Author : Gray Blix

“So, dad, did you think about what I asked you the last time we chatted?”

“I don’t want to think about it.”

“Come on, join me tomorrow. It would make me so happy to talk to you both, like we were a family again.”

“But it wouldn’t be the same, because… because, you know.”

“She’s dead. It took me awhile to be able to say that out loud.”

“How can you do it, talking to the dead? Seems ghastly to me.”

“It’s nothing like that, dad. It’s just a video chat, like this is. You’ll see me on half of the screen and her on the other, and I’ll see you on half and…”

“It just seems wrong, unnatural.”

“It’s science, like your defibrillator implant, and then your bypass, and…”

“I should have been the one to die first. That’s how it was supposed to be. The older one dies and the younger one has the house and the insurance and the investments. She was supposed to live on.”

“You can’t plan life and death, dad. There’s too much beyond our control. But now this technology is able to preserve our cherished memories of loved ones.”

“Those are the words from the commercial. Why do you do those commercials?”

“Because I believe in this. I want others to experience what I have, the joy of communicating…”

“Yeah, that’s what the salesman said in the hospital. I told him ‘No way,’ but you went behind my back and did it. You gave them her brain.”

“They did a brain scan, dad, to capture memories. They used our old home videos to synthesize her voice and mannerisms and build a 3-D model. You’ll be surprised at how life-like…”

“A ghost. It’s not right to disturb the dead.”

“She’s resting in peace, right where we buried her, you and I, at Memorial Park.”

“Then where is that thing you visit?”

“In the cloud, dad.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I just call her, whenever I want, wherever I am.”

“And what do you talk about?”

“Anything. We reminisce. I tell her about what I’ve been up to lately, my girlfriend, my job.”

“You told her you work for a company that resurrects the dead?”

“I don’t work for them, dad, I just did a couple of commercials as a satisfied client. I write software for a living. Games. You know that.”

“Wait. Does she know she’s dead? Did you tell her?”

“No. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe, but we don’t talk about that, about the accident.”

“That’s why you want me to be there next time you visit? You want me to tell her she’s dead?”

“Of course not. Talk about the life you shared, all those memories, all that love. And it’s amazing, dad. She stores new memories, so you can continue where you left off next time you visit.”

“I can’t ‘continue’ where I left off, because she’s dead, the love of my life… there’s no more love…”

“I love you dad.”

“Oh, yes, of course, I didn’t mean… I love you, too, son. And I’m so grateful to you. All those months after the accident. You nursed your old man back to health.”

“Hey, we were pals. We had some good times, huh?”

“We did. We did. But you moved away. Why do you have to live so far away?”

“My work, dad. But we kept in touch with video chats, and I came home when you were sick.”

“Right there at my bedside after my last attack. I couldn’t have pulled through without you.”

“Uh, Dad. You didn’t pull through.”