Chapter 0: What are memories but snapshots in time?

 

 

You'll be running out of miracles
Like I'm running out of dreams
Madness lurking to my left
Angels faint in front of me (...)

 

....

Hey man in your hideaway
Where do we go from here?
Heroes in a tragedy
Down home, just a memory
Where do we go 

when the world gets in the way?

 

-"The Wicked Symphony", Avantasia.

Year: 2021. 

Location: Secret.

 Dr. Aaron Goth Pammy led Ranveig into a a room that looked like something from a sci-fi movie. "This is it" he said, "That's it right down there! That.. is the Memory Machine. I call it... the MemPhis SP3-e1000."

 

 "What uhh... what exactly does it do?" Ranveig stuttered nervously as the sound of doors being locked was heard behind them.

"Oh, this marvelous wonder.. well, it is very simple in fact" he told her walking down the spiral staircase. Ranveig couldn't do anything but follow this strange looking man. It was all to weird, she thought. Either she was dreaming, or her insanity had just gotten worse and taken everything to a whole new level...

"This machine simply works by subjecting your brain matter to short but intense electromagnetic pulses and measuring their backscatter signal" he explained with a mad enthusiastic voice.

 

"And then the signal will be transferred from the machine to the computer-brain below us, and the image of your memory will be displayed on the big white wall over there. We call the method electroencephalodiaphy."

"That was a ... long word.... does it hurt?"

"Oh no, not one bit... well, atleast I don't think it does. So, are you ready?"

 

"Oh, I.. I'm not sure..."

"Look, do you want to tell your story or not?"

"Oh, I certainly do, but..."

 

 "Then what are you waiting for? Get in!"

A little frightened and uneasy Ranveig hesitantly sat down in the strange looking machine, while Aaron went on and pressed some buttons on the computer keyboard.

 The machine began to hum a deep bass tone. "It's warming up, everything according to plan. Just breathe slowly, and relax." Aaron said assuring, before turning to the computer to press a few more buttons. This made the deep hum begin to pulsate, slowly at first, its frequency continuously increasing until it became more of a loud and high pitched, almost ear-piercing sound.

"Oh, my ears... my head... oh..." Ranveig gasped. "Relax" Aaron said. "The sound will eventually become so high frequency that it will appear to fade away and disappear once it approaches the frequency of your memory waves. Isn't that amazing?"

"Oh yeah, one of the wonders of the world..." Ranveig said sarcastically. "Just not right now... "

"Shh! Did you hear that? The sound is fading away! Images of the memories from your database should appear soon!"

"Oohh, I can't wait. Just make it stop." Ranveigs voice almost cracked.

"Shh, my darling." He bent down to hold her hand. "Soon you will see the images in your mind, and I will see them on the screen. Oh, look, somethings already starting to app.."

"I'm not your darling and don't touch me!" she interrupted, now with anger in her voice.

Aaron backed off slowly towards the computer and picked up a small device resembling some kind of remote control.

"Ok, ok, but tell me sweetheart... what do you see?"

"Just a blur of colors for now" she answered. "But it's getting clearer"

And yes, it was. Within a few seconds, a clear image appeared on the screen, displaying a man in a labcoat holding a baby in front of a crib.

 

Ranveig: I see my dad, Ingmar. He looks very young. He's holding a baby.

Aaron: The baby you see, my dear Ranveig, that's you.

Ranveig: But how can that be? How can this be one of my memories? Surely, I would have seen it all from a different perspective?

Aaron: Ah yes, that't the thing. This is not one of your memories.

Ranveig: What?

Aaron: It is your fathers. You see, this machine does not only tap into your brain. It taps into the brain of anyone in your direct lineage, either up or down. This means that I can visualize not only
your memories, but also memories of your father, your mother and even your two lovely children.

"I am speechless" she said, "but how can you know about my chil.."

