Dream Girl

Dream Girl By – Ankit Singhal “Why are you mad at me. You moved away and changed your name. Is there someone else. Tell me. All I want is for you to be happy. I love you Melissa or should I say Amanda. If I do not hear from you in a week, I’ll kill myself. I’ll jump off…” Amanda clicked the thrash icon on her omni not bothering to listen to the full message. Her desperation was apparent in her hastened steps as she made her way through the pedestrian traffic. That’s eleven this week. Another fool who thinks he is in love with me, she thought. Gerome was kind enough to see her again. It was her twenty eighth visits to Global Identities in the last twelve months. A new record thought Gerome. Although he did not show it, he was getting impatient. “Four id-swaps in six months are unheard of. And here you are again Amanda. Sorry, but there is only so much I can do. We have tried everything we possibly can. Idswaps are not that easy. In the good old days, all you needed was a new name and a forged social security number. Now things are different. Since the inception of GlobId, we have to fudge a lot of records to get you a new name. And how come your lover was able to find you anyway. What did you do this time? Did you go to one of your favorite restaurants again? Frankly, I don’t even care anymore. We have done enough.” “Please Gerome. You know how bad it is. In two days, three people have committed suicide in Cali alone. It was all over the news. I don’t want to be responsible for any more deaths. I have a life, I have a child. I need your help. Save me from these maniacs. Please. I beg you.” Her pathetic crying sounded sincere. This was a first. None of their previous meetings had tears. Apparently these suicides had affected her deeply. But how could this happen unless she made a mistake. The system was fool proof. GlobId swapped her image with one of the blanks. She had changed her name, her appearance, even her face, and her lifestyle. She even moved to a different sector. Yet, somehow her lovers followed her. “You are not telling me everything Amanda. I could have understood you running away from one lover, maybe two, maybe ten. But this is insane. You got to tell me why these people are after you. What did you do to them?” He knew what she must have done. It was no secret how much money could be made on the internet by being a companion. She must have told someone her true name. “When were you a companion?” “Companion! What gave you that idea? I may be pretty but that doesn’t mean I was a companion. I had to work hard as a waitress and put myself through college. Don’t you ever accuse me of being a companion.”

Sharon was furious. Who do these GlobId people think they are? They must have leaked her Id in the first place. Only they had access to her profile. How else would the crazies find her? Could Gerome sell her profile on the web? --Detective Raman rarely had a good day. Today had to be one of the top ten worst days of his life. The Feds were brought in forty eight hours ago when some crime correlation data miner found a common link between four suicides in recent weeks. Apparently, all four of the deceased were deeply in love with a woman named Melissa Jennings. He must have been on the shit list. Sgt. Taylor did not especially like him. Maybe that’s why Raman was assigned to this crappy case. Or maybe it was payback for getting friendly with sergeant’s wife at the office barbeque. In his fifties, Raman may not have been the best of homicide detectives. Suicide cases were rare. With the invention of pleasure therapy, there was no reason for someone to kill himself. All they had to do was to plug themselves into VR and elevate their mood. Why did they have to kill themselves and ruin a perfectly bad day? Raman logged into GlobId and initiated a privilege trace for Melissa Jennings. The query took a full ten seconds to execute. Mining a database the size of GlobId was time consuming. There were 399,890 Mellisa Jennings on file. Raman had to refine his search seventeen times to find what he was looking for. Search Subject : Melissa Jennings IRIS Signature: ZHYFT&*VBFCR^99896434457676709 Active Identity: Amanada Issacs * Previous Identity: Tracy Chappman Lui Chang Deepa Mehta Alena Bruskova Carmen Parker Melissa Jennings

revoked 21091207:12:00 revoked 21090905:12:00 revoked 21090715:12:00 revoked 21090606:12:00 revoked 21090319:12:00 revoked 21081129:12:00

Known relatives: Arthur Jennings (Father), Martha McAdams (Mother), Simon Lawrence (Husband), Jeremy Issacs (Son) Current omni id: US-CA-8989-AB7879 Good. She still had a Cali number. Raman tapped the id on his omni and after five rings, the sad face of Melissa appeared on the screen. “Hello Inspector. How can I help you?” She must have seen the Fed tag in the call id. The smudged mascara spoke of tears. Why has she been crying? “Miss Amanada Issacs, or should I say Miss Melissa Jennings, we need to talk.” “What is this about?”

