Memory

   About a month had passed since Mr Bose, the lunatic boss of Rhea was murdered. May be 'lunatic' was an understatement about him. Though Rhea believed, one shouldn’t hold bad opinion about a dead person. May be Mr Bose seemed a bit queer duck, but he possessed a brilliant mind and a kind heart - kind enough to admire young talents in Computer science and Mathematics and to offer them a job in his lab. Rhea was assigned a project under him after she completed her PhD on Computer Science.

 Tonight she was in a different mood . She entered the Oly Pub with her mind engaged with thoughts of the murder of her boss. She ordered the usual - Beef steak and Vodka. It was not unusual to have a crush on a brilliant boss. But she realised soon Mr Bose was not a type of guy to settle with. So the secret never revealed and now this was how she decided to deal the grief process - by drinking alone every night. While Rhea was occupied in the thought of her future career prospect and Mr Bose, waiter served the order. Umm..Beef steak was well cooked. Chewing a piece of hot beef steak and washing down with a sip of Vodka seemed appropriate to think about Mr Bose. She just couldn’t forget that horrible night. That night after work, Mr Bose was seeing off Rhea to her cab. Suddenly a bike rider stopped and fired a bullet through his heart. Before understanding what was happening, he expired on spot. Why a mad physicist could be on a hit list of an assassin? Was he really the target? Or was it just a mistake? Rhea tried to search every data on the lab computer of Mr Bose. Was there any research that could link to his murder? But there was no clue.

 After finishing her drinking alone program, she decided to walk in the streets of Kolkata. Usually she was a cab liking person. But tonight booze was quite high to perceive the world differently. It was 9 o' clock. Dark night that covered the pavement was cloaking the streetlights. She felt grimly alone in the streets camouflaging with darkness. Suddenly she felt a shadow was following her. She tried to cross the main road to come to the other side of the road which was somewhat crowded. But suddenly the shadow blocked her path. There was enough dim light to recognise the face of the shadow and Rhea did identify. But How could it be possible? The shadow was no other than her dead boss, Mr Bose . She felt a sudden cold chill and tried to shout in immense fear. But she couldn’t and fell unconscious. 

When she opened her eyes, she discovered herself lying in a bed in a House. Certainly that was not her house. Then whose it was? She tried to remember the past events. Yes, of course she was intoxicated and hallucinated Mr Bose under the effect of alcohol. May be a kind guy rescued her to his house. She decided to take a tour in the house. She discovered a big hall room next to the bedroom. The room was full of books and big computers. Then she found the bathroom. She felt relieved as she certainly needed to do some unfinished business in the bathroom right away. When she came out of bathroom, she met the person sitting in a chair in front of the table - that person rescued her yesterday. And she realised she was not hallucinating. He was Mr Bose indeed. He brought her here. She glared at him and asked-
" But how? You were dead right in front of me. "

"How!! Think Rhea.. Think ", Mr Bose sarcastically replied.

" Were you not murdered that day? "

" In a sense, yes."

"Then are you ghost or something like that? "

"You are a scientist.  Do you believe in Ghost? "

Rhea burst out, "Right now, I am just a person who can't believe my eye. I mean, are you even alive? Can I pinch you? "

Before any answer from the other end, Rhea took a magazine from the table next to her and dashed that to his face.

" Ow," shouted Mr Bose, " What is that all about? "

" So you are as real as me ", Rhea exclaimed.

" In a sense, yes."

"But how is it possible? "

"I made it possible. "

"What does that even mean. You have even shadow!! "

"Rhea, please calm down. Take a glass of water and listen to me. "

Rhea glugged a glass of water in one breath and sat down on a chair opposite of Mr Bose. He started calmly-

" I was murdered. How do you know? This is a memory you retrieved from your brain. Right? "

"Yes. But how its relevant?"

" Be patient. But what if I tell you, your memory can be altered or modified? "

"I can't get you."

" Let me elaborate," he stood up from the chair, lit up a cigar and strode clasping his arms behind his back. He continued, " I am experimenting a subtle approach to hack someone's memory for last 10 years. You were my Guinea pig along with myself . I spent a lot of time with you listening to a special kind of white noise developed by me. And as a result, some outer shell electrons of two special proteins in our hippocampus and prefrontal cortex were linked through quantum entanglement. I named two proteins as Cryptoglobin and Rheaglobin respectively. As you know, quantum entanglement allows two particles affect quantum state of each other when measured, irrespective of space-time. I correlated those data of our brain via an algorithm. You unknowingly analysed it for me. And now I can hack your brain memory or read your mind. You saw me murdered. Actually I imprinted that memory in your hippocampus. So that was reality to you till now. Whereas I am still alive."

Rhea was shocked by this ground breaking explanation. She asked in a trembled voice, "But why others didn’t rectify me about your death? "

He replied, "I counselled everyone in the lab, you were not mentally well and needed space. You didn’t contact anyone and you didn’t show up in the lab in past one month. All the memories of my funeral were injected into your thoughts. So there was no doubt in your mind. "

"But why didn’t you tell me the truth for last one month?" She retorted.

He smiled and spoke, "I was observing how real the effect is and how long does it last. I was also ensuring to exclude any kind of subjective bias. Truly speaking, I was checking how much do you miss me? "

"What? "

"I know you like me, Rhea. I like you too." He looked at her, " The research was confidential for definite reasons. And I didn’t like you to suffer anymore, " he took a pause and spoke again," Would you like to go out with me, perhaps for a dinner? "

"Really!! First hacking a woman's brain and then asking her out ! You are really weird. "

"Yes I am, " grinned Mr Bose, "Tonight 8 o' clock, then."

*******

Its almost 9 O' clock. Rhea was waiting outside of Peter Cat Restaurant for 1 hour. But Mr Bose didn’t show up yet. "Such an irresponsible person he is, should have called at least once," she murmured. She called his number. But no one picked up. She decided to go to his house. No one was there. She called one of her lab colleagues, Akhi. What Akhi said she couldn’t believe. Akhi told her, " Rhea, you should seriously get some help. Mr Bose was murdered one month ago !! You were solo eye witness of that incident ! "
Rhea couldn’t stand anymore. She fell unconscious on the floor of his house. Someone saw that and texted to a strange number - " Job done! "

©Dr Suprabhat Das

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