Fugue: 2012

Fugue: 2012

By G.J. Lentz



“It was a day for which none of us would forget,” so began Kitty Hewidd, investigative reporter for the Global News Networks. She paused a good moment before continuing; her gaze locked to the camera and the eyes of billions of viewers.



Kitty was a captivating woman, her journalism and anchoring were none-the-less. It was her shows first broadcast and it came upon the anniversary of the Event, of which her success surrounded about, as did the entirety of the world.



“I'm Kitty Hewidd, and welcome to tonight's show,” she continued as the camera angle swiveled and zoomed back from a close-up. Again she paused, connecting with her viewers. She was undoubtedly a striking woman: bright and intelligent hazel eyes glittered with a bit more green, like flakes of emerald. Her hair was a rich auburn and had a stylish yet common enough appeal. She wore a blouse of earthy tones accented with a dash of turquoise and silver in her brooch, necklace and earrings. She portrayed both professionalism and some everyday people connectivity in her appearance and demeanor.



“Tonight is the first of a year long series we will be bringing to you here on GNN. We are broadcasting live tonight from Embassy City, New York. Tomorrow morning the World Reconciliation Council will meet and sign the World Treatise, unifying our world under one global governing community. It is a historic event, one that comes out of the tribulations our world has faced these past years since the unprecedented Event of 2012.”



Kitty Continued. “In the moment of airing I said that it was a day for which none of us would forget, but too it was a day when many around the world did forget. It was because of this Event that the world we knew is not the world today. Trying times had long been upon us as individual nations and as a global community. Our future was uncertain...and never before so had it been as we faced the uncertainty that befell our world that day on December Twenty-first of Two-thousand and Twelve. As a new era is heralded in, and a new generation comes into its own, people from all over the world now ask themselves, 'Where were you in 2012?'. It has been fifteen years since the Event and still we have no idea how or why it happened, but more importantly we had to pick up the pieces and move on. Many know that our world today is now a greater place than it has ever been, and some ask if it had to have taken such a worldwide phenomenon and tragedy to see a better tomorrow.”



The camera switched angles, and zoomed out slowly to make room for a super-imposed screen to Kitty's right, showing a panoramic view of New York City, at the sight of the former United Nations complex. “This show begins here in Embassy City upon the beginning of a New World Order, where dignitaries and everyday people have gathered all week for the historic signing and to celebrate the first day of the rest of our lives. It will be a year long dedication to we the people, as I bring to you the most intimate of stories from around the world, from the day of the Event to this present time when we once and for all shed the last remnants of our fractured society and become a united Global Commonwealth. From the Day We Forgot to the Day We Shall Remember will bring you the stories that got us here today, and they will be told by those who lived them and on location all around the world.”



Again the camera panned and focused back on Kitty as she continued with her broadcast. “But first tonight, we have a very special guest to start off the series. The Former United States President and now Ambassador of the Americas to the Global Council,” so announced Kitty as she pivoted her position with the camera panning to introduce the Ambassador.



“Thank you Kitty, it is a pleasure beyond words to be here with you tonight,” the Ambassador said with a warm smile. “To be here with you all,” he added.



The Ambassador had a strong look about him for all the troubles of the past years. He had been a rather young President, yet the tolls of Office had begun to show after his first term. He was definitely aged, but he looked stoic and dignified for the years and toils he had stayed. His darker toned skinned still had a healthy color, though his hair seemed to have taken the brunt of time with its silver-gray hues. He had long been bare faced, as was proper of those in high office, but he now wore a well groomed beard that was short and gave him both a warmer and dignified aesthetic.



Kitty smiled warmly and gave him a nod of acknowledgment. “A pleasure indeed Ambassador. As you know, my first assignments were on the transition of the United States Presidency. You had lost your second term election in 2012, but before the President Elect could take office the following year, you and she were afflicted. It was a most trying time for people all over the world, but to have their leadership effectively beheaded truly brought the United States government to a grinding halt. I've got to say that your former Presidency and the Event, and now your having been a leading member of the World Reconciliation Council and Ambassador of the Americas has been a true coming of full circle. To have you here tonight as we begin this saga and era is most befitting, thank you.”



