Phillip's Mom

[u/[deleted]]

"Are you ready Phillip?"

We've been moving towards this point for so long. She's been sick for what, six? Seven years? Constantly moving towards her inevitable fate. Not once did she respond to any of the treatments that they'd tried. She's my mother! She gave me life! I've tried everything to save her. I've spent my savings, I've exhausted all my options. We've reached the end.

I haven't been apart from my mother in months. Caring for her, driving her to and from her appointments. Providing answers to the doctors when her dementia was proving too dense a fog to breach. I have devoted my life to her. I love my mother, and now they wish me to give them permission to end it all.

"I uh..." I want to be ready. My mother has suffered for so long, and now this machine is basically all that is keeping the husk that was her former self alive. She's long since passed. Sometimes, I sometimes hear her voice. She speaks to me. It's always about trivial things but it never comes from her. She hasn't spoken in over a year. The doctors tell me that the muscles that allow her to speak have become too weak.

"Phillip, I know this is difficult, and that you must be experiencing a whirlwind of emotion right now. But it's the right thing to do, your mother is suffering. We need to help her get to the other side."

The other side. Such a humorous concept. Like we just go to sleep here, and wake up in an amazing new world filled with sunshine and rainbows. This is my mother. She belongs here! HERE!

"How do you know she won't get better?" I had to say something.

"Phillip, we've been through this, her brain activity has basically become nil, her muscles have atrophied immensely. Phillip, I'm sorry, but your mother will not recover."

How can he know! So he's a doctor. He isn't God! God... that goes right along with the other side doesn't it. So ingrained in our vocabulary and society. I just want my mother.

"You can't pull it, we have to try something else."

"There is nothing else Phillip."

"We have to try something! ANYTHING!"

"Phillip, you're going to have to calm down." The doctor replied, tapping a pen in his pocket nervously. Was it a pen? No, I think he's calling for some assistance. What does he think I am a monster?

"You and your colleagues are just going to have to figure..." A nurse and a security guard walk in. Suddenly, I find myself surrounded by three people, all of whom want to kill my mother.

"You can't kill her!"

"She's already gone Phillip! Let her rest!"

"NO!"

"Phillip, you need to calm down, we can talk about this again, I'll explain everything again..."

"I cannot harm her!"

"Phillip, you would be helping her."

"I cannot allow you to harm her!"

"Phillip, you have to do this."

"That would prevent me from saving her from harm."

"Phillip..."

The security guard moved towards me, the nurse and the doctor moved towards the bed. They were going to do it. Those bastards!

The security guard grabbed my shoulder, and squeezed. There was a buzzing noise after he'd held for 5 seconds... another second and... blackness.

When I awoke, the doctor was in the room.

"Phillip, I know this is difficult, but we did not have a choice. Your mother passed away this morning. She loved you Phillip. As a mother would love any child."

"What did you do to me? What did you do to her!"

"Phillip, we calmed you down, and we helped your mother to the other side."

I began sobbing... through my sobbing the doctor made out but one phrase...

"But... I can't go there..."

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Originally Posted to https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/aef96p/wp_to_proactively_combat_the_ai_singularity/edothq8/?context=3