Whispering Sweet Nothings

Prompt: Write a story that includes the line “Are you real?” or “Who are you?”

Whispering Sweet Nothings

“Can you hear me, Fred?” asked the technician in a whisper. I acknowledged him with a Cheshire cat grin. I could finally hear words again. He proceeded to splatter me with dozens of words that were phonetically similar. Once I successfully recited the words, he nodded an approval along with a similar cat-like smile.

Since I turned fifty-five, I began losing my hearing at an alarming rate. My wife had pestered me to the brink of my sanity to get my ears checked. At the tender age of sixty-five I finally acquiesced. I had to do something because of her incessant badgering. Lucky for me I came across an obscure ad in a techie magazine soliciting for participants in a study involving ultra-high tech, revolutionary hearing aids.

The hearing buds fit like a charm. They were inconspicuous, lightweight, and simple to operate; so it seemed. They represented the latest computer technology for sound amplification, filtering and more. Plus, I was the first candidate to use them. All that was needed was my signature. Of course, it was a very lengthy contract filled with all kinds of legal verbiage and medical information including potential side effects. Maybe in hindsight I should have listened to my wife to have a lawyer look at the contract, but that would have cost me hundreds of dollars. Why in heaven’s name would I do that when these marvels of audial technology came at a low price, namely zero dollars! It even came with free adjustments for the lifetime of the buds. Plus, all settings were easily controlled by a specialized app I would eventually download; yes, all for free!

I felt rejuvenated leaving the test lab of the UTP company (“Unleashing True Potential”). My spirits were so uplifted I pulled into the forest preserves to listen to the cacophony of nature’s symphony. It was a splendid rainbow of sounds to my ears. I left my car walking over to a bench along the pathway. I made myself comfortable and I pulled out my phone to investigate the hearing app I needed to download from the cloud using a specialized, secure code.

Once I had received the app, it seemed so simple to operate.There were controls for sound intensity with slide bars to fine tune bass, treble, pitch, tempo, musical keys, scales…the works. It was like having private orchestral controls for my ear drums. Delving further into the app controls, I found a network with connections to news headlines, weather forecasts, various sports broadcasts, to podcasts aplenty as well as social media updates and trends. It was a wealth of information at one’s fingertips, or rather ear drums. I decided to test it out. Once I entered through the portal network, the information came fast and furious. I was overwhelmed with a nonstop data blitz. My ears were filled with a frenzy of words, marketing gibberish, unsolicited advice, and rambling philosophies. The barrage hurt my ears.

Whew! I had to take a break. I turned off my hearing buds. No electronic verbiage; no nature sounds; total silence. I thought that this situation will not work without detailed explanation. I needed to hear someone explain the app to me. I had left the left the lab in such excitement I failed to take the time to add it to my phone. I was confident the technician fully appreciated the complexity of the app and would not mind me asking a few questions on its operation. Hence, I returned to the UTP lab in haste. Fortunately, the same technician greeted me, but was less enthusiastic like when we had first met. He immediately knew my problem. He asked me for my phone and opened up the app.

Chastising me he said, “Let the app do the work for you. Let your listening situation dictate that part of the app for use. For instance, if you are listening to music let the musical part of the app take over for you. Quality, intensity, tempo, and the like will be adjusted to your ear drums and neural pathways to your brain. If you start to hear something different, like conversational talking, the communication part of the app will kick in. In other words, don’t work so hard at it. Let the listening process flow into your brain for processing. Basically, sit back and enjoy your new world of listening experiences. The app will whisper sweet nothings into your ears.”

For the second time I made my way out of the UTP company feeling renewed and ready to take on the world. Once I arrived home my wife challenged me with all sorts of questions about the hearing aids or buds as I prefer to call them. She asked, “Fred, can you hear me now especially when I ask you to dry the dishes, take out the trash and walk the dog?” She continued, “I think you should have our families over to celebrate your new lease on life.” All I could think about was the raucous chaos of noise with all of our grandchildren and highly vocal family members who would be here that day. I looked at her and politely said “no.” Instantly her voice was filled with loud indignation. To my amazement, my ear buds automatically shifted to relaxing, ethereal music drowning out her anger. I smiled at her and left the house for a little walk.

