Machinations of the Mind

Before me lies an enigma that to this day still confounds.  The human brain remains one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries, but I will be the one to finally solve it.  Meticulously placing another metal testing rod within the frontal lobe of the test subject, I take a moment's rest and close my eyes for a brief few seconds before moving to the final stages of my current experiment.  But as I returned to work, my mind that had previously been humming along like a well tuned machine, all of a sudden sputters and stalls.

What was I just doing?  What was I even just thinking about?  I forget.  It felt important, whatever it was.  I was definitely in the middle of something, but then my whole train of thought derailed and proceeded to explode into a million pieces leaving me without a single clue to follow.  How could I so easily misplace my intentions?  Looking at the decaying grey matter before me, I think to myself that I might as well be the one here who is brain dead.  Then at least, there would be some proper excuse to fall back.  Lately, I often find myself staring; usually, at nothing in particular.  I’m not sure why.  My eyes just lose focus as my mind slips away to hide someplace far away.  Spiraling at my shortcomings, I let myself sink further down into the warm, murky water that now surrounds me.  It sits uncomfortably high around my neck like a wet, itchy turtleneck.  

An external force interrupts my melancholy.  My vision wobbles and glares unnaturally as a brief flash of lightning strikes nearby and a strong gust of wind and rain blows in through the broken window at the far side of my laboratory.  I remember what I had forgotten.  The importance of my task renewed as my vision expanded once again to reveal the set of mirrors positioned precisely such that all angles of my own exposed brain were visible to me.  That’s right, I am not working on some old, dug up cadaver.  This time, I will succeed because there is no room for failure.