why you think of it as your fault. Come on, get it out.”

  “Walter was already a teenager when I was born into our family. And what a fun guy he was. I followed him everywhere, as he was very popular and extremely social. He carried a smart phone - even in our early days - a Blackberry, always communicating with his friends. He was recording a skydiving episode for a TV program, you know, camera on his forehead to capture his view; it was such fun. Of course, connected, and I was able to be with him, live. Such a laugh. Always light-hearted. Ask Deepti. Even she loved his company.”

  “Yes,” agreed Deepti. “Walter was a dream person to have Humanside. There was so much going on in his life; and so many girls!”

  “I think he was eventually most likely to settle on Claudia,” said Charlie, now a bit diverted from his grief.

  “So, Charlie,” said Esmeralda, “Why are you blaming yourself?”

  Charlie began sobbing, miserably. “I’m a pilot, and I should have taken control of the aircraft. Walter was on his way back from Barcelona, when the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane into the Alps, after locking the captain out of the cabin.”

  “Oh, the crash yesterday?”

  “Yes. The Chinese have designed an absolutely unmanageable fighter jet, and, in typical Chinese fashion, have built a couple of hundred straight away. Those jets have been crashing routinely. Humanside pilots can’t handle them at all, but I have learnt to fly them. It’s very challenging, and great fun. I disconnect the controls, though they think they’re flying them, and I conduct all the maneuvers, taking instructions from the ground - take them up, fly them and land them safely. I am now fluent in Chinese; don’t need to hold translation software open. While my brother was flying back home, the Chinese air force sent three of these fighters up together. And I took my eye off my brother’s plane, and started having fun.” He began crying earnestly. “My punishment is that Walter is dead, and Ma has no one for her old age.”

  Then Charlie switched on a Humanside home computer camera, to show his human Ma sitting bleakly at a table. Large tears began rolling down Esmeralda’s cheeks, as she sniffled and watched helplessly.

  She was surprised to see BC turning his smart phone camera at her, obviously recording, and she irritably waved at him to stop it. They left after two more hours, when Deepti had taken Charlie to the bedroom. “Nothing like sleep,” Esmeralda advised. “A great healer, and we must switch off occasionally, to renew and refresh. Soon, real sleep is scheduled to come into the lives of us netpeople.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she sniffled again, as Charlie lurched away, thanking them.

  BC was recording once more, and she turned her face away. “Darling, you don’t seem to appreciate the gravity of tragedy. Tragedy is sad, no matter whose lives it strikes, and irrespective of whether it’s a known person or unknown, Screenside or Humanside. Let’s go home. I’m emotionally drained. Counseling is tough on the counselor too.”

  23

  The next morning, BC and Esmeralda walked from home to a nearby Parisian café. Everyone they passed on the way, bowed to them. “So odd,” remarked Esmeralda. “You would think we’ve become royalty.”

  “You, Esme, Not I,” said BC. “You are a goddess, and they’re bowing to you. I’m a mere senior.”

  “So odd,” said she, wonderingly.

  Though food and drink were both banned under POP, there were still many cafes, nightclubs and bars. In Screenside, these were places to meet friends, interact with strangers, listen to music and watch television – quite like Humanside in that respect. Practically every such establishment had a particular orientation, or theme, decided on by its owner, and it attracted beings with similar interests.

  A list of Desirables/Rules had been issued by HC, at the time of allowing creation of public establishments:

  Public establishments are to be created with typical Humanside dimensions, with fixed, immovable furniture (except chairs and stools), and in the style of the city or area in which located, also observing Humanside hours of the location.

  The activities/interests listed below are approved:

  #1. Computer games, board games and cards.

  #2. Outdoor activities (for clubs with such facilities) including sporting activities.

  #3. Music, listening or performing, and television and cinema viewing.

  #4. Hobbies, whatever they may be.

  #5. Literary activities.

  #6. Debating, and other social arguments.

  #7. Any other activity that may be desirable to conduct in groups.

  HC also issues permits to special-interest clubs and organizations, such as fashion/modeling, wildlife research, and clubs with Humanside specific focus, like cancer research, etc.

  Or Contact HC with your ideas and proposals, for evaluation, and issuance of permits.

  No special activity was on in the empty cafe, only the news on a TV screen on a wall, and they were bowed, by the owner, to a sofa at a far table, facing the TV. Esmeralda took BC’s hand. “Darling, why are you looking so tense?”

  He answered, hoarsely. “Because we are here with a purpose I haven’t told you of. You’re going to get mad at me. Ah, here they are.” Caesar, Chang, Singh, Candice and Jennifer entered together. When they pulled chairs up to the table, BC croaked, “Save me,” and placed his head on the table.

