A Dialogue
Smith
(nephew): I have to remember something in order to
remember what I have to remember.
Uncle Tom:
First of all, will you remember what I would like you to remember?
Smith:
That is exactly what I am trying to say!
Uncle Tom:
Listen! Remember the last time we went fishing? (Smith nods his head in
agreement) Ah! You must remember that at least…
Smith:
Do you mean the day we came back empty-handed? The day we were so embarrassed in
front of Aunt Suzan?
Uncle Tom:
That’s not important. I am trying to make a point here. Do you remember the day
I shared my last wishes with you?
Smith:
Ah! Yes! I remember the thundering storm because of which we caught nothing
that day. Oh! Now, this reminds me how we talked about life and how it could be
stormy and dark… How our bones will one day become too brittle and muscles too
rigid to follow what we want. We also collected pebbles which looked just like
ladybugs! Oh! Those pebbles…
Uncle Tom: Smith,
that’s not the day we talked about my last wishes! True, the thundering storm
had given us an empty catch. But it was the dry river bed and not the dark
clouds which made us talk about death and dying.
Smith: Do
you mean I can’t exactly remember the day we collected those pebbles stored in
my cardboard? But those pebbles remind me of us talking about your last wishes!
Uncle Tom: All
I am trying to say is, yes, we had come home empty-handed due to the storm. But
that’s not the day we had collected those pebbles.
Smith:
But Aunt Suzan was so annoyed with us for coming home with a bucketful of
pebbles instead of fish! We were equally embarrassed too!
Uncle Tom: Oh!
Surely she was annoyed with us, but not for the pebbles but for my childish
behaviour!
Smith: (Nods
his head in slight confusion)
Uncle Tom:
The day we collected those ladybug-like pebbles was hot and sunny. Most of the
good fishing areas were almost dry. That is the day we talked about my last
wishes…
Smith: Oh!
Now I remember! The stormy day, empty catch, and annoyed Aunt Suzan happened
just before summers! The dried up river beds, the conversation about your last
wishes, and the collection of pebbles happened in late winter! That day, Aunt
Suzan was off visiting her ailing elder sister! She wasn’t even home!
Hahahaha…!
Uncle Tom: Thank
god you could pull apart those two distinct memories! I thought I was
the one going crazy!
Smith: Don’t
worry Uncle! I have preserved the pebbles carefully. In fact, the hymn ‘Rock of
Ages’ which we sing regularly in our Sunday service also keeps reminding me of
your last wishes…
Uncle Tom: (Humming)
Rock of ages, cleft for me.... Let me hide
myself in thee…
The Theoretical Plot in Brief:
In
the above dialogue, Uncle Tom tries to reflect what unique situation triggered him
to talk about his last wishes with Smith, his nephew. However, Smith starts
constructing the memory by associating it with similar memories. This leads him to construct
false memories (also called confabulated or refabricated memory).
He tries to recombine bits and pieces of different (perhaps similar) memories
into a single, cohesive memory. That is how he tries to fit his annoying Aunt
Suzan in both the cases even though she was only present in one, because she
always got annoyed when they returned empty-handed. Smith has the whole scheme
of what his Uncle is trying to say but in a confabulated manner, where some
details are vague or misplaced. Since it has been encrypted in his memory like
reality, Uncle Tom has to make extra efforts to separate the two episodic
memories. Throughout the dialogue, Smith uses mnemonics to remember one
incident in relation to another. He has the inclination to connect a memory, an
object (the ladybug-like pebbles), and hymns to construct the entire episode
and also keeps his Uncle’s last wishes in his long-term memory.
