EMOTION MARKET: the Tailor of Hearts - A gripping psychological thriller

by Dimitris Chasapis

  Caroline couldn’t be sure about anything. It was the era of the program’s implementation! Her research and its findings were documented in full detail, with numerous psychological assessments alongside the discovery of the technology. They examined desires, thoughts and behaviors of certain subjects and had come to solid conclusions. But was it really enough? It couldn’t be! It was impossible to extract a safe conclusion about one’s personal emotional evolution. Caroline recognized that each person experiences emotions in a unique way. This was palpable proof of the uniqueness of each subject.

  She didn’t like how she effortlessly came up with the word subject rather than person. Had she become so cynical? Whether she liked it or not, her medical tech of Emotion Markets could only have people as subjects of study. It was made for them. And it was a good thing… a life-changer.

  CHAPTER 4

  TO MAKE LIFE BETTER

  “I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”

  Virginia Woolf

  30 years ago - Washington,DC

  Their walk in the park that day was different. When Daddy had promised to take her, he couldn’t know he would be in the hospital two days later. The sun was really bright and they had taken off their coats. She had given him hers to hold. His hair had fallen out again. When he came to pick her up from school the previous time he’d lost it, a schoolmate thought he was her grandfather. Dad didn’t seem to mind, but she was crestfallen. Why would that stupid Bobby Bleary think her dad was her granddad? She had been insulted and deeply hurt. A sudden punch in Bobby’s face was enough to get her into trouble, but when the teacher came over, Dad explained what had happened and made it all right again. “It was a misunderstanding,” he said. He got Bobby a big ice cream and had her apologize to her classmate and his mother. It was him who should apologize for saying those horrible things, she thought. Her dad didn’t get her an ice cream but winked at her instead. She would get hers later, when they were alone. She asked the same question then as she did now.

  “When will it grow back again?”

  “Soon pumpkin, don’t you worry about a thing.”

  Everything was OK, her parents had said. It probably was. Dad had dark circles and his face was a bit pale, but his sweet, lazy smile was the same. This would pass, too, they had promised.

  A few days later at school, the teacher told them to write a composition on “The job I want to do when I grow up.” It was an easy subject for everybody, except for Peter and Gabrielle. They were both upset and asked the teacher to set less difficult tasks. Peter cried and some silly kids had laughed at him. Caroline knew very well what she wanted to do; she had discussed it with her parents and Aunt Anna. There was only one profession on her mind. She would become a doctor! She would be an A student, always careful and studious because she knew one had to be excellent to study medicine. Since her daddy’s doctors couldn’t make him well despite all the treatments they put him through, she would. Dad didn’t have to worry at all. She would become the best doctor in the whole world! All Dad had to do was wait for her to grow up. Once she told him so at lunch with her childish, disarming innocence and there were tears in his eyes. Her mom had wept. Caroline couldn’t understand why they were so upset. Three weeks later he passed away.

  The little girl had seemed strong at the funeral and afterwards but something was wrong. Her favorite person in the world was gone, but she didn’t cry at all. The last time she saw him, he looked uncomfortable in that wooden box, suffocating almost. When she asked Mom if Daddy would be OK, she replied he would be fine; she was not to worry. That’s what they kept telling her when he was ill, too, but they had been lying. She would never see him again. Lies, all lies. If they had been truthful, she might have done something, anything – she would have become a doctor sooner, she would study more, she wouldn’t go out to play, she would certainly get her degree in no time at all. They only had to tell her the truth. It wasn’t her fault he was dead, was it? Was it? She should have guessed. She should have known better.

  Months had gone by and Daddy was in Heaven, near God. Her teachers showed her more affection. She got straight A’s and was told she should be in a higher class as she was better than her classmates. She knew it, of course, but didn’t say anything. She hated bragging about herself. Her goal stayed the same; she would become a doctor and save lives. She would save all the daddies in the world since hers was beyond help now. Mommies seemed to be doing OK and lived longer. Probably it was God’s will so they could raise their kids or something like that. Caroline found death interesting. One day the teacher told them about the growing birth rate in countries like India and China. There were other countries where there were more deaths than births. One student asked if it was possible for a whole day to go by without even one death. The teacher smiled and said that was impossible. Caroline remembered her granny in Boston where she spent the summers. The old lady used to read the obituaries in the paper. She then announced the bad news to grandpa and they talked about whether they should attend some of the funerals. People they knew didn’t die every day, but Gran liked to find out who she had outlived. Caroline finally realized death was there to stay and nothing she did would change that. No vaccine existed against it. It didn’t matter how good a doctor she became, lots of daddies would still die. She felt so helpless…

  That day she went back home feeling hopeless. In the evening she pretended to feel sleepy. She loved having fairy tales read to her; her mom had such a sweet voice, but she needed to think and knew that before long she wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes open. She had to find a solution. If she couldn’t save them all, then what was she to do? She would have to find a way to improve their lives while they were still around. She remembered her daddy; her eyes filled with tears and she felt a sharp pain on the right side of her head. This happened every time she thought about his death. Why did this happen? She was still too young to know that painful emotions cause electrical stimuli in the right hemisphere of the brain. Just before she fell asleep, she had an idea. If she couldn’t stop death, she would find a way to make life better. What was the point of having a long life unless you are happy? Yes, that was it! She would make people happy!

