The Ink Well Prompt #76: The chamber of memories

The chamber where the memories of the earth's past are kept, near the town of Oriana, had begun to crack. Many years after being built with the most resistant materials on the planet, it ran the risk of being exposed and that these could expand. It was not known why it had started to happen, since very few people were authorized to enter this place, isolated from the rest of the inhabitants of the region. It was possible that someone had made another attempt against the safeguarding of memories, but the question was... Who?

Of course, a commission was immediately created to investigate who was responsible and to solve the problem of the crack, it was necessary to cover it before it continued its course.

Two months earlier, two people had managed to get into the chamber, with the complicity of one of the guards. It had not been easy, but after several attempts to break it, they had not even been able to make a hole. They had been discovered and the three had been detained since then, isolated from the rest in a maximum security prison. They had already made their statements to the jury. The jury was made up of three androids without feelings, completely objective and capable of detecting any deception.

They confessed that they worked alone and that their goal was to release the memories so that all the inhabitants of Oriana could know them, they had the right to know the past. But they regretted that they had not been able to do so, because that meant that all the technology that had been built up in past years could not be used for the benefit of man.

The investigations had not led to solve the mystery, meanwhile life continued its course, people lived a happy life since the memories had been saved when the last war ended with a large part of the population. There was peace, harmony, collaboration, joy, man lived in balance with his natural environment.

Simon, his wife and two young children gather at his parents' house to celebrate his grandmother's birthday. Every year, they leave the routine activities and spend three days sharing with them. It is stipulated in the law that they need to be with their family and they have up to 100 days a year to distribute them as each person wishes.

At her parents' home, preparations are made for the celebration. The grandmother who is one hundred and twenty years old is sitting in her rocking chair, her mind is very lucid and her character very cheerful, the great-grandchildren love her because she tells them wonderful stories of a world of fantastic animals and of men with flying machines that reach other places in the universe. On the planet there are no such machines and people travel in solar-powered cars.

Meanwhile, in the capsule different materials are tested to close the crack, but without result, it seems that an inner force would not allow them to do so. On the night of the seventh day, an alarm begins to sound, it is the signal to indicate that there is a very large leakage of memories from the capsule that begin to expand outside the building that protects them.

There is nothing that can be done, the guardians are desperate, after five hundred years the peace, product of oblivion, is in danger of being lost. It is only a few minutes before they reach Oriana, the first population center.

The guards send warnings to the inhabitants of the town, it is all they can do. They are asked to lock themselves in their homes, to lock doors and windows, but they know that the memories can pass through them and that this measure is only a palliative. They are also told to take the sleeping drops that have been provided to each family for this emergency, but this is not safe either because their effectiveness has not been proven.

At José's parents' house, the news arrives at the moment when they are singing the birthday and when they finish singing, the grandmother begins to cry, she cannot contain herself, she feels an immense sadness, in her mind come the memories of a past of wars, violence, selfishness and destruction of nature. “Mom, why are you crying”, her daughter asks her and everyone comes to comfort her because they think it is because of the emotion. And at that moment the memories are shared and tears roll down the cheeks, unable to contain themselves, the sadness for the past of man has left them shocked.

After that day, people understood the reasons why they had been kept under oblivion, but the memories were very fleeting and life continues its course as it came, the man had changed for the better.

The image of the presentation was edited in Canva with a free-use photograph.