Creature Of Habit

Ted walked into the office while Donald was on the phone. When Donald saw him, he nodded and gestured for him to sit down. As he waited, Ted gazed at the posters of the shows Donald had worked on in the past, and out the window that had a view of the city.

Donald finished his call and greeted him. “Hey, Ted, nice to see you again.”

“Yeah,” Ted replied. He couldn’t remember who Donald was (he only knew his name from the nameplate on his door), but he had a feeling that he was someone important on the reality TV show he was starring on. Nervous that he made a mistake, he asked, “So why did you want to see me?”

“Has any of your memories returned to you. Any of them at all?”

Ted shook his head, prompting a sigh from Donald. 

“There’s no easy way to say this, Ted, but we can’t use any of your footage for our show.”

“What? But why?”

“Our show is about giving people second chances, wiping their memories and letting them live a completely different life.”

“Isn’t that what I did? I got my memories wiped and had a camera crew follow me everywhere.”

“Ted, your ‘new’ life wasn’t different from your old one.”

“Look, I’m sorry if you think the changes weren’t drastic, but-”

“No, I mean that literally. After your mindwipe, you made no changes to your life, and pretty much lived the same way you did before.”

“Come on, that’s impossible! There’s no way I was able to live the exact same life.”

Sighing again, Donald turned his laptop around so the screen would face Ted. At first Ted thought he was staring at his reflection, but then realized that it was just a paused video of him. He looked down at his clothes, which were somehow identical to the ones he was wearing in the video. That has to be a coincidence, Ted rationalized, there’s no way I have the same exact fashion style as my old self. At Donald’s command, Ted unpaused the video.

“Hi,” said Ted on the screen, “my name is Ted Green. Somethings about myself is I like reading fantasy novels, listening to rock music, and I love playing ping pong.”

Ted paused the video. “Okay, I may have done all of those things this week, but who doesn’t like all of those things?”

“You should keep watching,” Donald instructed.

He unpaused the video again, and inwardly groaned when he saw the video switch to his old house. The way that the old Ted had decorated his house was identical to the way he had done it, both of them even sharing a poster of the exact same movie hanging in their bedroom. And sure enough, the inside of old Ted’s closet had the same type of clothes.

“Okay,” Ted said, “I’ll admit that I’m pretty similar to my old self, but this is just style and hobbies. Surely we made different life decisions?”

Donald chose not to respond this time, and instead pointed at his laptop.

The video switched to a restaurant and old Ted in uniform. “I work in fast food,” old Ted’s voiceover said. “It’s not a glamorous job, but it gets the bills paid.”

“See?” Ted said, pointing at the screen. “I am a little different! I work at a different fast food restaurant!”

“Ted, the only reason why you work in a different restaurant is because the one you used to work at had people from your old life. Let me remind you that you actually did want to work at the same restaurant and would have if we hadn’t stopped you.”

“Oh,” Ted replied lamely, not sure what else to say. From then on, he watched the video in silence, amazed at how little he had changed from the mindwipe. It seemed that he really had hung out with the same type of people, ate the same type of food, and watched the same type of movies. 

Right as he was about to give up hope that anything about him changed, he saw the old Ted go on a date with a woman. “Wait,” Ted said, “this week I dated a guy, surely that’s different enough?”

“My type?” old Ted said. “Well, I guess I like tall, athletic girls. Blonde preferably. And also tan.”

“Never mind,” Ted said, realizing all of those traits matched the guy he had gone on a date with.

When the video had ended, Ted and Donald sat in silence. Donald looked awkward, never had been in a situation like this before, while Ted didn’t know how to feel.

“We’ll still compensate you for the time you spent with us,” Donald said, “but for obvious reasons, we won’t be able to air any of your footage.”

Ted nodded.

“Are you okay?” Donald asked, concerned about Ted’s expression.

“It’s just...I’m really disappointed. It says in the video that I signed up for this show because I always wondered what my life would have been like in a different world, but nothing changed! Was I really always meant to be this? Is there no hope of a change?”

“Well, you could always look at this as a learning experience.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ted, if you want to bring change into your life, you don’t need to lose your memory to do it. You can do new things on your own volition, experience new things. I made this show to let all the viewers know that anyone can change, all they need is a little push.”

Ted sat silently and looked thoughtful. “You know what? You’re right. I can make changes in my life.”

“That’s the spirit,” Donald said, smiling.

“Speaking of memories, do you know when mine are supposed to return?”

“About that,” Donald said, avoiding Ted’s gaze. “It appears that we went a bit overboard and erased all of your memories.”

“Oh.”

“You’re not mad?”

“To be honest with you, I don’t think I’ll need them.”