Aaron, interrupting: But it only works on intervals of 18 years give or take, and I set it to focus on the period from your birth to when you became a young adult. After all, it is the past that we want to visualize. Well, as best as we can. Some memories may be impossible to retreive, typically the more everyday ones that aren't as impactful.

Ranveig: I see.. I think.

Aaron: And that's why you are, my dear. Anyway, lets not delve to much into the clichés of philosophy. On to the next one, shall we?

Aaron squeezed the device in his hand and the image shifted. "Ow! I felt that!" Ranveig shouted.

 

Ranveig: That's me! And my mom in the kitchen. Oh, lets see.. I think I remember this...

Aaron: Well, of course you do... this memory is yours.

Ranveig: Yeah, this was after my first day of school. I was so excited! Everything was so new back then.. so much more vibrant. I mean, not that things can't be vibrant today, but... you know. I still saw the world with the eyes of a child, and eveything was safe, good and wonderful. Like I was living in a bubble, you know. Well, for a while anyway.

Aaron: Oh, I understand..

For a moment, Aaron lost himself in a moment of sentimentality, but quickly snapped out of it.

"On to the next one!" he almost shouted while squeezing the device once more.

 Ranveig: That's Sofie Karlsen in the green skirt and Helene Kråkesen in the purple dress. I was a young teenager at this point. I would sometimes stand in the window and watch them while they were out playing outside Sofies house just across the street.

I used to have a crush on Sofies older brother, Jonathan. But he didn't care about me... He only cared about Kathrine, Helenes older sister.

Ranveig became silent for a moment.

Aaron: Go on. It's okay...

Ranveig: They used to say I was weird. Well, not Jonathan and Kathrine, we were still friends.. kind of. But some of the other kids at school. They would sometimes steal my books and write nasty things in them. Call me names and shout at me. They said I was insane. Some older boys would force me to the ground and sit on top of me, shouting to my face that they would...

Ranveig began to sob.

"That they would... that I was... and that they would... my clothes and..."

Ranveig became silent once more, clenching her fists, tears running down the sides of her face.

"I hated that rabbit hole!" she shouted, baring her teeth as if ready to bite. "Eventually noone wanted to hang with me, and I was left alone. Some nights I cried myself to sleep, face down in the pillow. I didn't want mom and dad and my younger sister Monica to hear me."

Aaron bent down to hold her hand once more. "So so, my dear. It's ok. Everything is ok now. That was the past. It's not your fault. Kids can be stupid sometimes... often, they don't know any better."

"I... I know..." Ranveig sniffed, doing her best to stay composed. "Can we... move on?"

Aaron: Oh yes, definately. Moving on is always a good idea, as long as you are able to. And we certainly are.

Aaron got up and walked towards the screen while giving the device in his hand a squeeze.

 

 Ranveig: Oh, yeah, mom and dad playing chess of course. They used to do that quite a bit. There was a lot of chess playing at home...That was really what my dad lived for. Nowadays, I think he lost it. He spends most of days on the couch just watching tv... but not so much back in the day. If he wasn't at work, or over at the chess club...
He would always invite these people over to our house for a game of chess. He always moaned on and on about beating the next ranked player. I'm willing to bet he even talked about it in his sleep.

Ranveig continues: It took me a while to understand it. Though I did play chess and read some chess books at home as well, I mean, how could I avoid it...

Well, I didn't really get it until after my 18th birthday, but then it all clicked and the pieces came together, so to speak. And I wanted to do the same! I wanted to be a top ranked chess champion! Finally something I could excel at! The weird and insane crazy Ranveig, now who would have thought that, huh!? Yeah, who would have thought that, huh!? Who would have!?

Ranveig clenched her fists once more, and her feet began to twitch as if she wanted to go somewhere.

Ranveig: Finally I was someone other than just the insane one that everyone thought they could... can we move on again?

Aaron: Sure thing, my love.

