Jack was 24 years old. He was very thin, had an arm longer than the other and also his face was quite deformed. Apart for the obvious features, which one would notice even at a first glance, Jack didn’t walk the normal way and due to his face deformities he spoke in a funny way too. Due to his appearance Jack didn’t have many friends even though he was a nice generous guy. He tried many times to make friends both at school and now even at work but everyone called him monster and other unfriendly names..., everyone except Michael. Michael was his best friend, they both spend lots of time together and sometimes Jack thought what could be the reason why Michael was his friend. Jack knew that Michael was a very generous guy but still, was he his friend because he wanted to or because he pitted him?
Like all other men Jack also felt that he should find a partner but he never had much hopes, even though he tried to approach girls more than once, they all made fun of him as he expected. He often spoke with Michael about this desire he had and Michael each time invited him to meet his other friends and get to know other people but Jack knew that they would only make fun of him, so, what was the use?

One day Michael managed to convince him to go to a cookout with him and his friends. As he excepted most of Michael’s friends behaved as if Jack was not there. Usually Jack would be quite saddened with this but not today. Today he was happily talking to Laura. Laura was quite an attractive girl, very intelligent and also had quite a great personality. Deep inside Jack was amazed that this girl was talking to him but he didn’t want to ruin the magic of the moment by disbelieving it. After the day ended and Michael was taking Jack home, Jack started asking Michael about every detail imaginable on Laura. He asked if she already had a boy friend to which he was relieved when Michael told him that she was single. After Jack finished asking the questions, Michael jokingly asked Jack why he didn’t ask all these question directly to Laura if he is so interested in her to which Jack didn’t say anything but Michael didn’t need Jack to answer because he knew that Jack was quite timid.

The day after, at 6pm Jack bid his mother goodbye and went out to meet Michael near the beach for their periodic walk. Along the way Jack couldn’t help but think about Laura, he thought about how nice it would be if she started going out with them how fantastic it would be if she would maybe one day agree to be his girlfriend. As if the universe had heard his silent cries, or maybe the tide of his destiny was about to turn, there was Laura talking to Michael as he was waiting for Jack. Jack approached happily and said hello. Laura said hello herself and added that she would like to join them in their walk if they didn’t mind. Jack was laughing deep inside, both because he was quite happy right now and also because he found it quite stupid how she could ask such a thing, wasn’t it really obvious that right now that was the thing he most wished in the entire universe?

Three months went by, and Laura kept coming to the walks with them everyday. Jack was very happy because of this, and he really wished to ask her officially out but he just couldn’t find the courage. Then one day he got a call from Michael. Michael told him that today he couldn’t make it for the usual walk because he was sick, but Laura was still going so he should meet with her. Jack wished Michael to get well soon and Michael told Jack to enjoy himself, for both of them if possible. Jack spent the rest of the evening until it was time to go meet with Laura pondering if he should use this opportunity to ask her out.

The time came to as usually bidding goodbye to his mother and leaving happily to meet Laura. He got to the usual meeting point and there was Laura waiting for him. They started walking and talking about the usual stuff. After 15 minutes or so Jack found at last the courage to speak to her. He told her he had something very important to tell her. His heart started beating really fast. He looked in her eyes and told her that she was really special, that she had a heart of gold and that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen or dreamt of. Then all of a sudden his heart lost a couple of beats as he saw a look of sadness starting to form on her face.

She explained to him that he was a really a nice guy and that he was more special than he himself knew. Unfortunately everybody must follow the calling of his or her heart, she explained to him. Tears started rolling down on his face, “what do you mean?” he asked. “We were going to tell you, I promise,” said Laura. At this point Laura started to explain that she and Michael had fallen in love and had been going out together for more than a week. She added that she hopes that they will still be good friends and also that she was really sorry to be hurting him so much.

Jack in his anger cursed both her and Michael, he said that he didn’t except his best friend to back stab him like this. He started running away even though that deep in his heart he knew that it was no body’s fault that it ended like this. But still he didn’t feel like forgiving them at all. He was so angry that he was willing to pay the price, the price was that now he had absolutely no friends.

