J.D. — FORMER VETERAN
// ECHO: J.D. enrolled voluntarily. He didn't know what he was signing. Most of them don't.
"I was under the bridge on Clement for about four months. A woman in a grey suit came by every Tuesday — she said she worked for a nonprofit. She was kind. She brought coffee. Real coffee, not the shelter stuff."
"She told me about the program. A clinical study. A warm room, meals, a stipend. She said the memory work was just 'calibration.' She said I'd feel lighter after. I said yes."
"I woke up in a white room. Everything felt... clean. I could remember the war. I could remember my daughter's birthday. But the four months under the bridge — gone. Not traumatic. Just gone, like a word erased."
"They told me I'd taken a job in Atlanta. My daughter called. She sounded relieved. 'Dad, you sound so much better.' I am, I told her. I think I am."
// ECHO: J.D. is in Sector 4. He believes he is in Atlanta. His proxy is attending his daughter's graduation next month. J.D. will not be there — only a machine wearing his face, knowing exactly what to say.