Revisiting Memories

What if Watson could be more than just a question and answer machine?

The supercomputer could process five hundred gigabytes of information per second; how many pages of medical texts could that be? He could process more information in an hour than I could ever process in a lifetime. 

What if the solution to Lily's problems lies in Watson?

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The doctors approved of the plan. They said I could try. In particular, Lily's specialist, Dr. Sheldon Parsons, said he could provide his expertise to help with our coding. Now, I just need to convince David Ferrucci to help us. 

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I convinced David. He said he needed a new challenge, and he is up for the task. 

Now, I'm just hoping we can find the cure before Lily dies.

Dr. Parsons says she still has a year at most. 

Time is running out. 

We need to hurry. 

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Watson has scoured through every single article on medicine that exists on the internet.

He has combined his findings into about five gigabytes of information on drugs that could be useful.

David and I's work is done. Now, we are just waiting for Dr. Parsons' team to analyze our findings. 

Lily, hang on for just a little bit longer. We're almost there, we just need more time. 

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In the end, it worked. 

It took a combination of twenty different drugs, but it worked in the end. The disease stopped. 

However, her mind couldn't be saved. 

The brain damage was just too complete, Dr. Parsons said. There was too much shrinkage in the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus. Our technology is not advanced enough to reverse the brain damage and make sure the person is still the same as before. 

I was too late. If I had only acted when she first started forgetting...

Gone was the Lily that used to complain when I had my nose stuck in a physics book for two hours.

Gone was the Lily that dragged me off to vacations whenever we had a break.

Gone was the Lily that reminded me to eat and drink when I was too engrossed in my work. 

What remained was barely a husk of her former self.

Our family and colleagues comforted me, saying that it wasn't my fault. It was the genes, they say. The bad genes that caused her to deteriorate. You could never have altered her genes. It wasn't your fault. 

But it was my fault. 

If only I had thought of using Watson sooner... Her state would be better than it is now. 

But enough with the "if only"s. Lily would have seen the good in everything, no matter how bad the situation was. You may not have saved my life, she would say, but you have found the solution to save countless others'. What about those out there who have cancer? Parkinson's? Leukemia? Even something as common as asthma? You might have found a way to make the world a better place. Even if you didn't cure me completely, I am still happy with that knowledge in my heart. 

She would be right, of course. She is always right. I did contribute to the world with something, and I feel proud that I helped the world be a little better. 

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Somewhere in the house, sitting in a chair by the window, a woman smiled. She didn't know why she was smiling; she doesn't even remember her own name. But to her, the world outside seemed just a little bit brighter. She stared in fascination at the view outside. It was like the view changed every time she peered out the window. 

The door opened and closed again. She looked back and saw it was another one of those strange men that fed her, clothed her and took care of her in general. 

She started to frown when a sense of familiarity passed through her. Should she know this person? But how could she have seen him before, she only just met him today.

She tried flipping through the pages of her memory, but as usual, she drew a complete blank. The details of her past slipped through her as easily as water slipped through her fingers. Nothing lasted, nothing was permanent. Her memory was wiped and she was reincarnated each night to live her life anew the next day. A neverending cycle of confusion.

"Today, I'm going to read you a book," the strange man said.

A book? She has never had a book read to her before. But then again, that might not be true seeing as she couldn't remember anything before today, and even remembering details of today is hard enough. 

"The book is called Two Fishes in a Pond, by Lily Hutchinson."

Lily Hutchinson... That name seems vaguely familiar. Has she heard it before?

Seeing her lack of reaction, the strange man opened the book and started reading. 

With every paragraph, she could feel little flickers in her mind. The words felt so familiar, almost like she wrote them. But that couldn't be true. She was never an author... Was she?

The events in the book felt familiar as well... Almost like she lived through them. The main character's name is Lily... Was that just a coincidence?

As the strange man read, she felt swept up by the words. She was with Lily when she had her first love in college. She was with Lily when she had her first heartbreak. She was with Lily when she was wooed again by a sweet and determined, but poor man named James. She was with Lily when she married said man and moved into a house in a poor neighborhood in St. Louis. She shared Lily's happiness when James got an engineering job at IBM and moved into a better neighborhood. She felt Lily's pride when she saw her first book at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. 

Little by little, the pieces clicked into place like a crude jigsaw puzzle. The woman began to have a picture of her life before she forgot everything. After the last piece clicked into its designated spot, she knew of her past. She was going to forget it later, but at the moment, she knew. And the present is all that matters.

She gazed at the now-familiar man who was still reading the book to her. She smiled as she remembered his name; he would always have a special place in her heart. 

"James,"

James looked up from the book she now knew that she wrote and smiled, tears starting to fill up his eyes.

As they embraced each other, she couldn't help but think that the world is brighter than before.