“This is about the death of some of your lovers” “… Where can we meet?” A tap on the omni brought up a map of Cali centered on the current location of Melissa. Another tap and five nearby coffee joints popped up on the screen. Raman chose the one nearest her and tapped it. Melissa knew where to come. ---Being a Fed had its privileges. Although not a well paying job, the Fed badge gave the bearer access to the most precious commodity in the twenty-second century. Space! With the planet population touching two hundred billion, personal space was unheard of, unless you were a Fed. Just flash the badge and an area of fifteen feet had to be cleared, by law. Sitting at the center of this void, sipping a hot cappuccino, Raman tried to piece together the facts of the case. Out of the blue, Amanda had started receiving calls from these perfect strangers, she had never ever heard of before, who claimed not only to know her but were deeply in love with her. They all wanted her to take them back and marry them. At first she thought it was a prank. Stupid TV shows had done much worse. But then they started stalking her. Random strangers would walk up to her and fawn their adorations on her. These strangers were everywhere, her house, her work, on the street, in the mall. She did the only thing she could do. She got an id-swap. Somehow, her lovers found out her new identity and the cycle repeated. “I have changed my name so many times in the last year; I don’t even know who I am anymore.” Melissa stifled a sob. “It is unusual for one woman to have such an effect on so many men. Through correlation data miner, we found out that almost three hundred people have killed themselves over the last one year, all claiming to be in love with “Melissa”. Did you know that? You are not a celebrity. Therefore I have to ask. Were you a …” Melissa cut him off. “I told you I am not a companion. I never was. It really saddens me to hear about these poor losers who are killing themselves over me. But believe me. I have done nothing. I don’t know anyone of them. Please believe me.” “Have you ever had a boyfriend?” “Yes. Only one. My husband. Simon. He is the father of my child. He was killed in the Federation war.” “Sorry to hear that. We lost a lot many in that war. It was insane madness, fighting a planetary war like that. It took two years for the armies to get to the battle field. I lost

most of my family in the bombing of Delhi. I know your pain. What did Simon do in the Army?” “Simon was a psychologist. Times were tough for us then. We were deep in debt. He had to join the space troopers because they promised to forgive our loan. He did not like leaving me behind. But, he had to go for our family. He was stationed on the refilling station on Pluto, I think. That’s what his office told me when he died. His base was attacked three years ago. They tell me, his death was instant and painless. He did not suffer.” Tears were now flowing in a steady stream. Raman made no attempt to comfort her. This young lady had some more explaining to do. It was best she cried herself out. “What did you do after Simon’s death?” “I was working as a waitress. Jeremy was two and a half then. I was going to school part time to become an accountant. I took me another year to get my license.” “When did you start getting messages from these lovers of yours?” “I told you I had nothing to do with them. They were not my lovers. I don’t know how they know my name, how they know where I live, how they know what color of flowers I like. This is some sort of a sick joke that someone is playing on me. The GlobId people did a search of the net for any Id scam and found nothing. Yet somehow, these people know intimate details about me. “ “You did not answer my question. When did you start receiving their messages?” “It was about two years ago. Maybe a little more than that. If you look through my omni records, you will find it. It was from some guy named Andy. He even came to my house once. He had been in the war and had lost a leg. That’s why I remember him so clearly. I was still grieving over Simon and Andy showed up and started talking about how we were together. I shoved him out of my house, locked myself in and called the Feds.” “Did this Andy guy tell you, if he had met Simon? I mean you know how these soldiers develop a brotherhood. Do you think that Simon may have told Andy about you and in his post traumatic stress, Andy started thinking you were his wife.” “Look, you want to make fun of me, fine. I have studied some psychology myself. Even, the looniest of psychos can not think I am their wife, just because Simon told them stories about me. It may be a joke to you, but this is a nightmare for me. Can you imagine the trouble I have been through this last year?” Raman did not know what to say. This was a bizarre case. All these people somehow knew Melissa. But she had no recollection of ever meeting them. Is she hallucinating? “Have you ever been treated for any brain related problems, Melissa?” Melissa chuckled nervously. “I knew you were going to ask me that. No. I have never been treated for any mental illness. Neither have I ever been in any accidents or coma. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, I have been brainwashed. I may have been

