“Happy birthday!” They handed Peter his present. A large box wrapped in a ribbon. Peter excitedly opened it and found...
“What is it?” He asked, lifting the slightly heavy metal and plastic helmet out of the box. There were wires and sockets all around it, both inside and out. It held lines upon lines of what looked like tiny lightbulbs all along the outside that could be screwed in and out again. It looked very high tech and honestly a little frightening.
“This is a memory drive. And these...” his father reached into the box and came out with his hand full of additional little lightbulbs. “...are memory units.”
“Yeah, but what do they do?”
“Here, let me show you.” Peter's father put the helmet onto Peter's head, fastening it with a strap. It began to hum. Suddenly the table was cleared and everyone had teleported around the room. Including Peter.
“Wow! What just happened!?” Peter exclaimed.
“It worked!” Dan and Brian said together, laughing. His father was holding one of the tiny bulbs, which was glowing all on its own.
“What worked? What happened?”
“Now to test the second part,” his father said, screwing the glowing bulb back into place. He activated the helmet again and the memory flooded back into Peter's mind again as if he were experiencing it all over again in an instant.
*
“Here, let me show you,” his father had just said, yet also ten minutes ago. The machine hummed for just a moment, then stopped and the helmet was taken off.
“What that was,” his father explained, lifting the helmet back off “was a marker. The next time I put the helmet on you, it can suck all the memories from your head from when the mark was set and store it in one of the memory units. You'll forget everything between a chosen mark and the extraction. And it can be put back or taken out again as many times as we please. So, now we're testing it. Once we try the extraction, you'll forget all about what this machine is.”
“But... But why would I want that?” Peter said, confused.
“Plenty of reasons. For one, it's fun. And another reason is that you get to try things over again for the first time. Imagine seeing your favorite movie for the first time again and again? And that's just one example,” his father said. Dan and Brian grinned at one another as if they were seeming something.
“Well, okay. I could try it, if you think it'd be fun.”
“Good boy. But first now, clean up the table.”
“Of course, dad.” Peter dutifully cleaned up and washed the dishes like a good boy. When he was done, he sat back down in another chair and his father put the helmet back on him.
“Ready to forget?” his father asked.
“Um... okay, I guess.” the machine hummed again and Peter gasped as the past ten minutes vanished from his mind as if they'd never occurred. “Wow! What just happened!?” Peter exclaimed.
*
“Oh my god! I remember now! That was insane.” Peter felt giddy at the bizarre experience. Ten minutes had flown right back into his head in just a second.
“Then we've established that reinsertion works as well.” He pulled out the bulb and lay it into a neat case with hundreds of number labeled slots, just the right size for a memory unit. The bulb wasn't glowing anymore. Dan now registered the number on his Ipad, noting what memory it was for. Brian smiled down at his brother mischievously.
“We can now use that bulb at any time we want to remove your memories of what this helmet does. I think we can have a lot of fun with this. And you won't know what's happening.” He giggled. “Hey, guys, let's use another bulb.” He put the helmet back on Peter's head. Peter hardly had a chance to resist before it put another mark on his mind.