The Ambassador replied. “I am pleased to be here and to serve the Americas and all the world as we start a brand new day Kitty. It is truly befitting in more ways than one. Tomorrow when we celebrate the Unification it is definitely the first day of the rest of our lives, and so very significant of all we have had to persevere since 2012, when we came upon another day of which in a very real sense too was the first day of the rest of our lives. It was a day that started us on this path, so the significance of tomorrow is beyond mere words. There are so many that aren't here today that should be, it is rather bitter sweet. December Twenty-first brought a new meaning to live for today. As we both sit here, we are of a sort that reflects the lives of our world. Everyone was effected by the Event, even they themselves were not afflicted of the Event. As you mentioned, I like many others were afflicted, and I have had to embrace a new life from the old, just as those like yourself who were not afflicted, but affected have had to brave the waters of change and uncertainty.”



“Well said Mr. Ambassador, and so very true,” Kitty responded as the camera panned and focus upon her once again. “Fifteen years doesn't seem like such a long time when we look at all that has transpired and come to be from the uncertainty and tragedy of the lives and world that once was. It is amazing that we have strove so assuredly to this day when we lived in such a different world.”



The Ambassador commented, “Einstein once said, 'Time is relative', and really all things in life are relative, Kitty. In the 'Old World', as we like to call it, we just had to many self imposed barriers. We were our own worst enemy. And we have proved this over these past fifteen years. We just waited until their was the most terrible of times to realize ourselves.”



Kitty nodded her approval and continued with her story. “As we all know, but not all of us truly remember, on the Twenty-first of December fifteen years ago, what has come to be called the Event changed the world forever. For some it was the middle of the night or even the middle of the day depending on where you lived. It didn't matter where you lived, or who you were. The Event struck indiscriminately: the young and aged, poor or rich, common or famous, believers of faith or not, whether you were black, white, brown, purple or green...all over the world in the blink of an eye the simultaneous phenomenon of the Event struck and threatened to end the world, but the end didn't end. Just the world as we knew it. Over a third of the world's population, folks of all walks of life, were stricken by this unprecedented global event of mass amnesia. Still today we do not know the cause, and still today not a single person who had been afflicted with this fugue, has regained their memories from the life before the Event.”



The camera panned to the center screen between Kitty and the Ambassador as a collage of footage from around the world unfolded to silence: images of mass hysteria and rioting in the streets from all over the world played on the screens of viewers the world over. The scenes were so much the same no matter what part of the world they had been recorded from. Fire and smoke, vehicles piled up, planes crashing from the sky, crimson and amber lights illuminated amongst the varying views of the chaos...



“I was just out of college and spending the holidays at my father's home. Like many others that fateful night, I awoke to a nightmare,” Kitty said as she began her own personal story. “It was sheer chaos and terror. First it just hits us at home, then you realize it's not just you but something terrible is happening in the whole neighborhood...something horrible has transpired in your whole town, across your country and region...that something beyond comprehension has just turned the whole wide world upside down and inside out.”



Kitty looked solemnly at the camera and continued. “I was not afflicted, I have my memories, though there are days as we are all to aware, that I wish in some ways I could forget. I cannot begin to imagine, even after the thousands of stories I have heard and the hundreds I have witnessed, what it must have been like for those who in just the blink of an eye completely forgot who they were, where they were, with no recollection of their former lives and the people in them.”



Kitty continued. “My father was among the afflicted, awakening in the middle of the night to a home and wife, and children, that he just didn't remember, let alone that he couldn't even remember his own name, the city he lived in and grew up in...nothing. He was just retired from a long and successful career as a public schools administrator and he had not the single memory of all those years and experiences, nor the lives he had touched. He remembered nothing of his childhood, who his parents were, siblings, his first date, marriage and raising kids...like all the rest of the world afflicted by this fugue event, his life was just gone. He was left with but the most common of knowledge- like how to drive a car, what was toast...How terrifying for him and those like him, and for those like me who knew but could do nothing. Those afflicted became strangers to those around them, as well as strangers unto themselves...”



Kitty continued to share her recollection of the Event, a story all too well identified with by her billions of viewers. She explained scenes and moments of tragedy and chaos from all over the city, the country, the entire world; a time of great chaos and fear crippled society from the foundation of families being torn apart to entire government bodies crashing to a halt. A third of the world's population had been stricken all at once. Police, fire, and rescue services were crippled by those of their own having been afflicted and the multitudes of those afflicted and affected by the events of that day and the days beyond.