brainwashed and my memories may have been reconstructed, but trust me. I went through all my family albums just to assure myself that I have not missed out on any part of my life. If you want, I can give you all the pictures, school records, trophies etc. whatever you need to confirm it.” “You know it is not that difficult to fudge these kinds of records. Nevertheless, I do not see why someone would go through the trouble to re-program your memories. One last question, was there anything common between all of your lovers... I mean in these people who wrote you love letters?” “Nothing that I could see. Look officer, I would love to help in any way possible. How long do you think this investigation will take?” “Why? Are you in some hurry?” “I just came back from the GlobId office. The people there will not give me a new identity. So the only option for me is to move to one of the colonies, change my name and hope no one ever finds me there. I want a normal life with my child. If you don’t mind, I would like to get started as soon as possible.” “These investigations take time. If I were you, I would stay put until we get to the bottom of this. Until then, if someone contacts you again, just call me. I will get this thing sorted out as soon as possible.” --Raman had been mining data for forty eight hours straight. Thank god for sleep suppressants. Raman had analyzed Melissa’s com logs and purchase records for the last thirty six months and she appeared to have been telling the truth. In the last two years, Melissa had changed her number six times and her address eight times. She had gone twice through surgery to alter her face and had changed her hair color every month. Three hundred and ten men had killed themselves over “Melissa”. However, only about one hundred loonies had contacted her over the last two years. It was reasonable to assume that a lot of them could not find her after her id-swap. Raman had poured over the life gist of each one of the three hundred and ten suicides. A large number of them had been army. But a lot of them were college grads who had just come back from their freight-courier assignments. And then there were others who had been married and had successful businesses on earth. The most surprising discovery was that fifty of them were gay. There was no correlation between these people. They were not from the same area, or of the same background, profession, or even sexual orientations. Then why did they all fall in love with Melissa. Where did they meet her? Has Melissa been lying? Raman went through the life of Melissa with a fine toothed comb. He analyzed each and every part of her childhood and adolescent life. He was particularly careful about her college days and reconstructed almost every day with surveillance logs and class records. She had never been a companion. At least, she had told the truth about that.

His omni beeped. Melissa was on the line. She was animated. Someone named Vladimir, who just arrived in Cali, wanted to see her. Melissa had invited Vladimir to have coffee with her. He was waiting for her at Samoan Coffee in Melrose. Smart girl, this was the break Raman needed. He had to catch one of these loonies alive. -Raman drove to the café as fast as he could. “Vladimir, I am Fed Raman Prabhakar. If you do not mind, I need to speak with you. Privately. It’s about Melissa.” “Melissa. I hope she is not in any trouble. She is the love of my life. I have not seen her for almost two years now. I can still picture her beautiful smile when she brought me breakfast in bed. She was supposed to meet me here. What happened? Where is she? I hope everything is ok. Why did she change her name to Amanda?” Vladimir sensed something was wrong. First Melissa changed her name and he had to spend a fortune to track down her new identity. Now this Fed was questioning him. Obviously, something was not right. Vladimir did not care. He could only think of Melissa and her sweet smile. “Look officer. Do you have a warrant? I am waiting for a friend here, someone I have not seen for quite a while. Can you please leave me alone? My darling Melissa will be here shortly. I’ll gladly come with you and give you the names of all the people I bribed. I know I will go to jail for bribery. Just give me a few minutes. All I want is a few minutes with Melissa.” “Melissa is not coming. She does not want to have anything to do with you. Why did you leave her in the first place?” “I left her? It was she who wanted me to go to Aurora colony. I took this long voyage for her. She wanted me to earn some money while she was in college. After she graduated, we were going to start a family. The timing was perfect. I went on this long, eleven month, delivery voyage, baby sitting the autopilot of an ore transporter. I just got back. Melissa should have graduated last month. What do you mean she is not coming? She loves me. What happened? Is there someone else? Is she seeing someone else? Is she ok? How can she do this to me? I love her with all my heart. “ “Calm down. Melissa has moved on. You were gone too long. Didn’t you meet someone while you were away? One year is a long time. You must have been with other women. Don’t tell me, you wasted all this time for Melissa.” Raman was pushing it. He had little experience with interrogation. Maybe if he kept Vladimir talking, he could get something useful. Vladimir started weeping. He had seen men howl and cry before, while resisting arrest. However, in his thirty year career, Raman had never seen a man weep. Raman was not prepared for this. He was even less prepared for what followed. Vladimir jerked out of his chair, and before Raman could stop him, he ran out of the café into the busy street. Raman chased after him, but to no avail. Vladimir had run straight

