Lost Memories

Gloria Lucas
10 min readApr 11, 2024
Photo by Streetwindy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sitting-near-door-2028636/

Video Diary Entry of Annalise Johnson
Feb 08

My heart’s pounding. I did it. We’re here, holed up in this tiny apartment next to the hospital. I had to save for a whole year to afford the tourism papers, the flight, the short-term lease. You’d think a multi-trillion-dollar organization would pay better. But I should feel lucky. The only reason I know about this memory data trial is because I work in the industry. And because Marc, the pre-clinical hot-shot project manager, talks so loudly when he’s passionate about an injustice. In this case, the injustice is our country’s regulations regarding memory data manipulation. Too much red tape. The evolution of what is and is not ethical in medicine. Bureaucracy. Blah, blah, blah.

Stumbling onto that conversation felt like fate. Except, I don’t believe in fate. The whole concept feels like giving up. Sometimes we must fight for what we want, what we need. Right? And if that means traveling to a different country for a chance…

I feel cautiously — desperately? — optimistic. That’s why I’ve created this diary. I want to document the process from the beginning.

We meet Dr. Zhang tomorrow.

Screening Visit Summary
Subject 009

--

--

Gloria Lucas

I write about trauma and mental health. Sometimes parenting. Also, short stories. Daydreamer. Always behind on laundry. She/her