In the year 2040 Adam Jackson had started to strongly
suspect that he had seen a ghost. How else could he explain having a
conversation with John F. Kennedy?
It had all started when Adam was in the office, working
at his job as an android robot designer. Adam began to feel a strange
pain in his arm. Before long he felt a terrible pain in his chest he
had never felt before. Adam touched the small wafer on his
100-purposes utility wrist-band, and requested immediate medical
assistance. Then he blacked out.
Given what had happened, Adam would not have been
surprised to find himself waking up in hospital bed. Instead he was
surprised to find himself waking up in what looked like a hotel room.
He asked himself: where am I? He looked out the window, but it was
dark, and he could see little.
Adam decided to do a little walking around to try and
found out where he was. He opened the door of his room, and walked
into a hall with many rooms. Adam went to the room next to his, and
tried opening the door.
The door opened, and Adam walked into the room. There
inside the room sitting on a sofa was what looked exactly like John
F. Kennedy, the US president who was assassinated. Adam was
startled.
“Where am I?” asked Adam.
“Good fellow, I'm sure you're better capable of
answering that than me,” said the man in a voice matching the
distinctive Boston accent of John F. Kennedy. “But sit down with
me, and we can discuss some secrets I've never told about how I
handled the Cuban Missile Crisis. Or, if history bores you, we can
discuss my incredibly interesting sex life.”
Shaken by what looked just like a man who had died many
years ago, Adam left the room. He walked down the hall, and opened
another room. Inside he saw a woman sitting on a sofa.
“Excuse me,” said Adam. “I know this sounds
strange, but I don't know where I am. What is this building?”
“My name's Lizzie,” said the woman. “Lizzie
Borden.” She raised up something that was on the sofa, and Adam saw
it was what looked like an ax. Adam quickly exited the room,
shutting the door. In the hall Adam remembered the famous rhyme
inspired by the grizzly murder long ago:
Lizzie
Borden took an ax
And
gave her mother forty whacks
When
she saw what she had done
She
gave her father forty-one
Adam walked back to his room. He started to think about
what he had seen after waking up. What could it mean, seeing two
people who had died long ago? Then a terrible thought occurred to
him: maybe the people he had seen were ghosts. Maybe he had somehow
ended up in the most haunted of haunted hotels.
Adam thought to himself: there's one way to test my
theory – the next time I see one of these “dead” people, I'll
reach out my hand to touch him; and if my hand just passes through him, I'll know he's really a ghost. Adam went out of his
room, and walked further down the hall, opening up a door he hadn't
opened up before.
Walking into the room, Adam couldn't believe what he saw
in front of him. Standing there before him was a figure from history
he recognized. It was Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union with
an iron hand.
“Another visitor – welcome!” said the man in a
thick Russian accent. “Tell me, comrade: would you consider
me your dear friend?”
Adam was just about to say, “Why, of course not; we
only just met.” But then he remembered something about Stalin.
During the 1930's, before World War II, Stalin had sent millions of
people to their deaths in the Great Purges. If there was ever the
slightest suspicion that someone was not an ardent Stalin loyalist,
that person would be shot. Terrified that he
might be shot on the spot unless he answered exactly right, Adam
chose his words carefully.
“Why, in the worker's paradise you have created, Mr.
Stalin,” said Adam, “there is no more ardent supporter of you
than myself.”
Adam remembered how he had to test his theory that he
was seeing ghosts. “In fact, it would be the greatest honor of my
life,” said Adam, “if you only let me touch your shoulder.”
With trepidation Adam reached out his hand, trying to
touch the shoulder of the figure before him. His hand didn't stop
when it reached the figure's shoulder. His hand seemed to disappear
inside the body of Joseph Stalin. Adam gasped, and ran out of the
room.
Adam rushed back to his room. My worst fears are
confirmed, Adam thought. I'm in a hotel filled with ghosts.
Maybe I'm dead myself. Maybe this is how it's like when you die. You
start seeing lots of other dead people, and then you slowly realize
it's because you yourself are dead. I probably died from a heart
attack! That's what those chest pains were – a heart attack that
killed me!
Adam decided to try to leave the building. He walked
down the stairs. He ended up in a lobby that looked like an ordinary
hotel lobby. There he met some ordinary flesh-and-blood people. After
asking lots of questions, and making some electronic queries, Adam
was able to finally sort out what had happened.
He had indeed had a heart attack, and had been rushed to
a hospital. There the doctors had given him the Karposky treatment,
which completely cures heart problems, but causes 36 hours of
unconsciousness. Given the penetration of a genetically engineered
epidemic into the hospital, a dire need to free up hospital beds, and
the lack of any further need for the patient's medical treatment, the
doctors ordered that Adam should be returned to his home. The doctors
had correctly identified Adam's home using his wrist-band, as the
location of 1670 Richards Avenue #7F. But, misled by some sloppy
doctor's handwriting, a pair of medical transport workers had
mistakenly dropped the patient off at 1610 Richards Avenue #7F, a
suite in the newly opened Hologram Hotel.
The historical figures Adam had seen were not ghosts,
but holograms. A manager at the hotel explained the idea of the hotel
to Adam.
“A hologram is a three-dimensional illusion that
resembles something solid, but which is merely a projection using
lasers,” explained the manager of the Hologram Hotel. “Visitors
check into our hotel rooms, and are able to wander into other hotel
rooms, meeting some of history's most famous figures inside the hotel
rooms. Those figures are just holograms – but they look just like
the real thing. And our chatbot software controlling the holograms
makes them talk just like the real thing. It's all great fun for our
hotel guests.”
“I could have sworn they were ghosts,” said Adam.
“We're sorry that you were scared by the mix-up,”
said the manager. “Don't worry, we'll make things up for you by
giving you a 10% discount coupon for your next stay at the Hologram
Hotel.”
“Discount coupon – are you kidding?” said Adam.
“I'm gonna avoid this crazy place like the plague. I wouldn't be
caught dead here – which is just what I thought had
happened.”
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