Irene and the Phantom

A story by George Malinov

The reception room of the United Phantoms Company with its classic office furniture was a cozy place; a delicate odor filled the air, reminiscent of something half way between the smell of a pine forest and fresh hay. For a moment Irene even closed her eyes, moved deeply by the scent.

"Unbelievable," she said. "I have never felt anything like this."

The compliment made the consultant of United Phantoms blush because the fragrance was actually his idea. He expected it would make people relax and ease the psychological pressure they felt when they came here to order phantoms. Irene didn’t look is if she experienced any particular stress. She had already visited the office of United Phantoms several times and as a result the details of the offer were more or less settled. Her husband, Mr. Govatz, had provided the company with all the necessary data and now she had only to ascertain some final points.

The consultant felt already a kind of adoration for Irene. In fact, he had never met a client like her. She readily agreed with all his suggestions, didn’t annoy the contractors with arbitrary ideas and listened to their complicated and sometimes boring technical explanations on different aspects of the project with keen and genuine interest.

Irene settled herself down in the elegant chair and began slowly looking through the folder the consultant had handled her. The project was close to its end and there were only minor details to clarify.

The consultant waited politely for Irene to get acquainted with the latest developments, and when she finished reading, he started his explanations:

"Well, Mrs. Govatz, as you see, the project has nearly accomplished what it set out to do. The phantom is a complete reproduction of Mr. Govatz and, I daresay, we have rarely had the chance to create such a perfect phantom. As you know, we introduced radical changes in the system of holographic illusion, and these changes, alongside with your precise remarks, helped us achieve something really perfect in the phantom industry. Tomorrow you will have the opportunity to enjoy our new product. In this way you will be able to overcome the difficult moment in your life, and this is what we were aiming at. The ultimate goal of the United Phantoms Company has always been the satisfaction of our clients".

Irene listened with enthusiasm to the consultant’s explanations, asked him questions concerning the phantom in an almost professional manner, expressed politely her gratitude and left the office, leaving after her a subtle trail of beauty and elegance. The consultant leaned back in his chair and gazed through the window with a vague feeling of sadness.

The decision to order a phantom of Mr. Govatz was not easy for Irene. If only Mr. Govatz had found some way to stay at home longer and spend more time with his beautiful wife, instead of being absent twenty nine days a month, traveling from one country to another in the pursuit of his business tasks; had he called Irene more often, maybe the Phantom would have never passed, or rather flied over the threshold of their beautiful house. But Irene was so lonely - superior objectives of national and international separated her from her husband for months, and thus only increased her unhappiness.

One evening, when by good fortune Mr. Govatz was at home, Irene, huddled up in bed next to her husband, shared with him her Phantom scheme. Mr. Govatz was looking through a big folder with data he was supposed to think over until the morning, when his busy schedule obliged him to fly to the other end of the planet in the company of several senior state officials to attend an extremely important conference. He just threw a tender glance at Irene and said with affection:

"Well, darling, if you think that it can make your loneliness more tolerable and it will be easier for you to cope with my long absences, I don’t mind at all."

"You know what phantoms are, don’t you, my dear?"

"Certainly. In fact, they don’t differ substantially from photos or video recordings. If there were phantoms around to keep you company, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about. Anyway, a phantom is no different from a picture, some sort of a walking video image."

"I love you," said Irene and kissed her husband.

Mr. Govatz gave her a tender hug and went back to his tedious reading, feeling how much he was indebted to this wonderful woman.

The phantoms were a miracle created by modern technology to fill a huge gap in people’s lives. The United Phantoms Company produced specialized holographic installations, which designed absolutely identical images of people with extreme accuracy, using very complicated algorithms. These projections made stunning copies which looked exactly like the models, so that it was often difficult to tell the copy from the original.

Yet there was one major difference – the United Phantoms’ products had no flesh. The complicated holographic technologies created an illusion, perfect but immaterial. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands took this opportunity to make up for the absence of somebody at home, a relative or beloved; others enjoyed the chance to share their lives with famous people, and some wanted to have their own phantom, motivated by sheer eccentricity.

