on the road

Goltz then recounted everything he had been enduring for the last six months, since his wife Jenny lost control of the motorcycle and fell down an earthen slope. The violent impact against a long, flat rock left Jenny with scrapes and bruises but prevented her from rolling further down the hill toward the sea. Karen, the couple’s daughter, who was in the passenger seat, was not so lucky and was violently thrown from the vehicle. Rescue arrived quickly.

The effects of the free fall to the edge of the precipice were devastating for Karen. Broken bones, abdominal perforation, internal bleeding. Emergency surgery saved the young woman’s life, but she now lives with severe aftereffects from the accident. Her cognitive functions were unaffected: the girl continues to think, feel, and desire like any healthy young woman. Her limbs, however, have taken on a twisted appearance. She has difficulty holding objects and can only move when someone pushes her wheelchair. Without the ability to move on her own or have effective autonomy and privacy in performing simple daily tasks, Karen is visibly wasting away. Her depression worsens. She refuses to swallow the tranquilizers prescribed by the doctors. She prefers death to living doped up. In the last three months, Karen’s mood has alternated between deep apathy, irrational fury, mournful resignation, and ironic lucidity full of macabre remarks.

“Macabre remarks?” Dr. Anoka adjusted the glasses that stubbornly slid down the tip of her cute little nose.

“Yes, Dr. Anoka. Self-deprecating or sarcastic comments such as ‘I’m basically ruins and a fixed pose: all I’m missing is beauty to rival the Greek statues!’ and ‘Enough with the physiotherapists! Call a carpenter to fix this twisted trunk.’ I scold her for these bitter outbursts and she replies with more mockery like ‘Oh, Daddy, I was thinking about the carpenter Jesus, ha ha ha.’”

Peter Goltz paused, massaging his sweaty temple. The cooling system in the panoptic booth was clearly deficient. The high demand for communication services and file transfers sometimes overloaded the magnetic plate, heating the machine to the point of turning the environment into a kind of sauna. Fortunately, thought Goltz, it’s still winter, and overheating incidents are rare at this time of year.

“The truth is that a misfortune never comes alone,” he continued. “The impact of the crash left Jenny in a coma for several days. No fractures or serious injuries left lasting aftereffects or significant scars on my wife’s body. But since she woke up in the hospital bed, she has presented with profound amnesia, which persists to this day with no sign of improvement. Cruel, isn’t it? At the very moment when her daughter needs her mother’s support the most… Jenny tries to cooperate, shows herself helpful and useful, but she is far from being the same person as before. There is a detachment, an indifference, as if she were merely playing the role of mother and wife without really believing what she says or does.”

The Karen case soon became a secondary matter for Anoka, almost banal compared to what Jenny’s case could represent for the advancement of research on the effects of TAF. The data were unequivocal: 90% of the interviewed test subjects admitted experiencing a fleeting but intense and memorable sensation of hallucinatory lucidity — something mystics call enlightenment or nirvana, but which the North Dome scientists interpreted as a realignment of mental patterns.

These patterns, usually scrambled by accumulated exhaustion, unresolved traumas, and identity crises faced by the self throughout its existence, were restored during the immersion of bodies in the properly energized tanks. Laypeople were invited to imagine a messy suitcase that was reorganized to optimize the search for the objects stored inside. The optimization was completed without discarding any of the original items, even if they were considered superfluous or harmful.

“Yes, Dr. Anoka, I’m following, but I don’t understand where you’re going with this.”

“If my hypothesis is correct, cases like your wife’s could be treated more efficiently if we address the root of the problem. Amnesia is nothing more than a temporarily corrupted mental pattern. If we manage to restore that pattern, Jenny could regain her memories and her sense of identity.”

“Wait… You mean there’s a real chance for Jenny to recover her memories if she transfers to another body? Doctor, that sounds frankly…”

“Counterintuitive? I know it’s strange to think that a radical physical transformation could restore a lost identity. It is not uncommon for scientific postulates or theories to seem absurd or unreasonable to common sense. Perhaps my thesis is wrong, but I see genuine potential in this line of research, and Jenny would be the greatest beneficiary of the process.”

“Jenny will have to swap bodies,” Peter tried to assimilate the idea. “But it will be a temporary swap, right? Just minutes or a few hours. Or am I mistaken?”

“You’ve touched on the delicate point of the matter. Let’s be optimistic and assume my hypothesis is correct and the swap proceeds without complications. Even so, your wife will not be able to return to her own body immediately. It is highly inadvisable to ignore the minimum interval required before repeating immersion in TAF. She will have to face a stay of at least two weeks in another person’s body. During this period, she will be under the supervision of one of our agents. It is not my intention, Mr. Goltz, to keep Jenny at the North Dome. You may return to the Central District of Kassala, but for her own good, it will be necessary to bring along the person who will be in your wife’s body. That way you can closely monitor Jenny’s physical integrity.”

“I’ve heard enough. I find it very risky to leave my Jenny’s body under the guard of a criminal or concentration camp inmate, even for a limited time and monitored by cameras. Who can guarantee me that her body won’t be violated!? Treated like a flesh toy in the hands of criminals or perverts!?”

Peter knew that most of the test subjects housed in the North Dome cells were the scum of society. He feared, with good reason, that Jenny’s body would be damaged or used to satisfy the lust of sordid and frightening delinquents. Professional assassins, sexual maniacs, accomplished con artists, drug-addicted prostitutes: this trash would not miss the opportunity to ruin Jenny’s image. “Impossible, Dr. Anoka.”

“Senator Goltz, be reasonable. You came here to request a new body for Karen, correct?”

“Correct.”

“And you cannot admit that Jenny should go through the same process?”

“They are completely different cases! It doesn’t matter much if the new occupant of my daughter’s body is a thief or a prostitute: no one can seriously degrade the reputation of a disabled person without autonomy. Jenny, on the other hand, would have a lot to lose if some random slut decided to get a tattoo, self-mutilate, inject drugs into her veins, or behave like a bitch in public. The consequences would be disastrous, since the swap would be temporary.”

“Calm down, please,” although the meeting was mediated by projectors, Anoka shuddered at Peter’s aggressive tone, as if he could spit on her face at any moment. “If that’s what bothers you, I know a way to circumvent your objections… Let’s be economical, Senator. We only need two bodies for the experiment. Let’s keep everything in the family! Mother and daughter swap bodies temporarily. When Jenny regains her sense of identity (and I have faith that this will happen!), it will be easier to support Karen. You yourself said that your daughter resents the lack of maternal support. We will work with priorities. First: Jenny’s memory; then: a new body for Karen.”

Anoka’s implacable logic completely disarmed Peter. Both women would remain under his tutelage and it would be no sacrifice for Karen to pretend to be her own mother, at least for a few days.

“Agreed, doctor. When can we schedule the visit to the North Dome?”