The Black Box

These Memories are made to last forever.

- Malka Older

THE LIFEBRARIAN was installed just after Sumi’s first birthday. Her grandparents insisted on paying for it. They insisted on the whole thing. Liliana was reluctant; she wanted her daughter to have the kind of life she still thought of as normal.

“It will probably affect the way her brain evolves,” she argued to Hideyoshi. “Imagine if you never had to remember anything.”

Hideyoshi didn’t feel as strongly about it. A lot of people were having it done for their kids at that point. “She doesn’t have to ever use the recall function if she doesn’t want to.”

“And she’s so young to have surgery.” Liliana’s voice sounded as if she was pleading, and Sumi, too young to understand if not too young for surgery, looked up from her building blocks, eyes huge. It was one of the last moments in her life that would not be recorded, and as soon as Sumi’s short-lived consciousness of it melted away, it was gone forever.

“It’s minimally invasive,” Hideyoshi reminded his wife. “There’s barely any scar, and she’s only under anesthesia for an hour.” He didn’t want to go up against Liliana’s parents on this question. Besides, he could already see that Sumi’s childhood was going by too fast for him.