The People in My Head: Bram Hartford

Bram Hartford had extremely waxy ears. He would regularly go to the doctor to have them syringed. But not enough that a large waxy buildup did not begin to form on his mobile phone. The radiation from the phone slowly mutated the residue of Bram's ear and fused it to the electronics of the phone, creating a non-sentient cyborg device.

What was its purpose? Unable to think, it never pondered the question. But the vocalised thoughts of others passed through it, attenuating it to the unspoken frequencies of the mind, the non-verbal meaning of things. In short, it became a mind-reading device, stripping away the niceties of language and presenting meaning in its unmediated and unvarnished glory.

Bram was at first disturbed to discover that some of his closest friends secretly hated him. His social circle was broken by this knowledge, but sick things die. Next he discovered that some who he thought had always opposed him did, in fact, like him a lot. His superficiality was stripped away as the understanding of all people infused his consciousness and gave him compassion.

Unfortunately, Bram believed that all this was the result of some latent power within himself. So when the contract on his mobile phone plan expired he picked the brightest, shiniest, most advanced phone he could get on his new plan. And unaware that anything had changed, his depth and compassion was replaced once more with a superficiality that was all the worse for his mistaken belief that he saw others clearly.

But his ears were still waxy, and he never cleaned his phone.