Part I – Ideal Offspring

“I’ll get those, Mikey,” Bobby said with concern in his voice.

“But I wanna get-em,” he countered.

“OK, I’ll just make sure you don’t fall.”

Mikey leaned his knee up on the counter and dodged the cupboard as the door swung inches from his face. He grabbed four cups one at a time, placing them on the counter. He swung the door back closed and slid his foot back onto the chair. Bobby removed his hands from hovering over his little brother’s midsection and grabbed two of the cups, taking them to the table. Mikey slid the chair across the floor before retrieving the other two glasses.

“Both of you go wash your hands,” Mom said.

“Come on, Mikey,” the older brother encouraged.

The two kids emerged from the bathroom and sat down at the table.

“Dad, can we play Trouble after dinner?”

“Sure,” he said. “Is that OK with you, Bobby?”

“Of course. I still need to take revenge for losing last time!” He said, smirking at Mikey, who smiled back up at him.

“Bobby,” Mom said, “Did you get your test back yet?”

“Yep,” he smiled, “I got an ‘A’. I need one of you to sign it for tomorrow.”

“Great job, son,” Dad said. Changing the subject, he reminded the family of his late night planned for the following day.

“I forgot,” Mom said. “I won't be here either. Bobby, will you be here to get Mikey off the bus?”

“Sure, but remember I am going to John’s house for dinner, so will someone be here before I need to leave?”

“Yes,” Mom said, “I will be back at 4:00, and I think you will be leaving at 4:45.”

“Great. I will make sure I finish my homework before you get home.”

The family was silent for the rest of the meal, then Bobby picked up the dishes and Mikey rinsed the table. The family operated as a well oiled machine, readying the kitchen table for evening games in a short period of time. The evening went on as normal without fights or struggles. Bobby finally won, and Mikey jokingly teased him about finally taking the victory.

They relaxed as a family for another hour and then began their nighttime process. Bobby always encouraged Mikey to stay on track, teaching him to brush his teeth and even helping to tuck his little brother in for the night.

His own evening lasted an hour longer.

“Mom, Dad?” He started, “Did you think about getting me a phone for my birthday?”

“We did, Bobby. We are concerned it might get in the way of your responsibilities.”

“I’m turning 13 this weekend, and all my friends have phones of their own,” he said.

“I know, Bobby, and it might seem like we are being tough, but we also know phones can have a negative impact on our lives.” Dad said.

“You are responsible,” Mom said. “We don’t want to let anything break that. If you develop good habits now, they will be with you forever.”

“All that being said,” Dad said. “We think it would be good to test it out how you respond to a phone while you are still young, so we will give you one.”

“Thanks!” He yelled out, then silenced himself to not awaken his brother. “You’re the BEST!”

He kissed both his parents and brought the three of them in for a group hug.

-----

Bobby stood in the driveway kicking around a rock between his feet. He heard the sound of air breaks in the distance and straightened up his posture waiting for the bus to stop in front of his house. He approached the bus to grab Mikey’s hand for the big step off the bus. The two boys ran into the house together.

“I need to do my homework, Mikey, so let’s grab a snack and I want you to get something to do on the table.”

“I want a cookie!” he said, running off to his room.

Bobby heard some shuffling as Mikey opened and closed different drawers in his room. He emerged from the room with a coloring book and some crayons, sitting at a table in front of a big cookie. He slid the plate over and sat at the chair next to his big brother and colored while Bobby struggled through a round of math problems.

The door opened shortly and Mom walked in.

“Hi Mom!” Bobby said.

“Hello boys. How are you doing?”

“Look Mom! I colored this for you,” Mikey said, showing her a cleanly colored page of Thanksgiving turkeys.

“That’s nice, dear,” she said. “I’ll hang it on the refrigerator.”

“My homework is about done, the cat is fed, and Mikey had a snack already. Is there anything else I need to do before getting ready to go to John’s house?”

“No, son. Have a good time.”

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(Audiobook Link Below)

Part I – The Underbelly

A soft drizzle collected in a small water puddle on the edge of an old warehouse. A hooded man looked both directions, making sure no one followed him. He stepped over a small pile of trash in the entrance to the alley, placing his old boot into the puddle disturbing the water. He cautiously walked down the alley with only the faint glow of an old sodium city light that cast eerie shadows down the forgotten corridor.

“That’s close enough,” a man whispered. “Do you have the money?”

“I do,” the hooded stranger whispered.

“And you have the fantasy?”

“Yeah, I brought something.”

An old wooden door creaked open, allowing a small sliver of the old streetlight to shine a narrow beam of light into the dark room. The hooded man entered, and after, a porter closed the door behind him.

“Johnny will see you now.”

The hooded man nodded and walked toward a soft glow emitting from the bottom of a door. He knocked once and then walked in. The technology in the room juxtaposed the run down warehouse. A techno cave certainly didn’t seem the type of room found in an old leaky building at the end of condemnation.