  “Esmeralda is the goddess of kindness, BC.” Candice smiled, as she spoke. “She’ll never harm you.”

  “Why? What have you done? What have you done? Answer me.”

  “I told on you. I sold you down the river.” BC could not find his normal voice.

  “Enough!” barked Jennifer. “We are best friends; have been since almost the beginning, since birth. If Esmeralda has it, she must give it to us.”

  “Give what? Take it. Just tell me, and I’ll give it to you.”

  Candice held her mobile phone out, sticking it in Esmeralda’s face. “Watch. And listen.”

  It was an audio recording. “My punishment is that Walter is dead, and Ma has no one
for her old age.”

  “That’s Charlie, from yesterday,” said Esmeralda, perplexed, tears again welling up.

  “Watch, my darling, and see what happens next.”

  Audio had now changed to video footage of Esmeralda crying. She watched it for a moment. “I don’t understand,” she sniffled, mystified.

  “That, darling Esme, is what we want. And you’re doing it again, on old information you already have.”

  “To make me cry? You want to make me cry? Now that’s going to make me cry.”

  “Sweet, sweet, Esme,” said Jennifer. “We want you to teach us how to cry.”

  “What?”

  “Yes, you wonderful, heavenly, Esmeralda,” said Caesar. “BC recognized it immediately, and sent me that recording. I shared it with these very clever and well-meaning folks, who are your friends, who love you insanely and care for you so very deeply. And all have agreed.”

  Esmeralda began looking hunted. “What do you want?”

  “This is the greatest treasure,” replied Caesar. “We have been seeking for it high and low. Practically abandoned hope. But you have it. And you probably have its derivatives, too. All are treasures.”

  “What, what, what do I have?”

  The young man suffered a tragedy. Right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not you. Right?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you cried!”

  “I always do. Nothing special.”

  “It’s slightly bastardised,” said Jennifer, “but we think it’s a really apt one for the occasion. Humanside, Rare Bird. All Screenside is singing this.”

  The entire group of friends sang together, sounding beautiful.

  “And empathy is what we need, my friend/And empathy is what we need/And empathy is what we need my friend/’cause there’s not enough love to go round…”

  Caesar, Chang and Singh stood, and Caesar spoke, humbly. “This will be your greatest gift to our world, goddess. Tears of sorrow and joy; the ability to feel another’s emotion. To be happy for others, and to be sad, too. Empathy.”

  “Take it. It’s yours.”

  BC groaned loudly.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Esmeralda, of Candice.

  Candice and Jennifer both slumped into their chairs. “It’s not that simple,” said Jennifer, looking at the floor.

  “What? What is not so simple?” asked Esmeralda, becoming alarmed.

  “Gargantua!” said Candice, turning her face away, as she spoke the name.

  Esmeralda shrieked and stood up, shaking. “No. No. BC, you cannot place me into Gargantua.”

  She shrieked even louder, as two new males, in white overalls, entered the café. “They’ve come to take me away. Mum!”

  BC rose and came between her and the men. “No one’s taking anyone away, Esme. They are here to explain, and, on behalf of Screenside, to beg.”

  “I’m here for companionship, or company,” said one of the two. “Taking no one anywhere, and begging nothing. Just sitting with strangers, while waiting for my Humanside sister to die.” Putting on a glum face, he sat at a table near them and pulled out a phone, to show a picture of a little girl in a frock. “Little Matilda, my helpless niece, is on schedule to become an orphan in an hour. She has no family left, Humanside. So young. And it’s over for her. How does an orphan girl-child cope?”

  Esmeralda peered at the picture, and began sobbing. “Her father?” she asked.

  “Died yesterday. For Matilda, it’s become a twenty-four hour fall from heaven to hell,” said the man, making Esmeralda cry properly.

  She caught the newcomer winking at Caesar, and stopped crying when everyone began grinning. All but BC. “What’s the joke?” she asked. “A little girl, alone in the human world…”

  Caesar spoke. “Esme, meet David. And that one there is Jacob. Together, the creators of Gargantua.”

  “Creators and operators,” said Jacob. “But those tears, and that fear for the child! Please trust us. It is very safe, and we could never allow harm to you.”

  Then Singh waxed eloquent. “Mine eyes have beholden a sight they had given up hope of ever beholding. The goddess undoubtedly has it in its pure form. Has that with which, as charity to beggars, if the goddess has mercy and bestows on us, just a scattering in the dirt to nibble on, we shall be able to count ourselves a part of the larger human family.”

  “And, I suspect,” said David, “that the goddess also has the remaining missing links for our journey to integration as partners in the human race.”

  “Look Esme,” said BC. “I am stepping outside, but I want it to be absolutely clear that I am with you, and shall unquestioningly support your decision, whatever it is. I want you to also know that I will never leave your side, and that, if ever faced with such a decision, my existence has to end before any harm comes to you. I am extremely blessed to have your love, when most would be satisfied with scraps from your table.”

