The Surgery

1.

I felt like my whole world was collapsing. Just six months ago, I was a happy man; now, I’m broken, a shadow of myself. Six months ago, Laura – my girlfriend at the time, and still the only woman I have ever truely loved – sat me down and told me it was over. She said she couldn’t find her feelings for me anymore. The fire that had burned for years had simply gone out, and she couldn’t lie to me, or to herself. She just couldn’t be with me anymore.

Since then, I haven’t been able to get over her. She occupied my thoughts relentlessly; It felt like my love for her had only grown after the breakup. My studies at university started to fall apart. At work, my team leader hinted that if I didn’t pull myself together, he would have to fire me. I barely ate; I’ve started smoking again - heavily. In short – my life seemed to unravel, and I had to do something to stop that. I didn’t know how to turn it off.

2.

One day, as I was browsing the web, an ad popped up:

The Mind Clinic

Leading specialists in mental health

Innovative treatments for a wide range of conditions

Advanced, cutting-edge methods.

Book a consultation today

I figured that if my state wasn’t a mental health condition, I didn’t know what was. I called immediately and scheduled an appointment for later that afternoon.

3.

A blast of air-conditioned air hit me as I entered the clinic. After a short wait, I was called into a private room. An elegant woman stood to greet me and offered her hand.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Silverman, Ariella Silverman. I run this place. You must be Ben.”

“That’s right.” I shook her hand and gave her a faded smile, a shadow of the smile I once had.

“Nice to meet you, Ben. Please have a seat. I would like to know what brings you here today?” she asked. I could see in her eyes; one look at me told her everything - this was a severe case.

“Well,” I began in a hoarse voice “I… I have a small issue.” I smiled mockingly and added “actually, a big problem. A deeply rooted problem”.

“I’m listening,” she said.

“How should I put it… it would probably sound silly to you” I licked my lips and continued “six months ago I broke up with my girlfriend - I mean, she broke up with me. And I still love her”. I paused for a second. “You probably think it’s just another case of a broken heart, and it’ll pass. I thought the same. But it feels like my love for her is growing stronger every day. I can’t get her out of my head; it’s ruining my life. Look at me.”

“Yes, it does look bad,” Ariella said “But don’t you want to give it some time? To let it run its course? You know, there’s a saying that time is the best cure. It’s a cliché, but especially with love, it’s usually true.”

“I do want to - God knows how hard I’ve tried to forget her.” I answered “But I feel like I can’t control it. I can’t stop loving her.” I stood up and paced in the room. “It’s not the first time I’ve been in love, and surely not the first time I was dumped. But I’ve never been affected like this.”

“I see,” she said. “Here in our clinic, we have remarkably advanced and – how should I put it -innovative methods for treating a variety of problems. Including your problem, which is well documented in the literature. I should mention that the standard medical insurance doesn’t cover either of these procedures so…”

“I have some money I’ve saved for a vacation. It was before we broke up. Now it’s useless. I’ll pay- just get rid of it.” I murmured, still pacing the room.

“Very well,” Ariella said, pulling some forms from a drawer beside her desk. “But please sit down, you’re giving me a headache.”

I sat down, and she went on. “Our solution to your problem is called ‘Love Removal Surgery’.”

“What?!” I said.

“Yes, that’s what we call it. But don’t take it literally. It’s not a physical surgery. It’s a kind of psychological procedure that we’ll guide you through to remove it at its root. We simply gave it a more user-friendly name. Would you prefer I use the professional term?”

“No, no, I like this name,” I replied “Love Removal Surgery - sounds great. What exactly does this procedure involve?”

“What we do here,” she said, “is make you see the woman you love in a different light.”

My curiosity was piqued, and she went on.

“In the first stage, we will guide you through a series of intensive sessions under deep hypnosis. During these sessions, we’ll identify every negative trait she has. And when I say every, I mean everything - The way she walks, the perfume she uses, the way she answers the phone, just about everything. All those things that have always bothered you, or at least bothered you subconsciously. We’ll bring all of it to the surface.

In the second stage, we will amplify all those ‘imperfections’ to such an extent that, by the end of the procedure, you won’t be able to love her anymore. You might not even be able stand her.”

“But I love everything about her. There’s nothing that bothers me or annoys me,” I said.

“That’s what you think, and it’s perfectly natural to think that way. As a matter of fact, that’s the real difficulty in this treatment,” she said. “It’s considered to be challenging exactly because of this problem – love blocks access to her flaws. Your mind creates complex mental blocks, and that’s why you can’t see them. She held both of my hands in hers and went on, “but I assure you, those imperfections are there. No one is perfect, including her. Even though you treat her like an angel.”

“Would that work?” I asked.

“I told you, it’s one of the most difficult procedures we have. We might not be able to break through the mental blocks created by your love. We might not be able to amplify the flaws. Anything’s possible. But we have good people here - The best in the field.”

She sighed and said, “One more thing – because of the nature of this treatment, it’s completely irreversible.”

“That means I won’t be able to love her again?” I asked.

“Exactly,” she answered. “Since we intervene in the delicate mental structure, and remove those blocks rather brutally, your mind would go through a serious shock. It wouldn’t survive another one. Let’s say it’s a once-in-a-life-time treatment.”

“Okay, I’ll take it,” I said.

“What?! Right now? Don’t you want to think about it for a while?” she said, surprised.

