Dr. Ryshard shifted in his seat, which was odd. It showed discomfort, something he shouldn't be able to feel. “Tell me,” He said, “What do you know about the system that makes our world perfect?” He said.
Sam had heard of it everyone had. Emotional Resonance. Though the details were always a bit vague.
“All negative emotions are muted, leaving only the positive emotions to be experienced,” Sam said.
Dr. Ryshard pursed his lips and bobbed his head in partial agreement. “Yes,” He said, “And no. You see, imagine every person in the world is like so many tiny pools of water, and their emotions are like ripples. Some ripples are calming, others disruptive. What Emotional Resonance does, in simple terms, is collect all of those disruptive ripples and focus them all into one pool, allowing the rest to continue on peacefully.”
Sam frowned and looked away from the group of people gathered before him, thinking. The sky outside was clear and blue but if it gave him any joy he couldn't tell. Anger and depression swelled up again inside of him.
“And so now I'm that pool?” He demanded, making the others in the room shy back.
Dr. Ryshard sighed. “It would appear so,” He said calmly.
“Well I don't want it!” Sam screamed. “Pick someone else. Get a volunteer. I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!”
The others in the room backed even further away at this outburst. Everyone except Dr. Ryshard.
“I'm afraid no one ever has a choice in this matter,” Dr. Ryshard explained in his still, calm voice. “When my father first implemented the use Emotional Resonance, he thought everyone would benefit. Then they found the first Crier.”
“The what?” Sam interrupted.
“Crier, it's the term they use for people like you.”
“Because we cry,” Sam muttered angrily.
“Given their options at the time, I believe it was a rather gentle term.”
Sam glared at Dr. Ryshard.
“You see,” Dr. Ryshard went on, “They only found the first Crier after he died. His family hadn't heard from him, he'd stopped going to work, never answered his phone. But no one was all that concerned, no one could feel concerned. Eventually his neighbor went to see him and found him dead. He'd killed himself. Two more Criers died before my father and his colleagues were able to figure out what was going on.”
“And that was?” Sam prompted when Dr. Ryshard paused in his explanation.
“Could I have a glass of water?” Dr. Ryshard asked.
“What? No!” Sam exclaimed and moved to get to his feet. What he intended to do once he got there he wasn't sure but he couldn't just sit.
The woman on his other side reached out her arm and took hold of his shoulder, preventing him from getting up. Sam bumped back down, his head knocking against the back of the couch painfully. She gently stroked his back before he could react and that was enough to take the edge off his anger and keep him in his seat.
“Unfortunately,” Dr. Ryshard continued as though there had been no interruption, “We can't control who becomes a Crier. Nor can we take this calling away from you.”
“But why?” Sam asked, aware of the tears that were beginning to run down his face.
“Let's go back to the analogy of the ponds,” Dr. Ryshard said. “Let's imagine that there were a device that could transmit a sound that would steady the water, cancel out the larger waves. Well, some times, there would be a pond who's waves were out of synch. They would be strengthened, rather than dampened. Emotional Resonance works in a similar manner with one exception.”
“And what's that?” Sam asked.
“Human emotions, unlike ripples the in a pond, change the signal,” Dr. Ryshard said. “Every time the Emotional Resonance signal affects a person, taking away their negative emotions, the signal changes. Over time those changes add up until, somewhere in the world, those changes have to be removed from the signal or else the system falls apart.”
Dr. Ryshard became very interested the carpet and the backs of his hands as he gathered his thought. Sam wanted to speak, he had a thousand arguments to make, but somehow he couldn't find the will to voice them. He wanted to die. Let it all end, let the world and all of it's terrible misery die with it.
“We've tried putting relays in the system that could reboot the signal. Tried medication for the Crier. Countess other thing. Nothing works. The most we've ever accomplished was to cancel out the signal,” Dr. Ryshard's face darkened, “And that was the worst moment of all. So many people, suddenly feeling emotions they'd never had to deal with, it–”
“Oh, poor them,” Sam said, “How terrible for them to feel their own emotions. What about me? I have to feel EVERYONES!” He didn't mean to scream but he couldn't help it. Now that he knew these emotions weren't his, the random fluctuations were easier to detect. Certainly, his personal emotions played a role in which emotions got the focus and attention, but the intensity, the instability, was not his own.
“Thousands died that day,” Dr. Ryshard said.
“But they weren't Criers,” Sam noted.
“No, they weren't,” Dr. Ryshard agreed, “But they were all born after the invention of Emotional Resonance. They'd never experienced depression, disappointment, anger. They had no coping mechanisms to help them.”
“And what about me?” Sam asked. “How long before I just go and jump off a building?”
“You won't.”
“Why not? I want to.”
“But you won't,” Dr. Ryshard assured him. “You see,” He went on, “It seems that each Crier is selected because they have a naturally strong desire to live as well as a high resistance to the negative emotions. Now true, many of the early Criers took their lives, but they didn't have what you have.”
“And that is?” Sam asked, knowing, and hating, that Dr. Ryshard's words were true.
“Understanding,” Dr. Ryshard said. “You know why you suffer, that the pain is not yours and so you may, perhaps, find a way to detach yourself from it. Others in the past have done so.”
“But why not just shut off the signal?” Sam pleaded.
“I already told you what happened before, when we accidentally canceled out the Emotional Resonance.”
“Give them warning,” Sam said, “Besides, a few thousand people scattered throughout the world—
“The signal was not lost over the entire world,” Dr. Ryshard interrupted, “Only in one town. Barely a handful of people were left and they were mostly the ones who were either too old or too young to end their suffering.”
Dr. Ryshard stood, the woman on his other side following suit.
“So what do I do now?” Sam asked.
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