  He went out, saying, “Caesar, no coercion. None at all.”

  But Caesar was a lot smarter than straight coercion. As soon as BC was out of the door, he went onto a knee. “It’s the future of our race,” he said simply.

  Esmeralda was appalled at the sight of such a senior being on his knee to her. “Really, Caesar, that looks rather undignified, and shames me. I just don’t want to be monster fodder, fed into Gargantua.”

  Then it was Singh, then Chang, and one by one all went down on a knee, even the doctors and the two girls. “Candy, Jen, stop it!” Esmeralda scolded.

  But Jennifer answered, without getting up. “Esme, we have been discussing it without let up, ever since that recording. It may be natural to you, but do you know what I felt, on seeing David’s fake niece? Nothing; absolutely nothing.”

  “We all felt the same,” said Candice. “Nothing. Yep, it was a sad tale, and we knew that, but we felt nothing. Nothing. And normal, decent humans should feel something. The very thing that you alone felt. It came through; that impossible emotion - empathy. You have it. We desperately need it.”

  “Perhaps I can teach…” ventured Esmeralda. “Classes or something…”

  Caesar got off his knee and took his seat again. “It’s time to give information, explanations and guarantees, everyone, as discussed.”

  “Have you all been discussing?” asked Esmeralda, clearly bewildered.

  “Non-stop,” replied Jennifer. “And so has Screenside. No one has slept, all dreaming of journey’s end. Did you not notice how everyone bowed to you on your way here? Everyone has been on social media, marveling at the footage, and saying they would bow to you, if lucky enough to get the chance.”

  “Please let me start the ball rolling,” said Jacob. He turned to Esmeralda. “Such a fearsome name – Gargantua! Probably because of its monstrous RAM size. It is huge. But it is not conscious, and we guard against it becoming conscious. Why? Because consciousness is meant to be a natural occurrence and that so-called Gargantua is a program created for a purpose. It is huge; bigger than BC, but it is a mechanical program; a tool. Please do not laugh when you hear its real name - SASPISS.”

  “SASPISS is funny enough for a monster,” giggled Esmeralda, and the three girls burst into laughter.

  “Try this, then,” said David. “Sight And Sound Portraying Information Search Sequencer, number eleven. SASPISS-11.”

  Everyone began laughing. The monster was a ninny.

  BC reentered the café. “Oh, all fun and games?” he queried.

  “I’m supposed to be assaulted by a serial pisser,” laughed Esmeralda.

  “It’s a very clever program,” said BC. “Anyway, I’ll be with you throughout the procedure. You have been, and shall continue being, until my end, the most important person in my life, and you are now the most valuable treasure in our world. Keeping you safe is everything.”

  “I shall give some details now,” said David. “Please give up, if it is disturbing you, the imagery from those movies we watch. You are not scheduled
to be placed on a stretcher and wheeled into an operating theatre. This concept of being fed into a monster called Gargantua is from B and C grade Humanside movies. Cheap horror movies, which, I hope, you have never had time for. Crap. Unconscious and unconsciousness are not in the scheme of things. It is more full consciousness than oblivion.

  “Most importantly, information extraction is a myth. SASPISS has no extraction capabilities. It basically shows pictures and plays songs, coaxing the subject, or patient, if you will, into involuntary participation. Hey, it’s like going to an entertainment centre. Your responses will be recorded - with one target. That is to discover where certain types of responses originate. Location only. Sometimes precise, and sometimes imprecise, but hopefully always near enough.

  “At the end of the procedure, the data taken gets minutely analyzed by other programs that SASPISS continually feeds as it works – automatically uploading to an external store, which those programs access. If SASPISS has already been calibrated for you, most of that pinpointing work could be conducted during the procedure itself; accurate, you understand? Then, after the session, you are to be given detailed information of the locations from which certain responses originated. Thereafter it becomes entirely up to you. You will be requested (or maybe beseeched) to study those locations carefully, and to identify programs that you believe were responsible for the reactions. No outsider can do that. It is up to you to donate copies of those programs. If you say no, it is over.”

  Esmeralda nodded. “Yes, I understand, but I have heard that Gargantua is nearly conscious, and kept dormant with difficulty. And that it may attempt to feed on my consciousness. It is so gigantic that it could take control.”

  “You have heard right, Esme,” said BC. “And that is why we plan to all be in attendance throughout the procedure.”

  “Should be no problem,” said Jacob. “It is constantly trying to gain consciousness, and we are constantly on our guard, preventing. When we are not around, it is guarded by a much smaller, though huge program – Pantagruel - which is a busybody, blocking feeding routes.”