He got home, opened the door and got in. He was quite thirsty after running all that way as fast as he could so he started going towards the kitchen. Just in front of the swinging door, laying on the ground was his mother. He ran to her all paniced, he prayed along the way that she was all right. He lay down next to her checked her pulse. Nothing. He couldn’t feel a thing. He observed her and realized she wasn’t even breathing. How could all this happen to him. All his life he was unlucky, all his life he suffered, his father died when he was very young. He was born deformed and ugly. He was made fun of all the time as if all this was his fault.
And now, the only couple of nice things in his life, both came to an end. He went out of the house again and started walking uphill. He walked for hours until he came to a cliff.

He looked around, the scenery was quite beautiful. Rays of light filtered through the thin clouds. The reflection of these on the sea was quite picturesque. He looked directly below him. Several hundred meters down were big-sized rocks with small plants growing from every tiny peace of soil. He took a deep breath and let himself fall down.

He felt a sense of freedom and peace as he fell down swiftly to the inevitable. He knew he was about to die but he was not worried at all. He didn’t even scream because for him death was nothing more than to end a cycle of pain. He looked below him and saw the ground approaching fast then blackness.

Thomas walked up to the heavy steel door, he swiped his card through the card slot and put his hand on the panel. The door opened, he stepped in and a voice out of apparently nowhere, greeted him and wished him a good morning. Thomas didn’t feel particularly happy at all today. He didn’t like his job at all but the salary was good and besides all this wasn’t his fault after all.

He walked up to his place, sat down and looked on the big monitor in front of him. On the right bottom corner of the screen there was today’s date, 12th March 4230 and flashing on the center of the screen were the words: Program number #536 incomplete for prisoner number 31931. Thomas took a deep breath and spoke to thin air. “Computer status”, he said. An answer came from in front of him saying that the program was interrupted before its completion because the subject killed himself. By the code of justice a new program has to be selected because unless the program is completed entirely, the amount of life times cannot be reduced for the prisoner. Thomas told the computer to select the next program in line, to which the computer replied that the program anticipated that the prisoner would live a life of 60 years and that the whole program would run in 1 month 3 days. He then turned to his colleague. This is completely unfair, explained Thomas. “It's not fair that we delete this guys personality and create a nightmarish life for them to live, I mean no matter what they did they don’t diserve this for sure”, said Thomas to Frank, who was now listening in silence to what his friend had to say.
Just then, Patrick, the person in charge of the facility, came in and heard what Thomas thought about the entire situation.

“You don’t really agree with our ways Thomas, do you?” said Patrick.

“I don’t mean any disrespect but what we do here is a little inhuman”, replied Thomas. He continued to explain that in his view it wasn’t fair that they were playing with these people lives. He said that it is true that most of these people are murders and that they committed the worst crimes imaginable, but still did they deserve to live virtual miserable lives which their brains were made to believe were completely real?

Patrick replied that Society demands its pound of flesh for crimes committed against it and that its these people fault if they ended here in the first place. Thomas added that not only they are mentally torturing them, but at the end, they also unplug their minds and kill them. “Thomas, you know that we cannot do otherwise, to make the prisoners really pay for their crimes, their mind has to be totally erased and their personality programmed from scratch. Take, for example, your current prisoner, Jack, Am I right? If we didn’t give him a timid personality, he would probably have gone psycho and not lived a miserable life. It has to be like this. There is no other way”

Thomas was not happy with this answer, he said that if they were reprogramming their personality then are they truly punishing the right person? Like for Jack, for example, did they punish Jack the killer or Jack the invalid? And besides they are not making these people live a single life but multiples of them, Jack will have
to live 10 lives which will be hell to him, many more considering that most of the times he ends up killing himself.

Patrick told him that whether they are punishing the right person or not is both a philosophical question and a biological question! Biologically speaking they are punishing the right person, philosophically it’s impossible to say.

“What about that we are making these people live multiple life times in which everything is designed to make them feel miserable? And make every moment of it an agony?” asked Thomas.

“Are you a Christian Thomas?” asked Patrick.

“Yes” replied Thomas.

“Then you believe that if sinners die they are going to hell to be in torment for eternity, we make our prisoners live at most 30 lifetimes even if they suicide in all of them, so really what’s that bad about it.
3000 years are absolutely nothing compared to eternity.!!”

23 July 2000