Saving My Marriage
Chapter 4
RJ seemed to be calm this evening. Instead of worrying about how to get the kids ready he was calmly playing with them. I looked at him there and took a moment to just smile at how happy I was about having our family together. Making time for Dr Jain had taken away from other things that I’d needed to take care of. Work was piling up and I had to stay up late a few nights to take care of it.
After he’d gotten the kids to bed those nights, RJ had disappeared into the basement. It was his version of a man cave, with an expensive immersive video game setup. I could never tell what he was doing due to the sound cancelers. They were really effective at making the room seem dead silent even if he was blasting loud music. He often locked the door, I wondered about that.
My much anticipated appointment came and we went into Dr Jains office. She greeted us warmly as we walked in. “Please,” she said as she gestured to the couch.
“Let me explain the therapeutic device I’d like for you to try out,” she started. She held in her hand a really small cardboard box. Opening it she revealed the contents — some tiny hair sized wires. “Let me explain,” she started, “These devices are modified BCI units. That’s a brain computer interface. Now these computers are quite a lot more simplistic than the ones that you wear. The problems you are facing with your relationship are similar to problems faced by some people with depression. Some people with depression are just not experiencing joy at the right time and their minds are out of balance. Fortunately science has provided some simple and effective techniques.”
“Are you saying our minds are out of balance?” I asked somewhat taken aback.
“Well each persons definition of balance is different.” She waved opened her arms and looked right at me, ”Let me explain. Your natural feelings and need for affection are lower than what he wants. This can be modified. The therapy that I’m suggesting would be to make you naturally feel the need for more affection or make him naturally feel less of a need. Now, I must warn you that if we were to make him feel less of a need the statistics tell us that this increases the chance of divorce. When men don’t feel attracted to their spouse they become more likely to leave.”
“Well that is not at all what I want,” I said. “What about making me feel more of a need? Does that mean I will become a different person?”
“Well, you won’t become any different than you want to become, but in the studies of people going through this therapy 90% claim they feel like a different person but all of them in the study claimed they felt like a better person.”
She seemed so scientific in her approach. “So are you trying to reprogram me?”
“Programming sounds like there is a lot of control. No, no, this BCI is much more crude so I will need to monitor you. Both of you as we try this out. The physical risk of the implants is almost none. The effect is better experienced than explained. We can remove it anytime you want if you no longer feel comfortable and there is no risk. Some women report losing control a little and discontinue, for most though it is an incredibly pleasant experience. Most men find that they are able to become more committed to a previously unhappy relationship.”
“Well, I’m willing to try it out.” I said.
“Great,” she said. “The way it works is I will put this small wire in each of your noses and it will pass a tiny BCI unit through the capillaries in your brain. It will go to a few spots and emit small stimuli when it is triggered.”
“Oh a couple of rules. One, RJ you will need to stop masturbating. These two computers are linked and you will really need to respect her in this.”
“Fwaaa?” RJs eyes bulged open. “You don’t realize how little sex I get. I’ll get all blocked up!”
“Well that’s where rule number two comes in. You two should have sex as much as possible especially the next 3 weeks. How often do you masterbate RJ?”
He looked sheepish. This was something he never talked about with me. Perhaps he did it every month or two.
“Well,” he started with his eyes staring at the floor, “perhaps three times a week.”
“Really,” I looked at him accusingly, ”where do you find the time?” What a selfish man. Here I was, working hard to make our house run and do my job, and he was just taking extra time for himself. It made me want to give him a piece of my mind. Then I remembered it soon wouldn’t matter as he wanted to divorce me. I needed to first convince him he was wrong, then I could make sure he wasn’t just selfishly playing with himself when there were things I needed him to do.
“Its not that I like trying to sneak some time into this, I’d rather be with a loving woman. But instead sometimes I get up in the middle of the night, or I just have a long shower to take care of business. Its not what i want though and that’s why all those times you deny me I’ve got to find another outlet.”
“Well, I haven’t been denying you that much recently.” Thinking that I rarely needed to tell him no recently.
“I know,” he replied darkly, “I’ve stopped asking because I know what the answer is.”
I was silent.
Dr Jain broke the silence. “Are we ready to give this a try?” she asked.
I was nervous. Very nervous. I’d always felt so in control. The thought of some device making me more affectionate was scary. At the same time, I thought back to when we were a bit younger. Then I’d always been able to hold him. We’d gone dancing and he twirled me around, it was wonderful. When we’d made love, I’d been able to just let go and be so passionate. We’d sometimes just lye in bed afterwards naked, holding each other until we would fall asleep in each others arms.
This never happened anymore. Life had a way of becoming more complicated. I had no time for that anymore.
“I’ll do it.” I said.
The process was simple and done in a few seconds. She placed a wire next to my nose and next to RJs. I couldn’t feel a thing.
Before we left, Dr Jain recommended not looking up online too closely the details of how these particular BCIs worked. She claimed better success rates when the process was discovered.
“Just remember the two rules,” she held the door open for us as we left the room.