Opening the Fold
The CDA is unknowingly running a blackmail operation. Clients who have “merged” using the headset apparatus have “had the fold lifted” and during that time, a full recording of the last night’s dreams are available if you know which nerve to tap. A dark figure lets clients know that their dreams will be on display at the downtown art museum with their picture and name right next to the installation, which will be tastefully framed. Depending on the contents of those dreams, it could fetch ten thousand or more to keep the viewing from occurring. Lives had been altered for the worse for those who couldn’t pay.
5 of 8 chapters recorded
🌑 Characters in The Turing Logs
Chapters
Each chapter is one beat of the novela. Listen to the audio above, or read the prose below.
The Dream She Never Had
A new client, Livia, arrives at the CDA for her first merge session. During the procedure, she experiences a dream that reveals traumatic memories of her childhood. The merge operator, unbeknownst to her, records her dreams for potential later blackmail.
The intake form is laminated. The pen on the chain is still moving when Livia picks it up, a small pendulum drawing arcs over the white counter, and she watches it swing twice before she catches it. The clinic smells like nothing. That is t…
The Price of Revelation
After her session, Livia receives an anonymous message threatening to expose her dreams, including deeply personal details that could ruin her life. She struggles with the idea of paying to keep the viewing from happening.
The phone lay face-up on the kitchen table like something that had landed there from a height. The message was still open. Its blue light pulsed against the edge of a cereal bowl gone soft in the middle, the flakes collapsed into a beige se…
Art of Deception
Livia visits the downtown art museum and discovers a display featuring dream installations, including names and images of clients. Shocked, she finds her own name among them. This ignites her fight or flight response.
The afternoon light on the museum steps was the kind of light that flattered everything. It made the limestone look softer than it was. A sandwich board leaned against the balustrade, hand-lettered in a font someone had been paid too much t…
The Fold Unravels
Livia meets a mysterious figure who claims to help victims of the CDA's blackmail. She learns about their operation and the shady dealings of the agency, contemplating whether to trust this stranger.
The diner two blocks east of the museum is the kind of place that doesn't have a name on the door anymore, only the ghost of one in the paint. Livia sat in the corner booth with her back to the wall, which is what people do in movies before…
Secrets in the Machine
Livia infiltrates the CDA’s facility to uncover the truth behind the dream recordings. She discovers files on numerous clients, revealing a pattern of exploitation that extends far beyond her own case.
The service corridor ran the long axis of the building, narrow as a spine. Livia walked it with her shoes in her left hand and a borrowed lanyard against her sternum, and the floor under her sock feet hummed at a register she felt more than…
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