The Memory Stick

The Memory Stick

It was his favourite memory stick. And it got its information from a chip planted just in the right place in his brain: where senses intersected.  The stick could take him back to a time, only a few months ago, when life felt better for him romantically. When he plugged in the stick he could see family members smiling at each other, and at him. He could hear laughter, and he could smell the sizzling aroma of hamburgers fresh from the barbecue. And the feeling of the wind against his bare arms could give him a pleasant cooling on a hot summer afternoon.

He enjoyed plugging in and revisiting that special occasion, savouring every sense tingling, even though it did not end well. He was usually not a big fan of techie-toys, not one to line up for hours to obtain the latest flash in the pan new device. But this one was different. He was one of the first to own one. He felt good that he had remembered to plug the memory stick into his central nervous system that day. He knew that his remembered senses would be a treat.

He sat down into his comfy chair, popped open a beer, plugged the memory stick into the back of his neck, and settled in for some full sensory enjoyment.

As all his senses turned to that day, he smiled as the memories paraded in front of him. The beer helped. There were, of course, mixed emotions, especially when he saw, heard, smelled and touched his girlfriend that was, now only present through the memory stick. That was the day of the big argument, the source of the break up.

Brenda, his girl friend, had just inherited a turquoise and silver pendant on a silver chain. It had belonged to her recently-deceased favourite great aunt. She had been named after her. Their shared name was engraved on the pendant. Because she intended to go swimming in the pool and he did not, and because she didn’t want it to be lost in the murky depths of her large flimsy purse, and because nothing she wore had pockets, she handed it over to him for safe-keeping. Somehow it had disappeared while in his possession. She became very upset when she asked him for the pendant, and he couldn’t find it in any of his pockets.. She made statements that were very hard to take back about his lacking of genuine caring, and his insufficiency of respect for what mattered to her. That was the last time they were together, the last time they had talked.

He had deleted that part of the message stick program. But he couldn’t delete the feelings that came to his heart when he remembered it without technological assistance. He often wondered how he had managed to lose it, but nothing came to mind, and he doubted that it ever would.

A Startling Scene while Falling for a Hamburger

He was coming to the funniest moment on the memory stick, even though it largely involved people pointing at him and laughing almost to the urinating stage (at least with his oldest uncle). It was worth the replay for the good humour that it generated. He had just gone out the door, enticed by the seductive barbecue smells when he saw Sam, a cousin of his, flinging a hamburger as if it were a flimsy meaty Frisbee because he had foolishly picked the hot object up with his hand. He just could not wait for the self-designated barbecue chef to scoop it up with his overpriced flipping device. The intense heat of the burger caused him to violently shake his hand sideways, causing the fat-sweating patty to fly saucer-like towards the waiting outstretched branches of the bushes by the fence. 

           He reacted immediately, running to where he thought the burger was going to get impaled in the bushes. He didn’t see the garden gnome on the edge of the lawn, tripped over it and landed with arms outstretched. He caught the burger, but landed hard. Someone he didn’t know, a male guest of one of his female cousins, helped him up. It took a while because the wind had been knocked out of his lungs.

           Wanting to see better his moment of impact, he turned on the focusing device, and slowed down the passage of sensations. He had never tried that before. It was a new upgrade that he had installed the week before. 

           He saw something that he had not expected. The pendant had fallen out of his shirt pocket and into the dirt. The fellow who was helping him stand had scooped it up and put it into his own pocket. This was new, and startling. But the information came too late.

Another Family Barbecue: Guess Who Came?

One reason that he had played his memory stick was that there was another family barbecue coming up. The first had been to celebrate the emergence of the summer from a cold, inconsistent spring, this one was to commiserate its impending descent into the anticipated fog and rain of autumn.

He wondered whether the pendant thief would be at this event. It wouldn’t help the situation any. It was not like he could confront the perpetrator with hard evidence. Memory sticks could only be used by the one who had originally had the sensory experiences. There was no way that what they recorded could be broadcast to a wider audience. His best hope at this moment was his cousin broke up with the loser, and he wouldn’t be there.

No such luck. There was his cousin with the bastard now. They walked towards him. The boyfriend made a joke, asking him whether he was going to do any flying at this barbecue. Yes, he thought, flying off of the handle. Then he turned towards his cousin. She was all tarted up with a very low neck outfit. While he tried not to stare, she was his cousin after all, his eyes lingered on her neck and a little below. He saw a chain of silver, and a hint of turquoise peeking out from within her cleavage. 

Could it be what he thought it was? Yes it must be. But how could he get it off of her without starting a fight? Walking up to her and reaching in would not be wise. He had no other ideas right away. He must think of something!

           He lingered half-hopefully in their company off and on, but no bright idea came to him. The boyfriend was drinking a lot, although he hadn’t seen him bring any beer. It wasn’t long before the boyfriend took a trip to the toilet. He had just come from there himself. He was talking to his cousin, her with her back to the room of many visitors, when the boyfriend  emerged, fluidly lighter. He proceeded to creep up on his girlfriend, putting his finger to his lips to indicate silence. He sprung upon her and bellowed out “Guess who?” and covered her eyes. She played the game along with him by shouting out various deliberately wrong names (Bob the Builder, Donald Trump etc), including that of her male cousin standing there.

           This gave him an idea. He waited and watched as the boy friend drank more beer. Then the inevitable happened. The boy friend returned in a rush to the toilet. The need for second one is often the most demanding. 

           This was his chance. As luck would have it, she was inside looking out the window, her back to the washroom. He tiptoed up behind her, put his hands over her eyes and yelled out in his best boyfriend imitation. “Guess who?” As she responded with some nonsense names, he reached down to her neck, grabbed the pendant chain, and yanked it up over her head. With a cry of “Pete the stolen pendant retriever”, he ran out the door.

           Once outside, he checked for the name “Brenda”, otherwise this situation could become very embarrassing, no explanation possible. Once he saw the engraved writing that spelled out the desired name, he reached into his pocket for his phone. Her number was still there. He didn’t want to delete it. That would mean that there was no chance for the future. A familiar voice responded. Almost too rapidly for her comprehension, he spilled out the words, “It’s Pete. I have the pendant. It was stolen.” Seconds of weighty silence passed, then a question. ”How did this happen?” He replied with “It’s a long story.” More silence, shorter this time, followed by a “Well we will have to meet at the coffee shop right now so you can tell the whole tale to me.”

           His feeling of sudden joy was just as quickly disturbed by approaching sounds behind his back. He turned around. His cousin and an enraged boyfriend were running towards him. He raised the index finger on his right hand, and shook it back and forth. The pendant was attached to it. “I am going to see Brenda to give something back to her.” The two villains stopped in their tracks. The memory stick had triumphed over evil.