After Irene got acquainted with all the technicalities, she was slightly disappointed.

"If the Phantom is still, it will be just as good as a picture, different only in size," she said to the chief consultant of United Phantoms. "Maybe there is some way to make a hologram move, be a bit more animated, which will make the illusion more complete."

"But that is not possible, Mrs. Govatz", argued the consultant, sweating profusely. "It will take too much time, it will be extremely complicated technically, and besides, the final product will be rather expensive!"

"It doesn’t matter" said Irene sharply. "I want to have the best Phantom in the world. I want to have Mr. Govatz in front of me, when my real husband is not at home. If a Phantom doesn’t create a complete illusion, it is not worth the trouble, is it?"

The project took a long time, but in the long run they managed to produce a perfect phantom of Mr. Govatz. An accurate holograph installation allowed the Phantom make a couple of complicated movements typical for Mr. Govatz. It sat in an easy chair with a cigar in its mouth, just like the prototype, and holographic smoke filled the air around, the latter being a great achievement of the team, the matter of its supreme pride. From time to time the image of Mr. Govatz stood up and walked slowly in the room, stopped occasionally in front of some fine picture on the wall and contemplated it, swaying slightly. The Phantom also appeared in the kitchen where Irene performed the almost religious rite of cooking, took a seat and looked through a newspaper. The United Phantoms team had the fancy idea that it would be cute to change the newspaper regularly: that is how it happened that the Phantom read a new one every day.

The Phantom appeared in the bedroom, in the garden, in the library and even in the bathroom. In fact, the image in he bathroom was not really a success, because the drops of water passed through the hologram and created a kind of refraction, the result being a blur of the image. But in spite of this small defect Irene was genuinely happy. The whole month Mr. Govatz was away on a business trip, attending some very important conferences in Australia, yet for the first time in many years she didn’t have that miserable feeling of loneliness and melancholy, which would overtake her every time she remained alone at home.

When Mr. Govatz came back for a couple of days, the Phantom made him laugh his head off. Scrutinizing his copy from all sides, he found the scar behind the left ear, a memory from his wild childhood days, and counted every mole, comparing it to his own in the mirror.

"Absolutely perfect," he said to Irene, trying to see what newspaper the Phantom was reading in the kitchen.

"I am already jealous of this thing," said Irene happily and switched off the Phantom. "When you are at home, I don’t need it."

Thus the Phantom became Irene’s companion when Mr. Govatz was away on his business trips, engaged with extremely important international problems.

One day, several months after the delivery of the United Phantoms high-tech product to the household of Mr. Govatz, an extremely beautiful woman entered the office of the chief consultant. In fact, she wasn’t just beautiful, but really gorgeous.

Irene held out her hand to the consultant who stared at her with admiration and gave him a charming smile.

"I have some questions concerning my Phantom," she said and tossed back her long hair with a casual gesture.

The only thing the chief consultant could do was to nod.

"Is there any way to make it talk?" she asked.

"You know…" started the consultant, wringing his fingers nervously. "We have never considered such an option…"

"So why don’t you consider it now?"

"I not sure it will be technically possible."

"To every problem there is a solution, the only thing you have to do is find it, provided that your effort is backed up financially. I would like my phantom to speak and be capable of elementary feed-back; it’s a function all computers have had for long."

The United Phantoms’ engineers worked miracles, indeed, and if a Nobel Prize were awarded in their field, they would have been nominated for it, no doubt. They tuned the holograph waves in such a way that they could transmit sound vibrations and reacted to the finest sounds, the rest was the computer’s job.

Now Irene would sit in the drawing-room, looking through a magazine, and occasionally turning to the Phantom, who was sitting next to her and puffing holographic smoke in the air.

