Forgetting
This imaginative tale was generated by Bard, a large language model developed by Google. Google AI.
Prompt
Write me a story about a group of people who forget, little by little, until eventually the forget everything.
Story
The forgetting started subtly. A misplaced key, a forgotten appointment, a name on the tip of the tongue that never surfaced. At first, it was just a nuisance, a minor glitch in the smooth flow of life. But the glitches grew, becoming more frequent, more profound.
It began in the small town of Willow Creek, a place where time seemed to move at its own languid pace. Old Mrs. Hawthorne, the town’s beloved baker, forgot the recipe for her famous apple pie. Mr. Thompson, the carpenter, couldn’t remember how to build a birdhouse. The children forgot their ABCs, their laughter replaced by blank stares.
The forgetting spread like a silent epidemic, sweeping through the town like a chilling mist. They forgot the faces of their loved ones, the taste of their favorite meals, the songs they hummed in the shower. Memories, once vibrant and vivid, faded like photographs left in the sun.
One by one, the residents of Willow Creek became empty shells, devoid of the stories that had shaped their lives. The town itself began to crumble, its buildings decaying, its streets overgrown with weeds. The whispers of forgotten dreams echoed in the wind, a haunting reminder of what had been lost.
The last resident, a frail old woman named Sarah, sat on her porch, her eyes gazing at the sky. She had forgotten everything, even her own name. But as the wind rustled the leaves of an old oak tree, a single memory flickered in her mind, a fleeting image of a happy childhood, a time before the forgetting began.
A tear rolled down her cheek. The forgetting had consumed everything, yet it had left behind a single, precious ember of hope. For in that fleeting moment, Sarah knew that even though they had forgotten, they had once lived, once loved, once laughed. And perhaps, somewhere in the depths of oblivion, their stories lived on, whispered by the wind, carried on the wings of time.