At the far end of the room, a man with long, greasy gray hair sat perched on a stool, his hand on a computer keyboard scrolling down pages of text.

“I’m almost ready for you,” Johnny said in a tired voice.

“Take your time. You know what happens if this doesn’t work the way you described. Sheriff Bonson already has enough on you to send you to jail for the rest of your natural life. These ‘experiments’, as you call them, are not sanctioned.”

“I know the risks,” Johnny said, “And I know what I’m doing. Threatening me is not in your best interest. I’m the only one who can make your candidate win, after all,” Johnny said.

“The edge you can provide is the only reason you’re not in police custody already.”

“First things first. Give me the money and the fantasy.”

The hooded man reached into his pocket to retrieve a zipped up hard case. He ran his hand around the edge, discovering the zipper to open up the box. Inside, a stack of hundred-dollar bills sat atop a photo of a woman with some text scribbled on the back. The man handed Johnny the money and held up the photo.

Johnny flipped through the stack of bills, assuring they were all the same currency. He tossed the stack onto his desk and reached out for the photo.

“She’s pretty. Do you know her?” Johnny asked.

“Nope, just took snapped the picture. As you instructed, the fantasy is on the back. You said it would be vivid.”

“And it will be,” Johnny replied.

“The boss wants to know how this works. Will I remember the procedure as vividly?”

“If you are paying attention, yes. Nothing we do here will remove any memory. Remember, I am in the business of making them ex post facto.”

“Out of nothing?” the hooded man translated.

“Exactly. First, we need to prep you. That is the part you’ll remember perfectly. Then we need to place you in a dream state for the simulations to run. Then we wake you up and you will have experienced the most glorious passion you have ever experienced with this woman, and you will remember it perfectly. Are you ready for the preparations?”

The man nodded.

Johnny pointed him to a chair and gestured to sit down. Johnny retreated behind the chair, out of the man’s view. He felt his hood slide down, finally revealing his worldly hardened face. Johnny came back into view with some electrodes for an electroencephalogram. He attached them to the man’s face and then retreated before returning with some wrist restraints.

“What you are doing?” the man protested.

“I need to strap you down,” Johnny said. “The process might make you move too much. It works best when nothing becomes detached from the movement.”

“Go ahead,” he growled.

Johnny tied him down in the arms, wrists, and feet. Finally, Johnny affixed a mask resembling a virtual reality helmet on the man’s head.

We are just about set up. Now I have two serums I will administer. The first puts you into a dreamlike sleeping state. When you are in this phase, we execute the experiential virtualization. We will then administer our second phase that will place you into a REM sleep when we do the neuroplastic assembly to complete the memory implantation. Once solidified, we will then wake you up and you will have experienced the most passionate evening you have never had. Are you ready?

The man nodded in the affirmation, and Johnny stuck him with a needle. The man exhaled a deep breath once the needle punctured his arm. In a few brief minutes, the EEG screen indicted the man moved into the expected dreamlike state. Johnny hit a few keys on the keyboard and a light on the headset indicated a successful start.

----

The man’s eyes shot open as he immediately awoke, devoid of any grogginess that could ever accompany a twenty-minute period of sleep.

“How was your night last night?” Johnny chuckled.

The man turned to him, surprised to see someone else in the room. He looked down, expecting to be unclothed, and he looked for the women he was with.

“Where’d she go?” he said to Johnny.

“She was never here. But you remember her, don’t you?” Johnny said.

“That was the most passionate evening I have ever experienced. I remember every perfect detail, including the birthmark. I remember every position, every word, every feeling. Are you sure this never happened?” The man inquired again.

“I’m quite sure,” Johnny said. “Here is a tape of the whole time you were out. The process only took twenty minutes, but it felt like all night. This is how the technology works. A dream can take seconds, but it can feel like days. We create the dream, expose you to it, and then cement it into your mind. Hopefully now, your boss can see what I can do for him. Please, tell him all about your experience.”

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Part I – Life is Perfect

Sally lay her head down on Mark’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

“ALICE planned our perfect vacation. How does it know what to do?” The rhetorical question floated in the air as the plane reached lift-off speed.

The whirring of the motor vibrated through the cabin as the flaps rotated downward pushing the plane off the ground. In the brief moment the rough bumps on the runway lifted like a pillow and the ground became smaller.

“It sure was nice,” her husband said, agreeing with her statement. “We have one day to unpack, and then it’s back to life as usual.”

“Let’s not think about that yet,” Sally said, closing her eyes before drifting off to sleep.

Mark adjusted his headphones and looked at his phone.

“ALICE, give me a summary of my awaiting emails.”

Mark, you know you are not scheduled to work for another 40 hours. Why do you want to burden yourself with knowing what is in your inbox?

“ALICE, notice acknowledged, please show me what’s in my inbox,” he whispered.

