Interference

The girl sat stretched out on a cast iron chair by the lake. Her hair that covered the back of the chair was slightly played with the cool November breeze. She seemed engrossed in writing while occasionally looking at Jet d'Eau.

Harso's chest skipped a beat. It was the exact same sight he had seen years ago. He could feel himself stepping closer to the girl.

Getting closer to the sweet girl, the wind brought a glimpse of the fragrance of the familiar perfume. Then, as before, some static disturbance began to appear in Harso's sight and hearing. The scent of fragrance came and went. Harso tried to ignore the noise.

It was useless, about ten feet from where the girl sat, Harso's vision became chaotic, full of colorful lines. His ears only heard a meaningless sound, like dozens of radio stations playing simultaneously, while various smells burst forth, sickening. Only the beating of his own heart he could still feel in his chest, the pounding heart and fluttering feelings for the girl.

Harso could no longer accept the chaotic flow of information. He pressed the 'End' button. Darkness and silence enveloped Harso. Shortly thereafter, the capsule door opened with a hissing of the pneumatic piston.

"Failed again?" Roel asked in English from the front of the control panel.

Harso, who was still sitting in the capsule, just nodded. He was still a little nauseous from the stimulus fed by the computer.

"Why only this part of your memory has problem?" muttered Wang, sitting at the computer, in English too, and more to himself, "but it doesn't really matter, at least for this stage. Looks like your case is just an anomaly."

"How the hell could you say it has 'no problem', Wang!" snapped Bianca from another table with a curt face, "looks like Harso has a history with that girl!" She then turned to Harso. "And whatever has to do with our project manager, it must be something important, right?" she continued, glanced flirtatiously at their leader.

Smiling wryly, Harso slowly got up from the capsule, his head still a little dizzy. "Wang is right," he said, "this case doesn't really matter right now. So far, we have managed to get accurate information from the LHC. We will solve this anomaly in my memory later, in the next stage."

"Who the hell is she?" asked Bianca. "That, if we may know," she added hastily.

Harso shrugged while making a small cup of espresso in the coffee machine. "Just someone from my past." He took a sip of black coffee in the cup, "it doesn't really matter," he continued.

"There's no way it doesn't matter!" argued Bianca, "there must be something between you at that time that could make our machine unable to read the incident!"

"Calm down, Har, we'll make sure you can re-witness the incident," Roel said with a big smile.

"Thanks," Harso replied, "as long as you don't waste time just on that part. We've wasted too much time there. We'll fix it in the stabilization stage."

Bianca yawned silently.

Harso glanced at his watch. "Alright, let's end our work today, it's already eleven o'clock at night!" he exclaimed.

Without speaking, the project team he was leading turned off their devices. Before long, they had left the laboratory.

*** 

Early in the morning, Harso could not sleep. After a day of being flooded with events that had happened many years ago, the girl's image, which had started to fade into oblivion, is now clearly engraved in his mind.

Harso came out of the room and walked into the laboratory. On one of the monitors, he loaded the recorded data that several hours ago had shot into his mind. Randomly, he shifted the view left and right, not knowing what to look for. His eyes casually traced the graph, which at first seemed orderly but suddenly turned chaotic, branching and overlapping.

As the display shifted, the chaotic graphics appear to be moving, chaotic and colorful. One of the lines, slowly changing color, grew brighter. No, it wasn't the line that became bright, but the color of the tangled threads around it that was slowly fading.

Harso straightened up at this. Instead, a thump as his head collided with the work table brought him to his senses. Rubbing his stumbling aching temples, Harso scanned the monitor, looking for the lines that had remained colored. None of the graphics have blanched. The curves on the computer screen were still crumpled, and everything was still a confusing bright color.

Harso gave a long yawn. Apparently he was just dreaming. Limply, he turned off the screen and then stood up, about to leave the laboratory. On the way, he was suddenly stunned. Slowly but surely, his mind began to digest and understand the dream he had just had.

Harso knew a thing or two about programming, even though his skill was far below Wang's. He immediately loaded the program his team was working on. Who knows how long it takes to read lines of program code, forcing his limited ability to understand computer language, looking for what he wanted to change.

After modifying the program, Harso rushed into the capsule. He hesitated for a moment, worried that the changes he was making would have a negative impact on him or even the expensive device they were developing. However, he brushed off all doubts, laid on his back in the capsule, put on the helmet, then closed the capsule door, and then Harso started the application.

The helmet turned dark and silent. Before long, the scene that he had witnessed countless times returned. Harso returned to the shore of Lac Leman. The modified results make the audio visual signal feel rough, full of interference and crackling static sounds. The scent of the girl's perfume could no longer be detected, and Harso could no longer even get the emotion that normally travels down his nerve fibers.

Harso's heart skipped a beat as he walked closer. This time, he felt the pulse of his own heart, not the beat of Harso's figure at that time. The interference became more and more as Harso's figure got closer to where the girl was sitting.

The moment he had been waiting for arrived, when Harso's figure was close to the black haired girl. Harso followed inside the capsule, hoped that this time the signal would no longer go awry.

"Hi!" Harso's figure was heard greeted, his voice hoarse at the sound of static.

Harso in the capsule cheered silently. He had never reached this point before.

The girl on the chair stopped writing, then looked back. The girl's brown eyes glared at Harso. Slowly, the girl's smile grew sweet. "Hi!" she replied.

Inside the capsule, Harso was blown away. It had been many years, but the girl's eyes and smile were still able to make him lose her words.

***

With a soft hiss, the capsule opened. Inside, Harso removed his helmet, but remained lying on his back, cursing himself silently for the decision he had made that night. It has been a long time since he had any contact with that girl. Harso thought his feelings for the sweet creature had subsided. Either he was wrong, or the damn computer manages to bring him back to life. At first glance, Harso hopes that time can be turned back, so that he can change the decisions he made at that time.

Harso slowly sat up. His eyes felt heavy. He ruffled his hair, trying to disperse the remaining waves of emotion.

The laboratory door opened. The entire core project team led by Harso stepped in. They gave Harso a probing look.

"We were in the dining room looking for you, Har!" said Bianca, "it turns out you are here!"

Harso smiled weakly. "I can't sleep thinking about the interference we had yesterday," he said.

"And ...?" Roel grunted.

"I made a few changes to your program, Wang," Harso replied.

Wang rushed to one of the computers. "What changes have you made, Har!" he grumbled while loading the program in question, "how many times have I told you, don't touch my program!"

"Calm down, I have a copy," said Harso. "We still don't know what caused the data last night to go awry," added Harso. "the important thing is now that we know how to sort out waste data information, although at this time it's still rough."

Wang took a deep breath. A smile returned to his face. "All right, then," said the man with the slanted eyes, "let's smooth it out."

They immediately sat down in their respective chairs. In the chair, Harso reached for his cell phone, slowly scrolling through the list of names. When the girl's name appeared on the screen, he hesitated for a moment before pressing the 'Call' button.

For a few moments, the phone didn't make a sound. Harso hoped anxiously.

The phone then emitted a series of fast throbbing tones accompanied by a notification that the number he had dialed could not be found.

Harso took a deep breath, ended the call, then went back to work.

***