Mind Games Read online

DAVID GEORGE RICHARDS is married and lives in Manchester, England. He has been writing for several years on a regular basis. He writes science fiction, thrillers and romance stories with particular emphasis on leading female characters. Visit his website at www.booksandstories.com.

  Also available by David George Richards:

  Romance

  An Affair of the Heart

  The Look of Love

  The Dreamer

  A Fine Woman

  Mind Games

  The Friendly Ambassador Series

  The Beginning of the End

  A Gathering of Angels

  Changes

  Walking with the Enemy

  The Twelve Ships

  In the Shadow of Mountains

  The Lost Girls

  The Return of the Sixpack

  The Tale of the Comet

  The Dragon King

  The Althon Gerail

  The Sullenfeld Oracle

  Mind Games

  by

  David George Richards

  Copyright 2012 David George Richards

  Licence Notes

  All rights reserved.

  Possession is nine-tenths of the Law...maybe

  Foreword

  Mind Games is a story that explores the effect of transferring one person’s mind into the head of another person. This isn’t a new or remarkable idea in the field of science-fiction, although the method of the transfer put forward in this version may well be. The story also has its analogies in many ghost stories where someone is ‘possessed’ by a ghost or demon. One such story, which may be considered to be the artistic muse that delighted me at an early age, was the Hollywood movie Wonder Man.

  Made in 1945, and starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen and Steve Cochran, Wonder Man featured two identical twin brothers —both played by Danny Kaye. While one brother is a shy and quiet bookworm, the other is a nightclub performer. Unfortunately the more extrovert brother is murdered and his ghost then returns and appears only to his shy brother. The shy brother agrees to take his place in order to help bring the murderers to justice. But to be able to do this successfully, he must be possessed by his dead brother’s ghost. The story then revolves around the many comical events that occur as a result of this friendly possession. The film won an Academy Award for its special effects and was nominated for three other awards.

  While Mind Games wouldn’t dream of being the same story, and in fact bears no resemblance to Wonder Man at all being a science-fiction thriller rather than a musical comedy, it does however feature a similar friendly possession. But there are no ghosts here. In Mind Games we are in high-tech science-fiction territory as we explore the realms of mind transference initiated by computer viruses.

  The initial premise is simple: Take a patient who has suffered some kind of trauma and as a result is considered to be ‘brain dead,’ or in a ‘constant vegetative state,’ stimulate their brain rapidly and repeatedly to re-establish their original neural pathways and it might, just might, lead to their reawakening. Or at least that is how the young scientist behind the technique hopes it will work when he is approached by the apparently altruistic medical corporation willing to fund the initial venture. But the corporation has more than just philanthropy on its mind...

  Mind Games features a shadowy secret and possibly government backed organisation, even more shadowy assassins, and a virtual reality tug o’ war for the mind of the heroine.

  Originally written as a novella in 1998, Mind Games was the first part of a series of three stories entitled Manchester Tales. It was followed in sequence by another novella, An Affair of the Heart, and then by the full size novel, The Look of Love, both of which have been published separately. All three have been on my website since then. The link between them all, apart from the fact that they are all set in Manchester, is that each one finishes where the next one starts. So Mind Games finishes in the hospital which also features at the beginning of An Affair of the Heart, and this story in turn finishes in Debenhams Department Store, where The Look of Love begins. In 2000 I revisited Mind Games and adapted it into a screenplay. The reason was that I wanted to expand the virtual reality parts of the story, particularly where events occurred in the mind of the heroine. I had also written several other stories during the intervening years and had experimented in dual personality characters in my science fiction and fantasy stories, so I was unhappy with this aspect in the original narrative version. I was also interested in the idea of writing a screenplay to see if this was easier or harder than writing a story in the traditional narrative style. So rather than simply rewrite the story I modified it and then adapted it into a screenplay instead. Although it is the only screenplay I have written, as I prefer the traditional narrative style, I do think that the story is better suited to this format due to its fast and frequent scene changes. But you can be the judge of that.

  Included in this volume are both the original narrative and updated screenplay versions of the story for your comparison and delectation. Because I happen to think the screenplay version is slightly better, I have included it first, but you can read them in the order of your choice. If you would like to comment on your agreement or disagreement with my opinion, email me at my website at www.booksandstories.com.

  DGR

  THE SCREENPLAY VERSION