As you wish. Your highest priority task will be to examine the employee schedules for the next quarter. You also have applicant pool data to examine for two new hires in the shipping & receiving and prototype divisions. The reports for all these are queued as your high priority tasks for your optimized production time. You have a few minor tasks I have scheduled during your less productive hour first thing in the morning. Other lower priority are two employee dispute analyses for you to rule on. Do you need to know more details?

“No, that is enough to appease my curiosity.”

Mark gently folded Sally’s hands into his own and leaned into her shoulder, closing his eyes until the noise of the airliner faded to black.

----

Sally, Mark, it is time to wake up.

The computer voice echoed through the room. Pop music began playing and became progressively louder until Sally sat up, looking around her comfortable room. She stretched her hands up, yawning away the sleep.

“ALICE, I’m up. Please adjust the volume.” Sally nudged Mark in the bed before rolling out. She walked toward the mirror and examined her full body.

“What am I wearing today?”

Today I have selected your khaki suit pants and a light pink top shirt. You will find the pants at number P3 and the shirt in S5. I have also selected the red lipstick and light brown dress pumps.

“Thank you. What’s for breakfast?” She said.

For breakfast, you will be having a bagel and cream cheese. The cheese will pass expiration in three days, so I added more to the shopping list. The amount left will suffice for both of you to enjoy a bagel. For fruit, use a few blueberries as a topping for yogurt. Also consume an orange to bring up your fiber count. I think vacation imbalanced your intestinal flora, so I am adjusting your diet to include more pre and probiotics. Also, a meeting is scheduled for you early this morning, so be sure to leave by 7:45 today.

“Thank you, ALICE. Is there anything else I need for now?”

Not for you. Mark, I see you have not gotten out of bed yet. Are you ready for your morning instructions?

Mark yawned and reached down over the blanket to touch his toes. He leaned back and threw the covers off himself.

“Honey, you go start breakfast since you need to leave a little earlier. I’ll make the bed today.”

Sally smiled at him through the mirror while slipping on her shoes.

“How do I look, ALICE?”

You look as I have planned, which will be acceptable attire for today’s work.

She walked out of the room to finalize her makeup and prepare breakfast. Mark already tucked his side of the bed into the fold and progressed to the other side. He took his position before the mirror for his daily briefing.

Sally sat down to her bagel and fruit mixed with yogurt about the time Mark entered the kitchen. He grabbed his bagel from the oven and spread the remainder of the cream cheese over it.

“We are both here. Any family-specific goals?”

Yes, Mark. A reminder your mother will be bringing the kids home tonight. Sally, you will be the one here when they arrived. Mark, you will have a meeting that has an eighty-five percent chance of going over time. I adjusted Sally’s work schedule by the extra fifteen minutes for her early meeting, so she can leave work early to ensure her presence for the kid’s reception. Sally will prepare some chicken tonight, so put the package labeled Tuesday from the freezer to the refrigerator now. Your side will be macaroni and cheese with some green beans. Sally, this is your five-minute warning before you need to leave so you can arrive on time. It is a few minutes early, but the second subway train will be delayed, so you need to catch the first one. Have a good day.

Sally stood up, grabbing her plate.

“Leave it, honey. I have thirty minutes before I need to leave. I have time to rinse down the dishes. Have a perfect day.”

She set the plate back on the table and walked around to her husband. She kissed him on the forehead and quickened her pace out the door.

----

Mark took his seat the office chair, glancing at the clock. The first time-slot opened up on his computer. The red border around the screen indicated he was in his early period of lower productivity, so the tasks were often easier and required fewer thoughts.

Glance through these emails to verify they are all junk. I have marked them, but will send up the spam enforcement once you manually approve my decisions.

His eyes glazed over as he scrolled through subject line after subject line of total nonsense before giving up and approving all as actual spam. He leaned back and sucked down more coffee. He closed his eyes and listened to the noises in the surrounding office. The clattering of keyboards clashed with various dialects of ALICE selected perfectly for each employee. Each instance of ALICE was loud enough to be perfectly discerned by the direct user, but quiet enough to not disturb even the person in the next cubical.

Mark, you have another easy task. I printed out some forms and documents you will need for your meeting at the end of the day. Take a walk to the printer to pick them up. Also, refill your coffee, so you have a full cup for your productive period commencing in 12 minutes. You will also want to visit the facilities before that time.

Mark stood up and stretched one last time. He headed for the printer first to find all the documents waiting for him with perfectly color-coded page dividers for perfect organization. He grabbed a large binder clip and fastened the papers together in case he dropped the report. Mark flipped through the pages taking spot glances at the report, but there would be more time for that later. He completed his remaining starter tasks and sat back down.

Your productive time is upon you. I have suspended all messages and notifications and placed a do-not-disturb on your local time, so you are not distracted. Your tasks are awaiting you.

The border on the computer switched from red to green and Mark took a serious turn to work on the projected tasks.

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