into the path of a speeding bus. In less than five seconds, Vladimir was sprawled on the tarmac, dead. --The days that followed did not go well for Raman. The department was not too kind to an officer who let a suspect commit suicide during questioning. He did not even have a warrant. To make matters worse, Melissa was missing. Raman guessed she would be on freighter headed for a distant colony where she would start a new life under a new identity. The timing, however, could not have been worse for Raman. The suicides continued. Reports came in from farthest reaches of the colonized galaxy. More than six hundred deaths were attributed to Melissa that year. A high level panel was setup to investigate the phenomenon. Media started calling them “Melissa Suicides”. Countless hours on the airwave were filled with human pieces, exploring the lives of numerous romantics, who could not bear to live another minute without their beloved. Melissa’s land-lady too turned into a celebrity. After all, she was the last person to see at least a dozen young men alive. The statistical correlators did not find anything significant linking the lives of the deceased with Melissa. The panel, after listening to testimony from Gerome and Raman, concluded that she would not add anything to the investigation. The department made little effort to find her. Instead, at the suggestion from a few psychologists, news of Melissa’s death was planted. It was reasoned that with Melissa dead, any remaining lovers would finally get over her memories. The suicides continued for another year or two. Slowly, but steadily, the numbers kept coming down. With slowing body count, department’s resources were allocated to more pressing matters. Soon the airwaves were filled with the murder of a regional diplomat. The case of Melissa Suicides was never solved. Melissa’s case turned out to be the last case for Raman as he was persuaded into early retirement. The case was a sore spot for the mighty, resourceful Fed. They hastened the process to purge the case from the public memory. --Raman did not forget. The body of Vladimir, sprawled on the street, still haunted Raman. He continued the investigation with the limited resources, still available to him. There had been a few survivors, who, instead of killing themselves, sought the help of shrinks. Raman interviewed each one of them. All of them told him that very same story about Melissa with vivid details. They all remembered Melissa from one years ago, when they had to leave her to go on a long voyage to make money. However, there were always a few inconsistencies in their timelines. For instance, Vladimir’s voyage had actually been two years and not eleven months as Vladimir had claimed. Raman could never piece it all together. A large majority of Melissa’s lovers were not from Earth. Some had never been to earth, ever. However, in their memories, Melissa was on Earth. That’s where each of them started their search for Melissa. Melissa’s lovers had begged, borrowed or stolen

their way to earth from all over the galaxy. Not finding her on earth, they followed the smallest of clues to distant worlds, driven by the desire to be united with her. GlobId logs showed their search queries and attempt to bribe employees. Police had missing person’s reports lodged by them. There were payment records, flight and space ship bookings and surveillance tapes of these lovers roaming the galaxy. Their love for her was real, yet Melissa’s was a figment of their imagination. A retired Fed had little distractions. Raman did not have a family to constantly nag him about his deteriorating health. Three years of incessant research on Melissa’s case took a toll. When he could not sleep for three straight days, Raman decided to let it go and move on. New Aurora was touted not just a retirement planet, but The Retirement Planet. No harm in checking it out, he thought. --As Raman walked towards the boarding ramp, he looked back one last time at the Cali skyline. This was his life. Maybe, he was looking at Cali for the last time. Voyage to New Aurora would take one year. It would be difficult to return. “Excuse me sir, this is a long journey. Under stasis, your mind will be active but not fully alert. Would you like something to keep your mind occupied while you are asleep? The price of your ticket includes standard motion pictures package. However, for just a few credits, you can upgrade to our personal memories package. We have a wide selection of experiences that you can choose from. Each will be customized to you. It will be your memory. You can climb Mt. Everest, or visit in the underwater city of New Atlantis. Perhaps a space-cruise to the belts of Saturn or camping in the Amazon?” Raman, flipped through the catalogue of subliminal implants. Keeping the mind busy during stasis was essential. In the Federation war, space troopers came to know spacedementia the hard way. Every stasis trip was mandated to have constant entertainment. Some travelers took the opportunity to learn a new language while their bodies were semi frozen. Others caught up on books or movies. Subliminal implants were really an extension of video gaming. Second to last page of the catalog was devoted to a subliminal implant called ‘Girl Friend”, compiled by Simon Lawrence. The name sounded familiar, but Raman could not recall where he knew it from. “Excuse me. Do you know what this one is about? The literature in here does not give any details.” “I am sorry sir. I do not know that one. Except for the production team, no one can really tell what the subliminal implant contains. So there is no way for me to know what’s on it. We only know what the marketing literature says. For whatever its worth, this title used to be very popular about two years ago. It was a big hit among the younger age demographic, especially during the war. For your age, I would recommend something more mature.”

Raman bought the title anyways. Sales agent’s strong recommendation against it only brought out Raman’s stubborn side. Armed with the disk, he proceeded for his stasis bunk. Maybe this is what he needed to get his mind off Melissa. --Raman woke up a little sore, but alert. The public address system was welcoming him to New Aurora. It was a mistake to come here. There won’t be money here. The planet was full of old retirees. He should not have left Earth. He has to earn some money so that he could pay off his debt. Only then could he go back to Earth, to his beloved. He pictured her face, her sweet smile while she brought him breakfast in bed, her red hair floating in the morning breeze. She was gorgeous. He was a fool to leave her behind. Melissa will be waiting for him. All Raman could think was to get back to hiss Melissa and spend the rest of his life with her.