Hospitals that had already seen a shortage of doctors and nurses were bombarded with calamity both from within, as doctors and care givers, even the middle of delicate surgery and care, were struck, and as the days groaned on they filled with the injured and confused, with few to give proper aid.



Imagine too the setting of a prison. Guards forgetting who they were and the training for which they had been operating of. What of some of the prisoners themselves? Debatable sure, but imagine yourself “awaking” in prison and not knowing who you are or why you were behind bars for a crime you cannot remember ever having done.



She spoke heartfelt words of families torn apart by the fugue, and by the ripples of its consequence. Children who “forgot themselves” or left with parents who don't “know” their own kids. Husbands and wives forgetting the years of their marriages...people out wandering the streets because they simply don't know who they are or where they are supposed to go.



She tried to touch on a number of life's aspects that people had always and generally, took for granted.



In the weeks and months thereafter, the world had been shaken to its knees. It was chaotic enough that such tragedy of life and destruction of infrastructures had thrown the world back nearly centuries, but nearly a third of the population were left in a fugue...It was very confusing and trying these days, unlike any other we had ever faced. There were great moments of uncertainty as to what was going to become of us, how were we to move forward? Not everyone were as daring and stoic as others, for some it was just too much. Already there had been a great loss of life from the initial chaos, but over the next few months, even years, an unprecedented increase in death largely due to suicide and violence gripped the world over. Tomorrow just couldn't come soon enough for some, and for some there must have seemed as if a new day was impossible to believe in.



People were afraid, and rightly so. Why this was happening was, at the time, just as important as the fact that it had and was, and what was going to be done about it. Some believed it to be the End of Days and the biblical Rapture, it drove people to believe and some from their beliefs. Others cried out alien or government conspiracy, or some foolish scientific experiment at the Hadron Collider, as it has been believed to have blown up the very moment of the Event.



Kitty continued. “Throughout the turmoil people began to come together though, they forgot their personal problems and joined together to help one another, no matter what there belief, whether they remembered who they were, or what their lives had been like before or not, they did remember what we have seemed to have forgotten before, that people are people and life is life,” Kitty said with great passion. She then turned to the Ambassador, “Mr. Ambassador, I know that you do not remember your Presidency or your former life, but please if you will, explain to us where you were that day, and what your story is.”



“Of course, Kitty. Your story is touching and iconic of many others' tales. As you say that it is hard to imagine having your life wiped from your memory is hard to imagine, even after all the years of stories, I too still find it hard to imagine what it must have been like, and still to this day, to have your memories in a world where so many that we love and loved couldn't even remember us. There are those who say you were lucky, or that I were lucky, depending on differing points of views. I don't know and don't dare to say either way, but I believe that all of us here today are the lucky ones, whether we remember our old live, our old world, or not. Those of us who had endured and picked up the pieces for a better tomorrow, day after day,” The Ambassador said he began his story.



“As everyone knows, but not all remember, I had been a President of the United States. I had ran on a platform for change and belief, and though I don 't personally remember my term, I know it was one of mixed feelings and results to the people of America and really the world. As you had said earlier, I had lost the re-election, and before officially leaving office, I and over two-billion souls in this world all were stricken by this Event of amnesia, this worldwide and instantaneous event of fugue that did threaten to end us as a people...



“I was in the White House, I was in bed with my wife. I recall awakening to a terrible sensation of vertigo, as well as great confusion and worry. Everyone was yelling my name and yelling, “Mr. President!? Mr. President!?” My wife looked as terrified as I felt, and I was terrified. I didn't recognize these people, not even my own wife, and I was bogged by this great confusion, why on earth are these people yelling Mr. President at me, and where in the world was I! I knew I was in bed, it looked like a bedroom, a very fine bedroom! But it wasn't mine...and I could not for the life of me think and remember what mine looked like or where it was. It hit me to, as they were calling my name, and calling out to Mr. President, that I couldn't even remember my name?! Obviously with no memory of anything prior, it was the scariest and most uncertain time of my life. What a way to begin your life, scared and uncertain with nothing but strangers and the unknown before you. I like to compare it to being born, and in a sense I was born again that day from the life and man I had once been.”



