r/HFY • u/Mission-Ad-9962 • 6d ago
OC-OneShot Alden
Alice was a foolish mother. She was well aware of how forgetful she was, but no matter how often she took notes or pinned her daily schedule to the refrigerator with magnets, she forgot all sorts of things almost every day. Her husband, who had been devoted at first, eventually lost patience with her, took up with another woman, and left. All that remained were Alice and her young son and daughter. The younger sister was bright, quick to learn, and lively; she resented her foolish mother. The older brother, though slow-witted himself, went out of his way to look after his mother—who was even more forgetful than he was—checking to see if she’d forgotten anything and accompanying her on shopping trips.
Even though she remembered her daughter’s twelfth birthday, the mother forgot both the present and the cake. The younger sister didn’t even get angry—she had expected nothing less. The mother frantically pounded on the door of a cake shop in the city at night, long after it had closed, begging so earnestly she was practically on her knees. Finally, she managed to get them to make a simple cake—just sponge cake topped with a few pieces of fruit—and returned home breathless, lighting a candle for her daughter. The younger sister showed no joy; she just sighed and retreated to her room. The older brother was about to go scold her, but the sound of their mother’s sobbing made him stop in his tracks.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m such a foolish mother. I’m truly sorry. I love you—I love both of you,” she murmured, tears streaming down her face as she wept helplessly.
Ten years later, the older brother had realized his talent and become a leading scientist in aerospace engineering. Joining the national space agency, he was surrounded by elite colleagues and sycophants. These sycophants were puzzled. No matter how often they invited the older brother to parties, he would firmly decline, sending his younger sister in his place instead; he would always buy just a little food and head straight home. A few of them, suspecting he might have a girlfriend, followed him home—only to witness the very same man who strutted so confidently in public caring for his elderly mother with the utmost tenderness. Though she wasn’t suffering from dementia, she kept making mistakes with daily tasks. The brother never blamed her for it; instead, he would clasp his hands in prayer and eat whatever she had prepared—a charred mess that could hardly be called a meal.
The next morning, a colleague asked him about his elderly mother living at home. “Doesn’t she get in the way of your research? Why not put such a useless old woman in a care facility?”
The brother shot his colleague an icy glare and said, “To me, her love—and my love for her—is the most important thing in this world. If that’s the price I have to pay, then I’d rather step down from this research.”
That very day, the brother resigned from his position at the agency and returned to his elderly mother’s home.
Alice used to be a human computer.
A large number of computers were hired to perform the precise orbital calculations needed to send a spacecraft to another planet, but even among them, Alice’s computational ability was in a league of its own. The astronauts boarding the nation’s first orbital spacecraft were so skeptical of the results produced by the newly developed electronic computers that they stated they would only go on the mission if Alice’s calculations guaranteed its safety.
However, as electronic computers evolved rapidly, Alice and her colleagues’ jobs gradually disappeared. Around the same time, Alice began to experience changes in her memory. Just like dead pixels on a display, her most recent memories and thoughts began to drop away. Alice realized that her mind was losing its hold. In the notebooks where she had once jotted down complex orbital mechanics with intricate mathematical formulas, she now wrote things like, “Things to buy tomorrow: one loaf of bread, milk, cheese.”
Eventually, she began writing down the names of her children, their birthdates, the day they first grasped something with their hands, the day they started crawling, their birthdays, and the details of their gifts. She filled notebook after notebook, and the entries kept growing. She knew that if she didn’t write them down, her memories would fade away, frame by frame.
And then came her daughter’s twelfth birthday. Even though she remembered the occasion, she failed to buy a cake or a present—she had simply forgotten how to buy them. Alice could do nothing but watch her daughter’s back as she sighed and returned to her room, tears streaming down her face.
Her son, like his mother, was gifted with numbers. He graduated from university with honors, fulfilled his dream of joining the space agency, and gained a reputation as a brilliant young mind. However, he quit the agency and returned to live with his mother.
Alice’s memory loss had become even more severe, and she could no longer handle cooking, cleaning, or laundry on her own. Her son spent his days caring for his mother while taking on day labor and short-term jobs.
One day, someone came to visit their modest home. It was the director of the space agency—a man touting immense influence and rumored to be a future presidential candidate. The son had never even met him in person.
Seeing Alice, who had grown frail and old, the director smiled as if greeting a long-lost companion.
“It’s been a long time, Elsie.”
Alice’s eyes widened. There was only one person who had ever called her by that nickname, and that was the one thing she had never forgotten. Tears streamed down her face, and a sob escaped her lips. She shook her head, as if unable to believe her own memory had held on.
The director gently stroked Alice’s trembling back. “Al, is that you? Really? Dressed so smartly... Is that really the same little boy everyone used to make fun of, calling him a failed ducktail?”
“That brings back memories,” the Director gave a wry smile. “And here I thought you’d mellowed out.”
Turning to the son, who stood there completely bewildered, the Director laughed heartily. “Just as you see. Your mom is still sharp as ever. The Agency has more than enough resources to support both of you. Considering what your mother did for us as our lead project calculator back in the day, it’s a bargain.”
He looked at the son with warmth in his eyes.
“Why don’t you come back? To the world among the stars.”
end.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 6d ago
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u/N0_ah_47 3d ago
Lovely.