155 A Name

Onward Journey

155 A Name

Brain was lost in thought whilst Body was amused doing a simple, boring, practical job of cleaning the oven. It allowed Brain to wander freely.
Its thoughts were concerning Heart and her missing piece and the lack of feeling that Heart belonged to her family.
Following this discussion between them about their own identity and name, Brain was struggling to understand Heart and why it felt this way. Was Heart ‘lost’ amongst her own family? Were they truly part of the genetic line? The only real way to know was a DNA test and as discovered, the brother was not prepared to do this for her for his own reasons whatever they were without a lot of involvement from all the other siblings.

Maybe Hearts missing piece was misplaced by something else? They knew their own name, in fact it is one of the first things a child learns to write at school. To write their identity, their name. Nowadays Brain didn’t know, after all there is so much learnt on the computer at school even at an early age so perhaps it is less important.

“Writing one’s own name, one’s eventual signature, will always be important” Body said proudly. “It cannot be replaced.”
“Not so” called Spirit ” in current time technology allows one to use a fingerprint to access documents on a computer or phone. Sometimes to allow physical access and entry into a building which seems bizarre to me.”
“It would seem bizarre to you” stated Body “You don’t even need to use a doorway for goodness sake, but us mortals will always need a signature, a finger print or even eye identification from me.”
“Oooh get you” called Spirit “Mrs indispensable. At least I don’t have any missing pieces and I am disturbed to call that Heart has, or feels as if she has.”

Body carried on scrubbing the oven, she needed to clean it before the previous owners spills got even more baked on.

Brain carried on thinking about their identification and the recent scam calls they had received about appointments Body had never made, investments they had never enquired about, so called attempted spending on the bank accounts that they had phoned the bank about and managed to stop. All of which occurred in the UK and yet here they were living in Portugal.

“You can’t be in two places at once” the Little Red Haired Girl announced. “Grandad often says that to Nana, but you know, Nana says a woman can be. They do lots of jobs at one go.”
“I don’t believe that applies in this case” answered Body. Multi tasking is difficult for a lot of people” but laughed anyway.
“Aren’t ‘putors meant to make jobs easier?” the child asked.
“Yes they are and do in a lot of cases. One can withdraw money from the bank on your phone, scan and copy documents, all manner of tasks even if you are miles away or even in a different country.”
“They cannot write your name like you learn at school. Miss said I was good at writing my name.”
“No, but one can scan a copy of it and send it to complete a document, and one can even sign a screen when you get a parcel or delivery. No pen is required.”

“Like the etch a sketch my brother had? It was magic. You could draw anything on it without crayons and then turn the button and it would wipe it all clean.”
“Yes similar” Brain agreed for ease.
“I wasn’t allowed to borrow it often” the child sighed “but I liked the spirograph better anyway.”
“I remember that” Body giggled “you could make all sorts of intricate patterns a bit like a kaleidoscope. Very clever.”
“As long as the pencil was sharp and would fit in the holes” the child answered. “Not all pencils and pens would fit right and then it was useless.”
“The child has a point” laughed Spirit.

Brains own spirograph cogs were turning. She did have a point. What computer and documents had Body scanned her signature onto? A sharp person/hacker could easily lift it and use it without her consent couldn’t they? It was beyond Brains own ability but not beyond another’s it suspected. Who had obtained access to Body’s laptop? Who had obtained access to her telephone? What had Body signed and where? A shortlist of people were emerging.

“Deliveries” Body interrupted “most of the deliveries for the house renovation were signed for, in fact they often asked to sign the magic etch a sketch” Body laughed “and the postman did too if it was a recorded delivery.”
“So they were” called Spirit “In fact the post/mail deliveries stopped altogether when the house was all but finished.”
“Interesting, I hadn’t made that connection” Brain admitted. The shortlist of people who had been able to have access to her computer, phone and signature expanded greatly and then came down to nil as Body was left alone in the house, when Noswad, Brother, Friend(s), deliveries, builders had all gone.

“More recently, some online documents only required a typed signature” Body continued. “In fact, the trademark applications for our own website, and on the website itself required and have our scanned signature on them. So technically I guess it could be copied by eye with practise.”
“Or lifted” Brain realised. “I think someone has been using our signature in the UK. Either by hand copying or stealing a scanned copy, which would account for all these scam calls about actions/appointments we have not made, nor have we even visited the UK recently.”
It was terrifying thought and Brain made a mental note to phone the police fraud line yet again to report them. They had a copycat in the UK and if they had their signature off by hand or a scanned copy of it, they could do anything! Especially nowadays when most applications for work, health, death, marriage, insurance….. hell everything can be done online. The implications were endless and completely overwhelming. Brain shut down.

“You still can’t replace a person, a real body” Body stated proudly. “We all look so different.”
“Unless they are family” Spirited clouded. “Sisters. Our sisters could easily pass for you Body with a little disguise and cosmetics.”
Body went pale. Was this what Heart was feeling? Was it a feeling of being kind of stolen? The missing piece?

“They don’t have my red hair. Only Nana has it” the Little Red Haired Girl chimed in.
“Hair colouring tint” Body answered “Or a wig.”
Body then remembered , there were two females in the family that had gone a redder shade of blonde recently on her last visit to the UK.
“Are you Ok?” the child asked Body. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I think she has” called Spirit “a doppelganger.”
“What’s a doppelganger?” the child asked.
“It’s someone who pretends to be someone else. Someone who copies you.” Body surmised anyone could actually do this with modern cosmetics whether they were family or not.

“Who would want to be me?” the child asked with eyes as wide as saucers.
“Someone who is envious or greedy or a liar or…..”
“What’s envious?”
“Brain, Can you help answer the child?” called Spirit.

Brain got Body to look up the definition of ‘envious’ on Google as dictionaries were also a thing of the past it read:

‘to feel a strong desire for something that someone else possesses, whether it’s a possession, a quality, or success. It’s a feeling of discontent or resentment mixed with a yearning for what another person has and it can lead to negative feelings and thoughts’

Body fell silent for awhile. The definition reminded her of something or someone but she couldn’t place it. It was easier to get on with cleaning the oven and forget about it as Heart let the tears roll down Body’s cheeks.

Heart knew of several people the definition reminded her of and didn’t want to face it. Heart knew, others knew, the person themselves knew, and someone would have to take accountability. It was not going to be Heart. It was not her responsibility.
“Nor can we force people to own up to their wickedness and route” sighed Soul. “It is their own healing path should they chose to take it.”
“We can’t, not without sounding ‘crazy'” agreed Brain.

“Then we will leave it to the powers that be” sighed Soul. “The truth will come out.”
“In the wash?” the child asked.
“I believe it’s called Karma” called Spirit.