A Dream within a Dream

*I wrote this as a part of one creative writing program. This is not the regular story update.

A melody, sweet, unheard, stimulating. Oh, it is so good, it got my feet tapping to the rhythm. But wait, it was getting squeakier, even more, my ears started to ring because of that high pitch, and I suddenly woke up on a Sunday morning, in a grumpy mood. Little did I knew that the 15th of January 2022 would be one of the most bizarre Sundays of my life.

The warm yellow sunlight was penetrating my room from the glass window that I forgot to close last night. Complementing it was the cool breeze making my white curtains dance with it. A bird, small as a teacup came and sat on the hanging pot of jade. But hey, not could I see the bird, but also its name, on a somewhat digital screen embedded in my sight. The same high pitch noise that woke me up, started in my left ear and I shouted, "oh shut it now, will you?" and a sweet woman whose voice resembled a long-lost friend never known to me, spoke, "Goodmorning Shraddha, I have been in the maintenance and repair department last night to fix the loud squeaks. Emanuel just transferred me to your biochip now. Oh, before all that, I have turned on your heater to 40°C, just as you like for your bath, Shreema has been informed to keep your ride ready to the center in 45 minutes, all your documents and file have been separated and kept in the lower chamber of your storage, and I have messaged your mom Goodmorning, to not make her feel alone." A range of emotions ran through me, I was not able to understand what she is talking about, who on earth are Emanuel and Shreema and how does she know that my mom has separation anxiety, even though I didn't know this until yesterday. I was startled by this woman I can't see or feel but only hear. And she spoke again, "Shraddha, you are sweating, I have turned on the air conditioner of your room to 23°C. And, I am Joy, your 'AI savior', just as you call me. I have been living in you for 5 years, from the day you got your biochip inserted in your brain, I run by the same energy that runs your body, and I manage everything you have to do and assist you in your tasks. And how can you forget Emanuel, the head scientist of the center, the one who inserted me in you, the man you've imagined half of your life with". She chuckles and continues," And Shreema is your driver, she picks you up and never lets you miss those ferry rides and all that you used to do as a kid. Okay, now come on, you are getting late, get up, dress up and slay at the center just as you do every day.

So, a woman was living in my head, knowing everything about me and my family and what I do, where I go, and she was even doing things for me and planning them. Suddenly I could see things, and everything seemed like a cool sci-fi movie, where I could only imagine being given so much importance, handling something or I don't know what that I would have a driver of my own?

I asked, "AI savior' of mine, "okay, hey, tell me what we do and what is this center?". She replied, "Okay, you gotta be kidding me, you are the reason half the people are alive, but nobody knows you, for them, you are just another random apartment lady who loves plants too much that half of her house is covered in creepers of all sorts. And the Centre is the place where you invented me, where you invented all those methodologies and drugs, helping people fight off the scariest of diseases ever known. Shraddha, enough ego massage for you, now, go and bathe. NOW."

Okay, so apparently my 'AI savior', was also my second mom, ordering me to go bath every morning. 

And in no time, I dressed up, and went out, only to not believe my sight, cars were flying up the sky with magnetic propelling systems, a technology unfathomable till last night to mankind, there were roads so clean, wide, and had certain portals transporting you to a place kilometer apart in no time, what were those, hyperloop? Here, in Ahmedabad? My goodness, what was I even seeing? A place, so green, roads shining clean and portals and bridges and flying cars, convertible to a giant jet if you wish it to, and over the top of it all, a woman who was so called my 'AI Saviour', there was no need for me to do anything for myself. There were hoardings on the road, displaying shiny, glimmery digital posters of some technique to get the biochip inserted in your brain, pain-free. With this Biochip, people were happier and less lonely as if they found a friend of their own, their moods were regulated and learning, and teaching were made so much easier in institutions. As concentration and grasping levels were measured anal analyzed. But wasn't this all breaching the privacy of the individual to think for themself?

And so, Shreema drove me to 'center', our car wasn't touching the road, but rather somehow hovering just over it and we entered one such portal and it felt as if we were pulled into darkness, everywhere around was pitch black but beautiful, there were dust clouds of all colors somewhere around, but hey, I wanted to be mesmerized by it a little more, but just before that we were pushed out with the same force and BAM! we landed at the "Centre', kilometers away from 5th North Street, where I used to live. People came and took me inside. The place was big, ginormous indeed had glass walls and no ceiling but the same dust clouds of all colors. We all march to the lift, which had no doors but just a level base, taking us higher and higher Oh, it didn't stop, its speed was increasing and increasing. I was traveling up the building, passing by all the bustle of people, as if in a superfast vertical car and it was getting faster, oh the building somehow merged with darkness. But then, what was pushing me up? There was darkness and nothing around me and I was being pushed up and then also rotated? And the darkness merges with those same dusty colorful clouds, hey they were charged and releasing sparks, I could touch them. There was tranquility, there was peace, warmth, and serenity in the unknown but what was that place? The place unknown to all, strangely endless yet contenting. But what was keeping me in motion then, if there was nothing around me? And BAM! I was thrown on my bed and my legs twitched in panic as I gasped and opened my eyes as I got up. Then what was this? 

Is all that we see or seem, a dream within a dream?