The Briefing

“So, do you understand?”

“No, not really.”

They never do, he thought. In all the countless centuries they’d been doing this, no one ever understood.

“Which part in particular is giving you a hard time?”

“Sort of…all of it.”

He sighed. “You will go down there,” he began, as patiently as possible.

“Yes.”

“You will learn all you can…”

“Right.”

“You will get into politics…”

“Okay.”

“And you will become a powerful and influential leader who will bring hope and peace to everyone.”

“Got it.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“You said I wouldn’t remember this briefing.”

“You won’t. No one ever does.”

“Then…and, sorry to harp on about this…how am I going to do any of that if I don’t remember you telling me to do it?”

“The vessel will not be able to retain the details of this briefing. It is too simple, too small to hold that much data. It would not be possible for you to remember.”

“And I get that. I do. Really, I do. What I don’t get is how you expect me to do these important things you want me to do if—”

“You cannot retain the details of this briefing,” he interrupted. “But the intent will still be there. Do you see?”

“Er…no, not really.”

“You will not remember talking to me, here, but you will remember that you want to help others. Deep inside, in ways you don’t quite comprehend, you will have an innate desire to help others, to treat them fairly, to seek justice and equality for everyone. This will color your decisions and, we hope, lead you on the correct path.”

“Hope? You hope it will?”

“Well, like I said, all you’ll have is the desire to help. Leading others takes more than that. Those are the parts you’ll have to figure out on your own.”

“But I won’t know what those parts are!”

“No, but you won’t be entirely alone. There are others.”

“Others?”

“That’s right. They have…more or less achieved the goals we set for them, and they did so with no more recollection of their briefings than you will have of yours. They’ll be…sort of your team. They’ll have to help you stay on the right path.”

“Do they know what that path is?”

“They do not.”

“This system seems sort of flawed, don’t you think?”

“You’re not the first person to make that point, but it is what it is. We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have at our disposal.”

“So, just to sum up, you’re going to drop me among other people who have no idea what they’re doing and expect them to help me figure out what I’m doing and all you can give me is the desire to help people?”

“That’s about it, yes.”

“Does this ever work?”

“More often than you might think. But, admittedly, we have had some failures. People who never figured out their purpose, or chose not to follow the path we laid out for them or found they were unable to fulfill their objectives. So, we try again with someone else.”

“Is that what I am? A replacement?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, you are. We had a case a while back. Could have been great. Could have saved the world. Decided to use her strength and skill to help herself first and others second. We’re hoping you’ll make better choices.”

“There’s that word again. Hope.”

“You have a problem with hope?”

“I think a real plan would be better.”

“What would you have us do? Dictate to each individual we send down there exactly what they are to do? Give detailed instructions at every step of the way? What would be the point of that? If we did that, we wouldn’t need someone like you to restore peace because there would already be peace. But you know what there wouldn’t be?”

“What?”

“Life. Choice. Possibilities. Free will. I’m not saying the system is perfect, but it’s better than the alternative.” He looked at his watch. “Look, it’s nearly time. Are you ready to go or not?”

“I…I think…yes. Yes, I’m ready.”

“Glad to hear it. Goodbye…and good luck.”

The next thing she knew was darkness, but just for an instant. It was broken by a blinding shaft of white light which she could see even through her closed eyes. She heard voices, screaming, groaning, a million tiny little sounds she would never remember being made by other people who had been given their briefing, come into the light and forgotten it forever, trying to make sense out of their mission in life just as she would soon have to make sense of hers.

Her eyes still shut, she didn’t see the woman on the bed who had always had a desire to rebuild the world which is what led her to study architecture…The man squeezing the woman’s hand who had always put taking care of others before anything else and was, at that moment, achieving his lifelong dream…Or the man in white holding her carefully who had, at his briefing, been imbued with the need to make people feel better when they were suffering.

And as the last vestiges of her briefing vanished from her tiny new mind there was the slap and the pain and she began to cry.

“Congratulations, Mrs. Smith,” said the doctor. “It’s a girl!”