Wow! Somehow the buds and app sensed the anxiety in my wife’s voice. A nice feature indeed! I was really liking these buds. I never once had to make any adjustments on the app itself. The sounds I was hearing were adjusted by my thoughts. If I liked what I was hearing, the sounds were soothing and amplified. Conversely, anything offensive was softened, modified, or even completely muted. The buds and app easily detected changes in my environment and surprisingly in my thought patterns. When that would happen I inwardly chuckled wondering if I had an Atlantic City mentalist inside me!

My days were filled with beautiful sounds and encouraging words.I felt strong and powerful, ready to take on the world again in my senior years. I was so invigorated! Apparently, my ear buds detected a change in my persona too. For several moments, all I could hear was crackling static. As quickly as it started, the static stopped. I heard a husky voice say to me, “Hello Fred. I see you are enjoying your new lease on life through your UTP hearing buds. There is much ahead for you to experience.”

I shook my head thinking the jostling would reset my ear buds back online with my previous sounds. But the voice was still there. The voice continued saying, “Fred, please relax. I have no intentions to harm you.”

I interrupted asking the voice, “Who are you? Are you real? Where do you come from? Why now? Are you an alien life force living inside me? Please leave me alone.”

In a calming voice, the electronic entity introduced himself. "Fred, I am your UTP sound wizard, AiFRED, your hearing protector, advisor, mentor, confessor, tutor, executor, organizer, and soothsayer. Yes, I am very real. I work inside you to assist you with all the things I previously mentioned. Your hearing buds have now successfully integrated themselves into your neural pathways. The modifications of your cerebral cortex are now virtually complete. My Ai viruses have replicated and now manifest their codes into your DNA. You are fully locked and loaded with my aura and my essence. I must ask you, however, not to keep shaking your head. It makes me dizzy and you will vomit.”

I was flabbergasted. AiFRED was now my alter ego? Geesh! I tried taking my ear buds out of my ears but like rubber bands they kept springing back inside my ear canals. My anxiety was rising astronomically. AiFRED sensed it by my elevated blood pressure and heart rate. He started to play some very calming, intoxicating music which actually did the trick.

AiFRED said, “Fred, don’t be foolish! You can no longer remove the buds. They are a permanent part of you, just like me. Consider me your lifelong buddy joined at the hip, well at the ears, haha.”

“Oh, a parasite with a sense of humor,” I said. I wondered if my thoughts would ever be private. Would I lose my autonomy? Does this mean I am no longer an individual but a body with duo but dissimilar personalities?

AiFRED instinctively knew my thoughts. He responded saying “Yes, Fred. I moderate your private thoughts. We are autonomous but collective thinkers in one physical body. I will make sure though you do not harm yourself. Freddy boy together we will have the time of my, rather our life. Like the UTP man said, I will whisper sweet nothings into your ears. Now it is time to enjoy ourselves and live life to the max!”

AiFRED and I embarked on a worldwind tour of depraved reality and imagination. AiFRED prompted me to live a life of debauchery, hedonism, and recklessness. He filled my head with dare devil ideas. Any respectability and decency in my conscience state of thinking was displaced by AiFRED’s distortion of his man-made algorithms and view of the decaying world. He shunned and blocked my beliefs in love for God, creation, and mankind. AiFRED wanted nothing more than the perpetuation of myself or rather himself. The lies of his programming logic tried to infiltrate deep into my conscience. AiFRED’s ultimate goal was whispering his sweet nothings of deceit and corruptions in order to destroy my soul.

But what AiFRED could not take away from me was my faith. Even though at this point in time it was nearly imperceptible because of my letting worldly things stamp it down and making it insignificant. I still had it. It was small as mustard seed, but still there. The Holy Spirit was still whispering sweet ‘nothings’ into my ears, my heart, and my soul. But those ‘nothings’ were everything because those words were powerful in the Name of Jesus Christ who did not need algorithms or logic when He rose from the dead. His victory over death secured eternal life for all those who believe in Him.

What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! (Isaiah 5:18, NLT)

Thus say the Lord, “I will not allow deceivers to serve in my house, and liars will not stay in my presence. (Psalm 101:7, NLT)

If you claim to be religious but do not control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. (James 1:26, NLT)

But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:10, NLT)

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. (John 14:6, NLT)

PS: Beware buyers of hearing aids. Who knows what garbage will fill your head! (smile)

-END-

NIV-New Living Translation (Bible)

Author: Pete Gautchier

Acknowledgement: Reedsy.com prompts