Untitled
an excerpt

The plug went in and John sat back. “Just relax and let go,” John spoke, and then he was no longer John.

“OK, I think I...” and then there was no Besson, either.

A few moments went by in silence.

One pair of eyes looked into one another, both mouths smiled. It was a silly smile, an innocent smile, like someone had just told a very funny joke - only there was no joke, only the instant giving up of all worry, all fear of strangers, because there were no strangers in the room. There were only two people, two expressions of the same life force that seemed to permeate all things.

Some part of the thing-that-was-Bess realized that she was just making a very important discovery for the very first time. The more she thought about it, the more exhilarated she felt at not having to keep her guard up, not have to prove herself to anyone, not have to demonstrate or posture or peacock about. She laughed. The person across from her, the body she kept calling John for no good reason, the other half of the consciousness in the room, laughed back.

They continued to share a euphoric smile. No part of the experience felt false, induced. It didn’t feel like an altered state of consciousness; it felt like the original state of consciousness, as opposed to that condition in which everyone acted like they were all somehow separated.

“Watch this,” the John part of them said, and the Bess part of them knew what he was about to do, opened herself further to his mind for a moment, let him take control. He began a thought, set it into motion, let it cascade throughout their awareness. What wonder that we don’t realize how interconnected we all are, every day, all the time, they thought. We say that we are interconnected all the time. We use words like “society, culture, country” and yet cannot speak to people walking along the street like the brothers and sisters they are.

Once the thought was in motion, it summoned other thoughts, similar thoughts; thoughts about other ways in which people interfaced. Bess’s face smiled back, licked her lips, looked back at Thing-That-Was-John. She began a thought, set it into motion, let it cascade throughout their awareness. Both sets of eyes widened in surprise, joy, and then they both laughed again. One stood up, the other stood up as well, and they met in the middle of the room.

“You are good at this,” they said in unison. Both sets of eyes - one flesh, one chrome - flashed in surprise and amusement as they had their first moment of unified speech.