CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

In this story, an unnamed, male protagonist, presumably white, runs a “personal interactive holography” franchise and has lost his wife, Elizabeth, to a drunk driver prior to the story’s narrative present. Consumed by guilt because the protagonist and Elizabeth fought bitterly on the day she died, the protagonist calls GuiltMasters, a “brother/sister psychiatric team” that “wear cowls and capes and stand on either side of a sobbing neurotic woman [in their TV ads]” (65). When the protagonist calls and tells the sister, Jean Fleen, his story, there’s no sound on the other end of the line. The brother, Bob, gets on the line and asks if it’s alright if the service calls him back, but then never does. We learn that it’s been three years since Elizabeth died.

The protagonist goes to work, but the business isn’t doing well because it’s outdated. He chooses a module called “Bowling with the Pros” but then gets mad at the holograph of a man who asks him to bowl: “He asks isn’t bowling a lovely recreation? I tell him I’m in mourning. He says the hours spent in a bowling alley with friends certainly make for some fantastic memories years down the line. I tell him my life’s in the crapper” (66).

The store’s first customer is a Mr. Bomphil, who “comes in looking guilty and as always requests Violated Prom Queen, then puts on high heels and selects Treadmill Three” (67). The following customer is a Theo Kiley, “an appliance salesman who lays down a ream of Frigidaire specs and ask for Legendary American Killers Stalk You” (67).

The following day, “Mrs. Gaither from Corporate comes to town” to do a “Significant Accomplishments Assessment” (67). Just as she arrives, “armless Mr. Feltriggi comes to the door and as usual rings the bell with his face” (67). Feltriggi chooses the module “Youth Roams Kansas Hometown, 1932,” which is “all homemade bread and dirt roads and affable dogcatchers. […] He’s young again and the thresher has yet to claim his arms” (68). The protagonist and Mrs. Gaither have a poor interaction; Gaither “gives [him] her number at the Quality Inn in case [he] think[s] of anything that might argue against Franchise Agreement Cancellation” (69).

After his wife Elizabeth’s death, the protagonist received grief counseling from a Father Luther, who told the protagonist to “lose [him]self in service by contacting Elder Aid, Inc.” (69). Since then, the protagonist has assisted Mrs. Ken Schwartz, widow of Ken Schwartz. She’s elderly and lives by herself in Rockettown, the area “ghetto” (69). On a regular basis, the protagonist brings holograph modules for Mrs. Ken Schwartz to view; she likes “happy modules,” especially “Viennese Waltz” (70). After viewing/experiencing this module, she says to the protagonist, “You’re too good to me,” to which he replies, “No one could be too good to you,” though thinks, directly after an additional line of dialogue from Schwartz, “I’m a man without a life, due to you” (70). He then feels ashamed for thinking this.

The protagonist leaves, thinking about how he can further help Schwartz, who, has “gone downhill […] [in] the last few months” (71). While thinking about this, he “lose[s] track of where [he] is and blunder[s] by The Spot”; this is where “a drunk named Tom Clifton brought his Coupe De Ville onto the sidewalk as Elizabeth shopped for fruit on the evening of a day [the couple had] fought like hell” (71). He adds:“I'd called her an awful name. What name? I can’t say the word. I even think it and my gut burns” (71). In the following paragraph, he further adds:“If I could see her one last time I’d say: Thanks very much for dying at the worst possible moment and leaving me holding the bag of guilt. I’d say: If you had to die, couldn’t you have done it when we were getting along?” (71).

The protagonist returns to his store. The following day, the he is “Lay Authority Guest at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School for Precocious Youth,” where he is to “allow interested kids to experience the module entitled Hop-Hop the Bunny Masters Fractions” (72). The principal at the school, Mrs. Briff, pays him to bring modules for the students. Upon opening the store up, he sees equipment in disarray and the cash box out. From behind the protagonist’s back, someone puts a knife to his throat, asking which of the store items has the most resale value. The protagonist says that “it’s hard to explain” (72) but will show the intruder, who is an elderly man. The protagonist then hooks up the old man to a module entitled “Sexy Nurses Scrub You Down,” which distracts the old man for long enough for the protagonist to “coldcock him with the FedEx tape gun” (72). Afterward, the protagonist posits:“A man his age should be a doting grandfather, not a crook threatening me with death. I feel violated. How does someone come to this?” (72).

The old man/crook’s name is Hank; the protagonist learns this by attaching Hank’s mind to a console and scanning Hank’s memories. However, due to “one incorrect switch setting” (73), the protagonist is not simply viewing Hank’s memories, but rather offloading them from Hank’s mind. That is, when Hank comes to, he will have no recollection of these memories, which are roughly one-third of all of Hank’s memories:

[Hank] comes to and hops off the table looking years younger, suddenly happy-go-lucky, asks where he is, and trots blithely out the door, free now of boot camp, free now of Iwo, free of all memory of youthful slaughter, free in fact of any memory at all of the first twenty years of his life (73).

This gives the protagonist an idea; instead of bringing the Hop-Hop the Bunny module to the school the next day, he decides to edit down Hank’s memories and show them to students. The students love it and learn a lot. Mrs. Briff, the principal, is impressed, and wants more modules of a similar fashion. The money the protagonist makes from the module goes to hiring temporary live-in help for Mrs. Schwartz.

Two weeks pass, and Mrs. Briff is demanding more modules. The protagonist explains his situation to Mrs. Ken Schwartz, “during one of her fifteen-minute windows of lucidity” (75). Schwartz relays how “she understands that [the protagonist] can’t borrow here memories, only take them forever. […] She says she can live without the sixties” (75). The protagonist them offloads Schwartz’s memories of the 1960s, sends them to Mrs. Briff, and is able to retain the live-in help for Mrs. Schwartz, though only by “whittling away at [more of her] memories” (75).

Concerned about how much of her memory he’s taking, the protagonist phones Mrs. Briff and says he has no more modules for her. Briff responds by saying she’ll up “her offer to three thousand a decade” (76). The narrator’s response is to offload his own memories:

I lock the shop. On the spine of a blank module I write 1951-1992—Baby Boomers Come Into Their Own. At three thousand a decade, that’s twelve grand. I address an envelope to Briff and enclose an invoice. I write out some instructions and rig myself up (76).

The protagonist experiences a plethora of memories for a final time and then comes to, “a note pinned to his sleeve” (77). This note is the story’s final paragraph. It reads:

‘You were alone in the world […] and did a kindness for someone in need. Good for you. Now post this module, and follow this map to the home of Mrs. Ken Schwartz. Care for her with some big money that will come in the mail. Find someone to love. Your heart has never been broken. You’ve never done anything unforgivable or hurt anyone beyond reparation. Everyone you’ve ever loved you’ve treated like gold’ (77).