  That night she was smiling when she drifted off…

  CHAPTER 5

  EMOTION MARKET MANIFEST

  “That’s the one! It has already reached 10 million views within 30 minutes. Put it on the big screen, please, and call everybody in here,” said Ashton Delaware, President of Emotion Market Europe.

  The situation in ICEC’s central offices in New York was totally chaotic. The scheduled date for the presentation of the “Emotion Market Manifest” was a month later. A certain someone, though, had managed to hack into the central system of the Emotion Market Industry and had leaked the file on the internet. This manifest was very significant and the EM Company had paid for a global advertising campaign. The reason why the industry was laying low at the moment was that there were still ongoing clinical trials concerning the use of EM tech. One would think that Caroline Emerson’s Nobel awarded discovery wouldn’t need a massive campaign, but the truth told by the statistics was quite different.

  Any new medical tech that had to do with consumers’ health had to undergo a specific period of clinical trials. Societies around the globe, though, were anxious and eager to try this medical tech marvel as soon as possible.

  Emotion Markets promised to change one’s emotional self for psyche evolution! But still the EM industry lacked the results of clinical trials. Therefore, the consumer had to take absolute responsibility with his or her consent to an emotional invasive procedure. That was scary for most… The efficiency of the service was guaranteed, but what was missing was proof that purchased emotions wouldn’t overlap. It was common sense that a single emotion can affect so many others, perhaps all... This was mainly the problem that
made the whole discovery limp along, but still there were millions of people that were willing to try the service anyway. It was a rather typical battle for influencing public opinion. The manifesto had reached 2 million views in one hour from the time it was uploaded, and now all the related associates had gathered in the main hall of the ICEC building could read the following, together with millions of others.

  OFFICIAL MANIFEST OF EMOTION MARKETS

  A few words for the product

  Definition of Emotion:

  “An emotion is defined as something that a person feels when assessing an event in a particular way and usually leads to changes in the human body or its behavior. All emotions are prompts to action. Therefore, emotions lead to actions which can be perceived.” (Goleman 2001)

  Generally an emotion is defined as an intense psychosomatic experience that leaves the individual in a positive or negative mood. This psychosomatic experience can be caused by factors that are both external and internal to the individual agents. An emotion is a complex subjective conscious experience: the combination of mental state, psychosomatic expressions and biological reactions of the body. It is what a person “feels,” not as a mere feeling but as something deep inside, that acts on the body (e.g. heart rate) and “soul” and is almost always expressed (face, voice, posture) and is observable by others.

  During emotional arousal one acts impulsively, without calculating the best strategy for action. From experiments that observe the activity in the motor cortex of the brain, decisions are usually taken from 6 and up to 10 seconds prior to awareness.

  Many psychologists distinguish emotions in different categories but don’t have a general consensus on these. The most basic division is into pleasant and unpleasant, namely those that attract and those that repel.

  Human emotions are: love, affection, happiness, lust, love, passion, zeal, awe, admiration, pride, ecstasy, excitement, joy, compassion, mercy, serenity, pleasure, satisfaction, fullness, harmony, confidence, trust, relief, wonder, embarrassment, indifference, anxiety, impatience, surprise, fear, terror, horror, anger, shame, shyness, guilt, rejection, misery, despair, grief, sorrow, loneliness, hostility, enmity, hatred, envy, disbelief, frustration, contempt, disgust, anhedonia, boredom, jealousy, etc.

  The Emotion Market Company offers the following services:

  • Measurement of the existing volume in one or more emotions

  • Adjustment of the emotional volume to the desired degree of intensity

  The procedure is painless and short in duration. The volume of selected emotions, having first been agreed upon, is uploaded to the EM main processor and then follows the actual invasive procedure during which the selected emotional volumes are transferred into the customer’s brain via the EM cap. The EM cap once worn starts to emit a wide range of audiovisual and electronic signals that target precise locations of the prefrontal cerebral cortex, adjusting the individual’s existing emotional volumes with precision to the desired degree of intensity.

  Within minutes the invasive procedure is completed and a new measurement is administered to the recipient. The new measurement is written proof of the new intensity of an emotion. Finally, the customer gets the ICEC’s annual guarantee of duration for the purchased emotions together with the Heart-Box. The Heart-Box is the official trademark of the Emotion Market Company and has both commemorative and usability purpose. Inside the Heart-Box is a USB stick with archives of the client’s emotional invasive procedure and a metal bracelet (platinum, gold, titanium) with a unique barcode carving that represents the numbers and symbols of one’s emotional identity.

