The Caregiver's Tale
How far will Anya go for answers after her father dies unexpectedly?
Papa died in the fall. They hadn’t seen it coming. Grief enveloped Anya and her mother like a suffocating blanket. Sure, his dementia had progressed and, yes, there had been too many doctor’s appointments lately. Hypertension, they’d said. Treatable, they’d said. Anya thought they still had time.
If caregiving weighed on her, the aftermath threatened to crush her. Papa died on Anya’s watch and her grief was tainted with questions. Questions she didn’t have time for while she looked after her elderly, heart-broken mother.
It gnawed at her, that he’d been alone. She’d found him on the floor. Age and comorbidities, they’d said. Had it been the new medication? Did he suffer? Was he scared?
So when she stumbled upon an ad for mind-hacking, she smashed the “more info” button. According to u/InMyFeelingsInUrHead, the hottest thing since memories being auto-saved to the cloud was hackers gaining access to people’s minds. A name, date, and $10,000 got you a video of the memories you wanted.
She knew she might be taken for a ride. She knew her mother wouldn’t approve of, or understand, the technology. She knew she had $10,000 in her 401K.
Anya quietly transferred the money and held her breath.
***
How had he gotten on the floor? Another gray pocket in his mind. He called for his wife. She shuffled in, looking frazzled. He began a funny story he probably hadn't told in years. Something snapped. She leaned down. A pillow pressed against his face.
I wrote this piece for a NYC Midnight 250-Word Microfiction contest last year. The prompts were - genre: sci-fi, action: finding more than expected, word: ride. And it was quite a ride trying to tell a complete story with so few words! I really enjoyed the process and ended up placing 7th in that round. It was definitely a creative exercise that I look forward to doing again.
This month’s story brought to you by grief and coffee. If you find yourself wondering if mind-hacking could ever happen, and want to fuel more fiction, there’s a ko-fi option below.
I’m honestly just glad you’re here, and I hope to be thanking all my early Substack subscribers in the acknowledgements of my very own novel one day. Cheers!
Good job!! Despite the 250 words constraint, you pulled of a story, with a neat twist in the end!
I liked the sci-fi concepts of uploading memories to the cloud and illegal hackers, who could access it.
If you are interested you could build upon that idea. Would be great for an authoritarian regime, who has mandated citizens to upload their memories, into the cloud, if they want to live in the state. As you can imagine, such power into authorities' hand could turn into literal 'thought policing' — fascinating concept!
I love how much information and emotion you pack in such a short story. What was your experience with Midnight NYC like?