Ranveig: Oh no... so many kids, so much crying all the time. I mean, this is.. this must be a memory from when my sister Monica and my two younger brothers Evind and Knut were young. Monica and my brothers were born within less than a year from each other. My parents always wanted another child, so naturally they got Monica, and I remember, she was so sweet.

But then shortly after she was born, my mom was pregnant once again. I didn't excactly get the impression that they had planned for that... because I do remember overhearing atleast one heated discussion about it from my room when I just wanted to be alone after a rough day at school...

I think it was hard for them.. or, well, perhaps mostly my mom, as my dad still mostly cared about his chess.... Well, as the oldest sister, I had to help out too. If it wasn't for me, they probably never would have learned to walk or use the potty in time. Ok, next!

 

Yeah, excactly! That's what I'm talking about! This is me teaching one of my brothers to walk. They were twins, and honestly, a lot of things eventually became a bit of a blur back then.. with school and everything I had to do at home... They were so similar, I'm not sure which one of them we see on the picture here, actually.. I do love them, though. Don't get me wrong... they are my brothers, afterall.

 Yep, this is mom teaching one of them to talk. I don't really know why, but my parents would often walk around in nothing but their underwear a lot when they were at home... Maybe it was fashion back then, or maybe it's true as they say, that us Motorsens are a little weird... haha. Well, I can laugh about it now sometimes, but..

I remember one day, I came home from school and my dad was naked in the kitchen, cleaning himself in front of the sink with a sponge! That was SO embarrasing. I did NOT want to see that!

"That's probably a memory we can skip..." Aaron said while squeezing his handheld device rapidly two times in a row.

 

Ranveig: Oh yes, here we are, my 18th birthday. Just like I remember it.. oh, wait, nevermind...
Yeah, just don't look to much at the swimsuit! I remember overhearing a conversation once about birthday suits.. and in my mind back then, that equalled to swimsuits. I mean, what else could it be? So of course, I wore a birthday suit on my birthday... it made perfect sense to me! I guess now I can sort of see why people would laugh at me, and say mean things about my clothes... sometimes.. I guess...

Aaron: Oh, I don't think you should mind to much. The world needs people that dare to be different and go on their own accord to, sometimes.

As the machine had now reached the end of its range and showed signs of overheating, Aaron shut it down and the lid covering Ranveigs head lifted off. Ranveig got out of the chair feeling both dizzy, dazzled and confused.

 

"Just look at me, my dear. Don't you think that people have mocked me and called me names in the past!? Oh, I can tell you one thing my dear, they certainly have."

Aaron went on, seemingly getting more and more worked up.

"But did that stop me? Oh no, no it didn't! If anything, it only made me more determined. More determined, you hear!? That I should stay on my path, and never deviate. And if anyone tried to push me off, I should come back onto it, and I should do so with twice the determination and fervor for each and every time!"

"That's what this is all about!" he continued. "The world needs people like us, my sweet darling! The ones that are not afraid to be different! The outcasts, the rebels, the free thinkers and the geniuses! The philosophers on the hill, the mad scientists and the magicians of the otherworld! The black sheep and the bright shining butterflies! Oh yes, the world needs us my sweet and lovely darling! The world needs us!"

 Ranveig: Umm, yeah, sure. Now, look, I thank you for this experience. It has no doubt been very... interesting, but... I think it's time I leave. Can you show me the way out?

Aaron: Oh, oh yeah sure my precious. I will unlock the doors for you.

Aaron clapped his hands, and the sound of a lock opening was heard.

"Just... go up the staircase and after going through the doors. There is another door to your left. That door will be a portal to your hometown. Just go through it and close your eyes, because the light will be very bright. Then before you know it, you will be back were you left."

Ranveig: Oh, ok, well... goodbye, then. And once again, thank you.

Aaron: The pleasure is on my side. Goodbye for now, Ranveig and...

The door slammed shut behind her, and a bright flash of light was seen in the hallway outside..

Aaron: ... see you again soon.. someday, I hope... my dear...

Next chapter.