The Ambassador continued with his own tale. “As you can well imagine there was great pandemonium in the White House. I and over half of the governing officials of the United States in the capital and across the nation had been afflicted. There was no precedent for such a lose of leadership. And before anything could begin to get better, it had to get a lot worse. As you said it struck people of all walks of life all over the world from the basic family unit right on up to the echelons of world leadership. It wasn't just an American problem, but a world wide threat to our civilization.



“As President I was in a rather special position for the times to come, compared to most others. Even without my memories I had been, someone of importance... though I couldn't function as a leader I was afforded safeties and cares many others had to do without. In the months ahead as the worst of the worst began to settle to some resemblance of order, I kept looking to that man I was said to have been. We all had our lives snapped away in a moment, but we were still left with our basic and common knowledge, and we were left to pick up the pieces. I couldn't remember this man, this President, but he must have been something in some way to have served, even though he obviously lost the faith of his fellow people. The most striking memory and revelation I had was when I discovered that I had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize...and for what really? It hit home for me somewhere deep inside of what I imagine and believe must be my core, that untainted and unsullied core of being that we all have but had long been buried beneath layers and years of just going through the motions of life with the crowd, of just accepting things for what they were with no real thought or fight for something better and truer. It started my crusade for real change. I realized I was not that man, and that I never waned to be that man even if my memories came back. But I realized too there had to be something inside of me forgotten that had gotten me to that position of life and power and faith of the people.



“The World Reconciliation Council had been a small but lofty organization that united current and past world leaders of government, industry, and academia, with everyday people who truly desired change. I used the position I was in to join in on the WRC to start and heal the wounds of the world, to help bring together people who could affect change and bring the world back up from the ruin it had become. The Council was the foundation for the Global Commonwealth Charter that shall tomorrow become our unity. It was made possible by everyday people who both remembered their lives and the world as it was, and those who did not and were striving to find meaning and new beginnings.



“You said as so many have asked, why and did it have to take such a thing as the Event to bring about change and peace and prosperity to the world? It didn't have to, and it shouldn't have, but it did none-the-less. And it was everyday people who arose to the challenge and faced the uncertainty to stand united and make the world as it should have always been. The failings of our society probably had a lot to do with how bad things had gotten, we were not a good place at all to begin with, let alone to try and deal with such a world changing event. It wasn't easy, change never is, but when faced with the tragedy and uncertainties we have, the human resilience and spirit illuminated through the darkest of hours, we only needed to stop living the way we had to live as we now do. So apparently it had to take enough people to forgot the ways of our old world, with enough of those who remembered how it didn't really work, to see us through to this day.”



Kitty commended the Ambassador, saying: “An incredible and inspiring story, indeed it hasn't been easy, as there have been numerous obstacles and oppositions, but through perseverance we have seen the beginning of a new day in our history. Our stories are but only the first few sentences in the greater tale of how we got here today since the Event. We talk a lot about change and new beginnings, and in the months ahead as we spend a year long exploration into the lives and stories of people all over the world, we will discover the differing meanings to change and new beginnings. There are those of us who remember the old world, and it worked for us. There are those who have known nothing but the years since the Event, and they have had to carve out a new life in this new world. We will also be looking into the thoughts and theories for why the Event occurred, how could it have happened, and what if it happened again? From government and extraterrestrial conspiracy theories, to those who believe it was the biblical Rapture, we look to the stories and for the answers...



“Let us not forget though that no matter the reason for the Event, we are here today to see a better tomorrow because people realized they held the power for change. Everyday people stood together for their lives and future, because they came to know that the world they had known just didn't work anymore. We couldn't sit around and afford to debate our problems and solutions, and we didn't have the government and infrastructure to continue to lean on. We had to take the world with our very own hands and we had to stop making excuses and pointing fingers. All of our progress and change has come out of a time for dire need, but during the most difficult of times we found the most simplest answers...



“As we close here tonight, we should remember that the world has always been what we make of it. The world didn't end, and hasn't ended, but the world we once knew did, and we have yet another day to make of it as we will. Live for today like there is no tomorrow. I'm Kitty Hewidd and this is GNN Tonight. Good night, Good luck, and Godspeed the world over.