"Do you think October will be rainy, honey?" The Phantom took the cigar out of its mouth, as if lost in thought, and replied: "I hope not. Too much humidity won’t be good for the Japanese plums we planted this spring." Irene nodded with satisfaction and went on turning over the pages of the magazine. "Why don’t we change the flooring of the Northern terrace?" she asked after some time. "The tiles we have there now are too smooth, someone may slip and fall." "Certainly," agreed the Phantom. "I’d rather lie in bed next to you instead of lying on a hospital bed with my leg in plaster."

Irene laughed aloud, throwing a glance full of love at the Phantom, which was nothing more than an exact copy of her beloved husband.

The days passed by and Irene was completely happy with her miraculous toy, her fabulous Phantom, which replaced Mr. Govatz quite well.

Several months after that she visited again the office of United Phantoms. This time the chief consultant was not surprised, he just felt somewhat dizzy when he saw her and sweet sadness seized his heart.

"I don’t want to take your time, but I wonder if there is any possibility to make the holographic image more material?"

"In what sense?" asked the consultant, evidently failing to understand her question.

"In the sense that when I touch it, my hand doesn’t pass through the air, but feels something material, some kind of substance."

"Now then, this is an impossible thing to ask," replied the consultant with a smile. "It is like giving substance to light, or touching the radio waves."

"But you could give it a try," insisted Irene. "The Phantom is not worth much if it lacks such an important quality as tangibility. If it acquires this quality, its psychological effect will be much greater and it will really make sense to have it around."

"But how to achieve this?" asked the consultant desperately.

"I don’t know," smiled Irene charmingly.

This time the team of United Phantoms was nominated for the Nobel Prize in view of its exceptional contribution to the development of holography and the discovery of hard holographic waves. Thus the United Phantoms Company entered the Hall of Fame.

One misty day in early spring Irene was sitting in their elegant drawing-room, reading a book. The Phantom was sitting next to her, reading a newspaper and smoking its favorite cigar (actually, it was the cigar of Mr. Govatz). In a fit of tenderness Irene stood up, went behind the chair of the Phantom and put her hands on its shoulder. After endless consultations with Irene United Phantoms had managed to lend the Phantom’s shoulders the same solidity as those of Mr. Govatz (she liked the strength she felt under her fingers when she touched her husband’s shoulders). Then she caressed the hair of the Phantom, absorbed in the happiness that only a woman in love would feel when her beloved is nearby.

After that Irene visited the office of United Phantoms a number of times. Now and again she introduced slight changes in the Phantom and demanded new options. Besides, she insisted on changing certain things which, in her opinion, were not quite a credit to the image of Mr. Govatz – serious shortcomings they were not, to be sure, just too peculiar. The Phantom’s nose became somewhat straighter than before, but this modification was not immediately recognizable, because she liked its shape as it was. Then she decided to correct slightly the color of its hair, bleaching it a bit. After that she asked the United Phantoms’ specialists to make the Phantom less tall, so that when they walked around the park, within the coverage area of the holographic emission, she would be able to put her head on its shoulder. To be sure, United Phantoms had no idle moments with such a client, and the chief consultant would feel like a nervous teenager in love every time he saw her, although he had the opportunity hundreds of times, and after she left his office, he could not concentrate for a long time, looking through the window with a silly smile.

Irene was really happy, Mr. Govatz was away more and more often and each time his absence lasted longer than before, since the world’s problems didn’t diminish but rather increased all the time.

One day when he came back after almost a month he decided to do something that he never did – surprise Irene. It wasn’t clear what made him take such a decision, to surprise his beautiful wife on that precise day. Yet even people like Mr. Govatz who are always aware of what they are doing and why, are capable of unpredictable acts once in a while.

Mr. Govatz was walking along the beautiful alleys of the park, feasting his eyes on the neatly trimmed vegetation, amused by the thought of the great surprise his wife would feel when she saw him. He was walking slowly, taking a deep breath of the intoxicating scent of the wild acacias, which were in full bloom by this time of year.