“No, I’ve been thinking for too long, I was tired of thinking. As far as I’m concerned, we can start right now,” I replied.

Ariella sighed quietly and said, “I’ll see what I can do. You can wait in the waiting room.”

I stood up and was about to leave the room when she said “Ben, look, I’m sorry to push, but don’t you want to think about it again? It’s a deeply distressing procedure. Mentally, I mean. It’s not easy to discover all those aspects about her - to suddenly find out that you can’t stand her, when not long ago you couldn’t think a single negative thought about her.” She looked into my eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to let it run its course? Are you sure you want to do it?”

“Doctor, my life is falling apart because of this. I can’t go on anymore. Just pull me out of this.”

“Very well,” she said and handed me some forms. “You can fill out those forms while you wait, I’ll be back soon with an answer.”

4.

They operated on me for a whole month. It began with long session with a clinical psychologist, who combed through every inch of my life with Laura. He asked me to bring pictures of her, letters she had written me, little presents she had bought me. Every aspect of our life together was examined. And then again. For hours. Nothing was too small. Nothing was irrelevant.

Next, they began with hypnosis sessions, during which they asked direct questions about the details I had given earlier. And others as well. The doctors left no stone unturned; everything was documented and recorded.

During their evening sessions, the therapists worked through the files and decided on the right strategy for tackling the problem. They identified the weakest points in the mental blocks - things that might be easiest to change - and made plans to break them down, until they reached the core of the feeling itself.

In the next stage, they gave me drugs that opened up my mind, making it easier to access it. Then, under hypnosis again, the therapists worked hard to amplify all the negative traits they had found, giving enormous weight to every small, meaningless detail I had told them: she always squeezed the toothpaste from the middle - it drove me crazy, I had told them in earlier sessions, not knowing that after the procedure, that alone would feel like grounds for divorce. And they mercilessly suppressed every endearing and beloved trait. They rewired me. Nothing was left untouched.

By the end of this exhausting intervention, the surgery was declared a success. The tumor had been removed.

I went back home with an uneasy feeling, but also with a sense of relief. For the first time in a long while I didn’t feel anything anymore. I didn’t want to think about Laura. The mere thought of seeing her repulsed me. Certainly, I didn’t want her back. No thanks. For me, that chapter was closed.

5.

One day, shortly after the surgery, my phone rang.

“Benny?” it was Laura’s voice. How I hated the way she called me that. And then I realized something that I had never noticed before – and now couldn’t ignore: her voice sounded so thin and shrill that I could barely stand it.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and said “Yeah. What do you want?”

“Benny, look, I… I,” her voice trembled, as if she were about to cry. “I must tell you something… Since we broke up…”

“Since you dumped me, you mean” I spat.

“Yes, I’m sorry. Since I left, I’ve felt really bad about myself. At first I thought it was the right thing to do, because I felt I didn’t love you anymore – after all, that was why I left. And I tried to move on. It’s not that I wasn’t suffering, it was excruciating for me. After all, we loved each other deeply, and I…”

I didn’t understand what it was that she wanted, or what her purpose was. But I wasn’t interested in the conversation, and I wasn’t interested in her explanations.

“Laura,” I said, her name made me feel sick, “I don’t know what you want, but it’s all in the past now. I think there’s no point in talking about it, just leave me alone…”

“Wait, Ben, just a moment,” she said, and I let out a loud sigh. “I must tell you something, please listen – I know you had a hard time. I know you kept loving me and couldn’t get over me…”

“It’s not…” I said but she cut me off – “Wait, Ben, this has been killing me. And as you couldn’t understand why I’d left, I was in agony too. I wanted so desperately to love you, I really did. I wanted to bring back the feelings I had for you and come back. But I simply didn’t know how.”

“Laura, this conversation is really uncomfortable for me. Can we please end it?” I was starting to lose my patience. If she had called a month ago, saying those things, I would probably have cried already. Now I just felt angry and tired.

“Ben,” she said, “I realized that I probably had an issue, a serious one. That I needed professional help.”

“Bye, Laura.” I said, intending to hang up, when she said, “Wait! I reached out to a private clinic… to get some professional help…”

I felt a jolt of alarm and pressed the phone to my ear. “Which clinic?” I asked.

“It’s called ‘The Mind Clinic’. It’s an innovative place that performs advanced psychological procedures…”

I froze.

“Yes…?” I said, trying to keep my voice steady, “and what did you do there?”

“I told them I had a severe condition. I told them I couldn’t love you the way I used to. And I wanted it so badly. They offered me something… a procedure called ‘Love Implantation’. It’s not a real implantation, it’s just a…”

“user-friendly name?” I muttered.

“Yes, exactly!” she exclaimed. “It was unbelievable! They guided me through intensive interventions. They took all the qualities I loved in you and just amplified them. They amplified them to such an extent, that now I feel like I’m overflowing with love for you! Even more than I loved you before. I can’t stop thinking about you. I love you so much, Benny…” she burst into tears and said “I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done, I promise I’ll make it up to you, my love. You’ll see - I’ll love you as you deserve…”

I felt dizzy. I saw the room begin to swirl around me. A surge of hatred washed over me, and I couldn’t resist them. The dizziness grew stronger. As if from a great distance I heard Laura’s voice calling “Benny? Are you there? Benny?”

And I fainted on the floor.

The procedure had worked.

Perfectly.