  A new day has come!

  Modify your emotions in order to achieve their optimum performance in your daily life. We are what we feel. Change aspects of yourself to become what you’ve always wanted and now can become! Don’t let emotions block your path to fulfillment. Enhance your emotional self in an Emotion Market for a healthier, longer and happier life!

  The text ended with clear terms and conditions, which the customer had to accept upon signing the contract. All this was before the invasive procedure. The lawyers of the Emotion Market Company had left nothing about this contract open to interpretation. The customers had to sign that they read and understood the terms and conditions and that they agreed to be solely responsible for the selection of emotions and their purchased intensity. No future claim could be addressed to the EM Company. It was a rather typical contract of a colossal service providing company that left no space for ambiguity. The client had to be solely responsible for everything!

  The most exciting part of this file that leaked and became viral within minutes was the video that was appended. It was a video feed from an Emotion Market throughout the entire course of a client’s visit. The woman had simply consented to the recording of her visit.

  Both the sound and image of this video were in HD.

  The salesman of the emotion market that undertook the service of the woman was obliged to get her consent. He formally asked if she would be willing to participate in their quality monitoring of the service, as one of their first thousand customers. The salesman also explained that the use of this recording was for the EM Company’s purposes only, to enable them to keep track of the development process in order to correct potential failures and optimize the customer’s experience. She had agreed in writing and was actually glad she could help.

  The video feed was as follows:

  “Hello there and good morning!” said the EM salesman.

  “Hello,” the woman replied.

  “How may I be of service?”

  “It’s my first time in an EM and I’m not aware of the procedure… Could you brief me please?”

  “That’s why I’m here, Miss.” He took a quick glance at her identity papers. “Miss Packard. I’m here to serve you in the best possible way according to your needs! What would you like to ask?”

  “Well sir…”

  “Call me Robert!”

  “Well, Robert, I’m not quite sure how this whole system works. Lately I’ve been suffering from a lack of emotions and a friend who came here a week ago advised me to give it a try.”

  “Very well, so you lack certain emotions. Have you identified these emotions yourself?”

  “Yes… I mean some of them. Some were pointed out to me by friends. That’s the problem, you see. I can’t really comprehend other people’s problems, anxieties and needs. I find it irritating that people are so needy.”

  “People are needy.”

  “Well not me. Anyway, their assumption is that this behavior of mine is due to a lack of interest and not actually caring for them. They say I’m indifferent.”

  “You’ve come to the right place, Miss Packard! Your friends are right! If I may say, such a pretty woman as you needs to do what’s right to improve her inner self… her emotional state of being.”

  “You’re being kind. So can you actually trigger the emotion of interest inside me… or limit my apathy on things?”

  “You name it, we can do it! Perhaps you would like to discuss the reasons that brought you to this emotional state of indifference.”

  “Well now, if you have time to waste for my little issue…”

  “I don’t consider it a waste of time, Miss Packard. This is what I do and perhaps over the discussion we can shed some light on aspects of your personality. As it happens, I have a degree and a PhD in psychology from Yale University.”

  “I have offended you… I’m sorry… just thought that I’ve come to a market and not a psychologist.”

  “The qualifications of the people here are very specific, Miss Packard. You’re absolutely right – you have every right to treat your emotions the way you see fit. After all, this is indeed an emotion market and not a psychology clinic. Bear in mind, though, that the term ‘market’ is intended to satisfy a very specific purpose.

  “And what purpose is that?”

  “The company’s name, miss, is directly linked to the acceptance o
f this amazing medical tech from the public. People are used to buying from markets things they need in their everyday life. Enhancing or reducing the volume of our emotions is equally important and necessary for our lives! We are what we feel and our life adjusts accordingly to our emotional state.”

  “I appreciate you doing this, but I would rather buy my emotions without having to go into this conversation with you. My time is limited, you see…”

  “As you please... So you want to reduce the volume of your apathy for others… your indifference. Do you have in mind at what percentage?”

  “Doesn’t this depend on the current percentage of the emotion?”

  “Of course, apathy is a state of being combined with many emotions, but still it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll know within seconds.”

  “And let me ask you this, because you spoke of seconds… I can’t help but wonder about the validity of the measurement. How can someone be sure that the measurement of an emotion’s current volume is accurate? Cause if it’s not, the emotional invasive procedure could be catastrophic, right?”

  “Calm down, Miss Packard. The technology used in every EM is state of the art! The procedure is supervised by the ICEC; it’s also accompanied by a certification of precise measurement and on top of that, the ICEC’s guarantee.”

  “I’m sorry, but I know nothing about the procedure. You must think I’m a fool, but… it’s just that when my friend tried to explain it, I was late for a date with my fiancé. How does it work exactly?”