Page 52 of The Secret of Secrets

Sasha wanted desperately to believe what Dr. Gessner was saying, but it all seemed far too good to be true. “I don’t…have any money.”

“The treatment is free, Sasha,” the woman said. “And quite simple.”

The doctor quickly explained a procedure that involved implanting a small chip in Sasha’s skull. If Sasha felt a seizure coming on, she could activate the chip by rubbing a small magnetic wand on her head, which caused the chip to generate electric pulses that interrupted the onset of the seizure…halting the episode before it even began.

“Is that…really possible?” Sasha said, on the verge of tears.

“It is! It’s called a responsive neurostimulation chip. I invented it.”

“But why…would you help me?!”

Dr. Gessner reached across the table and took her hand. “Sasha, I’ve been very fortunate in my life. The truth is that helping you is beneficial to me as well. It makes me feel good to help people who need it. If I can save someone’s life, why wouldn’t I do it?”

Sasha wanted to jump up and embrace this woman, but she was afraid to believe her. In her lifetime, she had rarely received the gift of kindness. “But…what if they won’t let me out of here?!”

“Oh, they’d better,” Gessner said sharply. “I paid them a small fortune to release you.”

Four days later, Sasha awoke in a hospital bed in Prague, groggy from anesthesia and pain medication, but very much alive. When Gessner told her the procedure had been a success, Sasha’s emotions surged wildly and, as often occurred, triggered the stirrings of an oncoming seizure. Gessner calmly produced the magnetic wand and rubbed it on the top of Sasha’s head. Miraculously, Sasha felt the seizure evaporate. It felt to her like a sneeze that never materialized.

She was incredulous.

In the days that followed, Dr. Gessner observed her closely and fine-tuned the device for maximum efficiency. It worked perfectly, and Sasha realized she might never have another seizure again. She even wondered if someday she might miss the tranquility and ethereal bliss that accompanied the post-seizure haze, but it seemed a tiny price to pay for the luxury of functioning in the real world.

One afternoon, as they were running through diagnostic tests, Brigita Gessner casually said, “I’m not sure what your future plans are, Sasha, but I need to hire a lab intern, and frankly you’d be an ideal candidate.”

“Me?” Sasha thought she must have been joking.

“Why not you? You’ve basically spent your entire life in a medical facility.”

“As a patient!” Sasha said, laughing. “Not a doctor!”

“True,” Gessner said, “but you’re an intelligent woman. I’m not asking you to become a doctor or do brain surgery. I’m talking about office paperwork, disinfecting equipment, that sort of thing. Best of all, if you’re working at my lab, we might be able to make improvements in your condition.”

“Improvements? I feel perfect!”

“Really? No more memory loss and blackout periods?”

“Oh…” Sasha said. “There are still those.”

She and Gessner shared a laugh, but in reality, Sasha had indeed forgotten. Her memory had always had blank spots, and she’d just gotten used to it.

“Interictal memory impairment,” Gessner said, “is extremely common in all my TLE patients. I’ve got a few ideas for how we might start to make headway on IMI…that is, if you’ll let me look at your brain from time to time.”

“Of course, but—”

“I have a small apartment in town that I bought for my mother, but she’s been gone awhile, and I’ve never gotten around to selling it. You can stay there as long as you like. It’s furnished, but if you don’t like the style, we can—”

“I love the style,” Sasha burst, on the verge of tears.

That had been two years ago, and Sasha had never left. She was now twenty-eight years old, and her modest salary and the free rent were sufficient to support herself, which was a dream come true. Over time, she progressed from cleaning and doing paperwork to assisting Dr. Gessner in her research and learning how to run the basic imaging equipment.

Brigita scanned Sasha’s brain regularly to monitor progress of her ongoing treatment, which included IV nutritional supplements and brain-training exercises in the virtual reality chair. Sometimes, as a treat, Gessner let Sasha watch VR travel immersions—the Eiffel Tower, the Great Barrier Reef, and her favorite escape, Manhattan. She loved floating over all those skyscrapers or winding through Central Park. Someday, I hope to see it for real…

“Sasha?” A deep voice resonated directly above her. “Are you okay?”

The voice sounded close, pulling her back to the present.

“Sasha?” it repeated.