Krishna kumar Mani: SFS1: Science Fiction Short Stories

I thought for a second and understood why some countries might want to ban this. After death people should be allowed to rest in peace, not be hassled about their former girlfriends.

“Alright Ben, thanks for the info! I’ll catch you later.”

I tried contacting James again. My phone told me ‘ghost not found.’ I tried with all the combinations of information I could think of but I got the same message again and again. I was surprised and confused. Maybe he was using some kind of ‘Do Not Disturb’ service. I called customer support and inquired about it. They told me that there wasn’t any such service for ghosts. Any call they received they would get but they didn’t have to answer it. They told me that the person’s actual date of birth or death was probably different from the information that I had. I explained that I was sure that everything was right and asked them to send the issue up the chain of command. After getting off the phone I sat and thought for a while. Maybe in the future they might open a chat room or even a ghost dating service.

The information I’d collected was not enough to complete three articles. As a writer, I knew what people liked to read and so to spice up my articles I wanted to have a conversation with a famous person but none of them had responded. So I did the next thing, I called my grandma again. She was the only one ghost I knew. She had said she’d seen Steve Jobs. It was my only hope.

“Hi candy boy, where did you go in the middle of our call?” she asked.

“Sorry, grandma there was a problem with the signal.”

“No signal problem here!” she said with a laugh. “It must be on your side of the veil.”

I talked with her for a while again and finally asked her the favor I had in mind.

“If you could please talk to Steve Jobs and get some information for me that would be amazing, grandma.”

“How can I approach him?” she asked. “I can’t very well go up to him and ask for an autograph or a photograph can I? Maybe I’ll tell him I was an iPhone user.”

“Millions and millions of people use the iPhone, grandma” I said and chuckled.

“Okay, well I will find a way. What information do you want from him?”

I thought about it for a second. What information did I want? “Just one question, ask him what he thinks about the new iPhone 5S and 5C as two categories. I’ll call you tomorrow at the same time.”

I hung up the phone and started to write the three Ghost On Call articles that I had been researching. I worked furiously and completed two articles before I fell asleep.

“Candy boy, come on I’m waiting for you!”

I woke up. Oh god, I forgot! I was supposed to call my grandma. I was already late to call her. How did she come into my dream? Ghosts didn’t have outgoing calls yet. I called my grandma’s direct number before a recorded female’s voice said, “your balance is low. Please recharge to make sure that your contact is not interrupted.” My grandma answered after only a single ring.

“Hi candy boy. I was waiting for your call and was just thinking about you.”

“Grandma, I think even without this service that ghosts can connect to humans. It’s pretty unbelievable what just happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were in my dream just now. You asked me to call you.”

“That’s great.”

“Did you get any information from Steve Jobs?”

“Well, I approached him by a friend of a friend of a friend of mine”

“Oh like LinkedIn network.”

“Yes some links. He said that the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S are only one type of phone. If people want to have different colors they can just get a case.”

“Wow. Thanks grandma, you did an excellent job”

I talked with her until my balance ran out.

I finally finished the articles and sent them to the editor. The titles were as follows:

1. Does Steve Jobs Like the new iPhone?

2. A Black Hole in Hell? Missing Ghosts

3. Ghosts and their Privacy Issues

They published the Steve Jobs article as a cover page. After a week the assistant editor called me and told me that they had selected all three articles and would publish them in subsequent issues. Further than that though, they offered me a full time position. I was so excited with the news that I was going back to work after six months have having to do freelance writing. I immediately called my wife and told her the news.

It was all due to my grandma’s help. I told her thank you and to tell her sorry to Steve Jobs and that I wouldn’t have gotten this job without his name.

My second article “A Black Hole in Hell? Missing Ghosts” was published and became the hot topic in the city. The article was based on my attempts to find my friend James who had died in a train derailment two years earlier. Even my grandma could not reach him. I thanked him fully for this article and started to pray for him as I had done before. An incoming call from an unknown mobile number interrupted my prayer.

“Hello, Joe speaking,” I said into the receiver. “Hey Joe, this your friend James.”

It was James’ voice. That much was for sure. I was surprised. When did the ghosts get an outgoing call facility? I was speechless for a few seconds.

“Hey Joe, are you there?” asked James’ ghost.

“Hey. I’m just a little surprised to hear your voice, man. How are you? I’m sorry I wasn’t able to come to your funeral. I was out of town on vacation. Extremely sorry. I actually was just praying for you.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Look, I’m sorry about the funeral. I should have cut my trip short. Please forgive me.”

“Even my girlfriend hasn’t tried to call me,” said James angrily. “Why did you try? And then you have to make it a whole big issue. Yeah, “Black Hole in Hell? A recent news update says the FBI might even do an investigation about missing ghosts.”

“Wow! Our magazine is available there? Are you in Hell or Heaven?”

He started to yell at me. I didn’t understand why he was so angry. Maybe if you died a violent death you become a violent ghost. He yelled and asked if I had contacted him about the hundred dollars he had borrowed from me three years ago. He seriously laid into me. I almost had to get a dictionary out for a couple of the words he called me.

“Don’t try to call me again. Don’t even think about me. I didn’t die in the train crash, Joe.”

“What?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“My relatives wrongly identified a dead body as mine and held the funeral. I used this accident as an opportunity to escape from my debts. I’ve gone away and settled down somewhere where they don’t know me. Listen. Don’t tell anyone. I will transfer $100 to your bank account. Don’t disturb me again.”

He did not even wait for my reply. He simply disconnected the call.

Year: 2120

Place: Federation Courtroom

The defendant and plaintiff in this case were both robots. This is not the first time that robots have come to court for justice. The judge asked the first robot to proceed.

“My lord, my name is Rose and I am a robot. My model number is R-Femal-2111 and my configuration is…”

“Your configuration information is not important to me,” interrupted the judge. “I’m here to give judgment, not to do hardware maintenance. Please process with your complaint.”

“My lord, I have been working for 2x Logistics for the past four years. My husband, Blue Tiger also worked there. Six months after we met, we got married. We had it registered as per the requirements in the Robot Marriage act of 2095. I have the certificates with me here.” A small robot came and took the certificates to the judge.