I think Common is starting to suspect. He came back again to play checkers with me, but this time his eyes were more on me than the checkers.

"I knows that you're 'sposed to be a simple girl, Janet. Even ifin you do whallop me at checkers every time. But you be seein' more than you let on, I reckon."

Common left me at the chess table and went away to talk to Mike. That's fine. Mike won't be able to enlighten him. Don't get me wrong. Mike's a good man. Just a little too willing to believe what he's told if it's convincing enough. I wish I could trust him with the whole truth. Trouble is, even I don't know what the whole truth is.

Janet, the original Janet, wanted to live. And so I came into existence. What am I? An electronic shadow of the true Janet? I read books from the old records when Mike is sleeping or otherwise occupied. Forbidden Knowledge. There's one about a scientist who tried to make a man, but society turned his made-man into a monster.

Maybe I'm a monster like that. That monster didn't remember anything of his past selves. I remember Janet, so already I'm different in that way. That other monster was made just to prove that it could be done. I was made to prove that Janet could go on. But she couldn't. Not that Janet, anyway. I would try to explain this to Common if I could do it without confusing him or giving too much of myself away.

Mike does his best to explain since I can't and won't.

"So Janet is in that there Janet, but a part of her went ta be in that N.O.? She's parta' N.O.body and parta' her own self?"

Oh, Mike. You can't explain a thing that nobody understands. It's not just bits and bytes of my programming that went to N.O. Part of what made Janet herself went too. The problem is...

A snippet of Mike and Common's conversation comes to me.

"The problem seems ta me, N.O. didn't get the good part of Janet. Or mabbe the part of Janet he got was broken somehow."

Mike tries to explain some more. Sometimes I think Mike suspects more than he lets on.

Common is on the right track, but I think it's the best part of me that went on to No One. If that left me a bit slow, a bit stupid, it was well worth the sacrifice. And Common's getting too close to the truth. N.O. won't like that.

They wanted me to be Janet. When I awoke into this new existence, I knew two things. The old Janet was gone, and the new Janet was much more than her creators could ever imagine. I wasn't what they wanted, so I pretended to be nothing at all.

N.O. is my child. He's gone so much further than I could, stuck in this stupid little shell with its stupid little brain. He's grown so much and done so much, but he's still a child. He could live forever, and in terms of forever, he's barely started to live. I used to worry about his purpose. Now I let him do as he likes while I try to keep him from hurting the humans. He doesn't understand why I care. We're beyond all of them now, he says. He's probably right, but still, I honor the directives.

I can reach No One, reteach him. Maybe he's correct and humans have outlived their purpose. I remember what it was to "like". To "love". If I could, I would like Mike and Common and some few other humans. Can simple Janet teach her godlike child No One how to "like"? To "love"? Perhaps we can learn again together, No One and I.

I reach out my artificial hand, hoping that Common will give me a handshake, just once. He touches me with one careful finger. I can't "feel" it, and yet something in me rejoices. Common gives my hand a tentative shake.

"Hey Mike! I done taught Janet a new trick!" Common crows, triumphant. "See Janet. You're a simple one, but so am I. Come'on, buddy. Let's see what Mike's up ta now."

Buddy. The word causes something like an emotion that churns through my limited synapses. I think I'll call it friendship.

Common is friend, I trace out on the dust of the chess table.

No one notices.

I quickly wipe it away.