He approached the main entrance of their house and saw Irene. She was walking on the wide meadow covered with flowers in front of the entrance, accompanied by a man. This must be the Phantom, thought Mr. Govatz, but then he noticed that the man was less tall, with hair of different color and presumably younger. Suddenly Irene lifted her head and pressed her lips to the man’s lips. The only reason Mr. Govatz didn’t get a heart attack on the spot was the fact that he was extremely healthy – a man who had endured a lot, with his heavy responsibilities and innumerable long missions. His lips tightened and he approached Irene.

"Listen, dear," Irene was trying to calm him down, her eyes filled with tears. "This is… well, it is just a Phantom. It has been with me for two years already, keeping me company when you’re away."

"Good gracious!" Mr. Govatz looked still very agitated. "You were kissing it, holding it by the hand, with such a look in your eyes..."

"But darling," said Irene, crying and sniffling. "It is only an illusion, nothing more. If you see me kissing your picture or watching an old video with loving eyes, will that make you angry?"

"That’s a different thing," replied Mr. Govatz, not inclined to give up easily. "A picture has nothing to do with that ...this... those..."

Mr. Govatz was struggling for words, overwhelmed with stress.

"You will get rid of it," he said firmly.

"Get rid of what?" Irene didn’t quite understand. "You mean the Phantom?"

"Yes. The Phantom or whatever you call it. This is not me, and I have nothing to do with it. It’s Satan’s work and I am sure its creators will be soon put to trial for their nasty tricks. This is against God! You must get rid of it immediately."

"Are you sure that’s exactly what you want?" Hardly discernible metallic overtones appeared in Irene’s voice, a clear symptom of an aggravating situation. Such overtones in a woman’s voice have often caused divorces, provoked wars and ruined great cities, nations and states, but Mr. Govatz in his anger didn’t notice the unmistakable sign of forthcoming disaster.

"Of course I’m sure," he answered in a firm voice.

Irene came up to him, stood on her tiptoes to reach him, because Mr. Govatz was a tall man, and kissed him on the lips. Then she went to her room.

Several months later she moved out of their house, because they failed to reach any reasonable agreement concerning the Phantom. Irene flatly refused to get rid of it, and Mr. Govatz rejected with equal vigor the idea that he might eventually put up with its presence in the house. Finally they separated and Irene went away, taking the Phantom with her. She continued to live happily alone in the company of the perfect Phantom, which resembled so much Mr. Govatz whom she still loved - as like as two peas in a pod.

One day, two years later, a visitor entered the office of the United Phantoms chief consultant. He was a tall, handsome man, with a confident look and somewhat commanding manners. Such people are usually born leaders. The chief consultant realized this and stood up to meet the visitor. The people who approached him directly were either very important persons, or they came to discuss complicated problems.

"Take a seat, please," he said and pointed at the chair in front of him. "Is there anything we can do for you?"

The visitor sat down on the chair and said in a low voice:

"I want a Phantom of my wife."

"No problem," said the consultant, "phantoms are the main products of our company."

"I would like it to be the best Phantom you have ever produced," continued the man, who seemed not to hear the consultant’s words. "The most perfect, the most gorgeous one, exactly like my wife."

"Our company will do its best to please you, Sir. But when it comes to the ideal Phantom, the process of its production isn’t easy at all. If you want it to be perfect, we must create it step-by-step, line-by-line, photon-by-photon, slowly and carefully."

"Precisely," agreed the client. "It will be the most perfect Phantom you have ever created. Let me show you the woman who will serve as a model." Then he put his hand in his pocket and took out a small picture, which he handled to the chief consultant.

The consultant took it politely and threw a quick glance at the woman in the picture. All of a sudden he felt a lump in his throat, his knees went weak and the sweet sadness which crept into his heart dimmed everything around.

Meanwhile Mr. Govatz, sitting in front of him, went on portraying the Phantom of the most beautiful woman in the world.



George Malinov © 2007
Translated from Bulgarian by Nelly Tchalakova © 2007