Transporting Brains and Not Bodies

It was as if the computer was reading his mind and playing his thoughts on the screen in a sort of fast forward movie that spanned forty years. Instead of Angela there with her boyfriend and later her husband, she was now there with Angelo. Angelo was superimposed in every situation from walking, talking, and laughing, to watching a movie together, to making love. From the computer's imagery, Dr. Durkin copied that video that played and even made print copies of it to give to Angelo later. Proof that his memory implanted experiment was working, Angelo was hopped up with Dr. Durkin's mind altering drugs to keep him dreaming in full color.

Getting his money's worth, Angelo was with his beloved Angela, as if he was really there with her. When she gave birth to her twins, Vincenzo and Luigi, Angelo was there. With the memory implanted in his brain, he raised those boys as if they were his own. The memories of Angela's husband memories were now Angelo's memories too.

Yet, when they made love, the intimacy is what made the screen come alive with color. Kissing and kissing Angela, the color of the screen turned from cool green to electric blue to brilliant red. Angelo made love to Angela in ways he never made love to Maria. No amount of sexual passion that he had for Maria could make up for the love that he had for Angela. He always knew he loved her. He always knew that she was the only woman for him and had he not made that one mistake with Maria in having sex with her and making her pregnant, he would have been happily married to Angela.

They were so joyously happy together. Meant to be together forever, Angelo and Angela had a wonderful life filled with happiness, love, sex, and devotion. All that was missing was a dog and they bought two toy terriers that completed and accentuated their happy family.

With the memories implanted in his brain and the videos and photos to give evidence that he was there in her life all of these years, he raised those boys as if they were his own. From preschool to grammar school, to high school and college graduation, he was there at the wedding when they were married. A twin ceremony for both sets of twins, their identical twin boys married identical twin girls, Donatella and Michelangela, on the same day and at the same wedding ceremony. Everything was perfect. Finally, he discovered the truth. He was meant to be with Angela and not Maria.

With their 25th wedding anniversary soon approaching and Angela's 47th birthday on that same fateful day of April 24th, Angelo gave his wife of 25-years an early anniversary gift, a brand new 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello. She had always wanted a Ferrari and Angelo couldn't afford one until now when he started importing his olive oil and wine to the United States. Now, blessed a million times over, their life together couldn't be any better.

It was on that treacherous mountain road, on their way to the wedding reception, that Angela lost control of the Ferrari after upsetting the balance the car when negotiating a double S curve. She came rocketing down the straight too fast while approaching a hairpin curve. Never completely regaining control of the car, unbalanced and traveling at too high of a rate of speed for her driving skill, the car zoomed off the highway and launched itself off the mountain road. Airborne and with Angelo's life flashing before him, he took Angela's hand.

"I love you," said Angelo. "I really, really love you and I will love you forever."

"I love you too Angelo," said Angelo.

When they leaned in to kiss one another, as if their kiss was the symbol of the fireworks they felt inside when kissing, the car exploded upon hitting the rocks belong.

As soon as the car exploded the computer screen went white and the heart monitor that monitored Angelo's vital signs went flat. Dr. Durkin did his best to revive Angelo with CPR. He even shocked his heart with a defibrillator but to no avail. Recording and videotaping everything from the mind's eye of Angelo, as if he was sitting in that car with Angela, he died with her in that car on that day.

Then, the computer screen flickered before brightening to a full screen of pure, mesmerizing, white light, so brightly luminous that Dr. Durkin had to shield his eyes. There in the center of the light, as if they were ascending to Heaven, were Angelo and Angela walking hand in hand. Somehow through the magic of his computer technology, Dr. Durkin had not only captured their deaths but also captured their life after death. With his computer continuing to record all that was happening, he watched Angelo and Angela being met and greeted by their relatives. Then, there above their heads, as if levitating above them, was God welcoming them to his Heavenly kingdom.

Then the screen went black, as black as the room was before Dr. Durkin turned on all the lights in his feeble attempt to save Angelo's life. Now he wondered with Angelo dying a tragic death at 49-years-old in Italy, never marrying Maria and crossing the ocean to start his pizza chain in America, he wondered if all of those memories were gone and replaced with those of Angela. He closed Angelo's eyes knowing that he had given him the memory in death that he always wanted to have in life.

The End