The Tower

Tony’s wrinkled hand hovered above the switch. He hesitated for a moment and looked at Helena. Her old eyes were fixed on the switch.

“Why are we doing this again?” Tony asked her. They were on the roof of the local trendy shopping centre. Helena looked up at him. Her eyes seemed very anxious.

“We’ve been planning this for two years now,” she replied with her gracefully stern voice, “it’s too late to turn back now.”

He remembered it. It was a plan they came up with in the old-folk’s home. They were tired of being old, while the young ones were wasting their youth and magnificent brain power on videogames and reality TV shows. They then decided to build a machine to extract the cerebral potential from anyone under the age of sixty. This would cause them to be more like old folk – forgetful and nonsensical. The cerebral potential would then be distributed among the elderly, so that they can feel young again; young in mind at least.

Tony had his doctorate in engineering, but he couldn’t remember how he even built the machine. He couldn’t even remember how it’s supposed to work, how they got it on the roof or why they decided to make it a tower. All that mattered was that it worked.

“Okay, here goes nothing,” and Tony flicked the switch. A low humming sound could be heard from the tower, which was as tall as a door. There was a red light at the tip. Apart from the machine being on, neither Tony nor Helena could see or feel anything different.

“Is it working?” Helena asked nervously as she gazed at the bright red dot.

“I’m not sure,” he replied looking at all the wires of the machine, “maybe it needs time to… charge?”

“How long do must we wait?”

“I don’t kn–”

Then it struck him like lightning. The sensation travelled through his whole system. It was as if a great fog had been lifted. He could see clearer, he could think clearer and he remembered where he put the TV remote. It was amazing! Tony looked at Helena, who was looking around her with big wandering eyes.

“Woah,” was all she managed to say.

“We should have done this a long time ago,” he said excitedly, “like when I started forgetting my keys in the fridge.”

“Wait, how is this affecting the young folk?” Helena suddenly realised.

Through the fire escape, they went back inside the shopping centre. For a moment, everything looked fine, but then Tony and Helena saw the sea of confused faces. No one, under the age of sixty, knew what was happening to them. They looked around like curious meerkats.

“What’s happening to them?” Helena asked as she clutched Tony’s arm. Most of them looked really frustrated. One was even hitting himself on the head.

“I’m not sure,” he replied, but he knew what was happening to them. Their minds were degrading. They were becoming more forgetful; just like old people. Tony knew that this would happen, but he didn’t think it would look this terrifying.

A handsome young man approached Tony and Helena with a very confused look on his face.

“Uhm… Sorry to bother, but do you two perhaps know where my glasses are?” he asked anxiously. Helen saw that the spectacles in question were resting on the top of his head.

“They are on your head, young man,” she replied pointing to them. The young man looked up and put his hands on his head. His face was filled with relief.

“Oh, thank goodness,” he said gratefully putting on his glasses, “it seems like my mind’s going. If only I can remember where I left my daughter.”

The young man walked away from Tony and Helena towards the other side of the shopping centre. Tony saw the horror on Helena’s face.

“This is terrible,” she told Tony, “is this what we look like to normal people?” A child was crying somewhere in the mall, which made every other child vocalise their frustration.

“Yes… basically.”

As they walked to the entrance of the shopping centre, the effects of the tower somehow got worse. People have started yelling at each other, even though they have forgotten why they started yelling in the first place.

“Give it back!”

“I’ve got nothing!”

“Say sorry!

“Why are you crying?!”

“You did something, I’m sure of it!”

There were also people who were just staring at the ceiling. They were pretty peaceful.

When they reached the entrance, they saw the carnage being caused outside. A car crashed against one of the shopping centre’s pillars. The driver was shouting at the passenger: “I said I was sorry! I forgot I was driving, okay?!”

“Oh, this is horrible, Tony!” Helena said tugging at Tony’s arm. “We need to fix this! We can’t let this carry on.”

“But, Helena,” he started, “we’ve worked two hard years on this. All our efforts would then be for nothing. We wanted to teach them a lesson.”

“Tony, I think they’ve learnt their lesson.”

“No, they didn’t! They don’t even know what is happening!”

“Tony,” she said and Tony looked at her. He saw the sadness in her eyes. “I don’t think I can handle living knowing I caused this.” Tony sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Okay,” he said in defeat.

They quickly went back to the roof of the shopping centre. The tower looked menacing with the bright red light at the top. Tony quickly found the switch. He looked at Helena. She looked at him and gave him a nod. After hesitating a bit, Tony flicked the switch. He could feel the clarity leaving him as the humming of the tower died down. Everything felt foggy again. He looked back at Helena and she smiled.

“It was the right thing to do,” she said smiling.

“I know,” he said, “but I just have one question.”

“What?”

“How do we get off of here again?”