Janny

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say,” the man on the children’s television show declared. “Let’s put it to the test.”

I stared blankly at the television as the man in the white lab coat, Dr. Sci Entific, began his experiment by creating a small vacuum space with no air to test his theory.

I rolled my eyes. Rerun, I thought. Spoiler alert. It’s not exactly accurate. If you are within a few inches away, you actually can hear a scream with the expelling of the last breath.

I looked at the remote, sighed, and turned off the TV. I looked at the clock. Almost 5’oclock. My husband, Cameron would be home soon. He was picking up our 11 year old daughter, Jelsey, from after school soccer practice. I had about 40 minutes to get dinner ready. With a bored huff, I stood up and walked in to the kitchen.

I looked in every cupboard, contemplating what to make. Seemed like we had half of everything one would need. A box of Hamburger Helper. No burger. Cans of spaghetti sauce. No noodles. Mac n cheese. No milk. Who had done the last shopping trip? I couldn’t remember. I remembered making the list, though. I must have sent Cam to the store.

Maybe I’ll just order pizza, I thought. I looked around the room. I couldn’t see my cell phone.

“What number?” I heard. I looked around. Where did that come from? Was it an Alexa device? A Siri?

“’Just Like Home Pizzeria’,” I said aloud.

“One moment, please,” the soft spoken computerized female voice said.

I looked around for the device, but couldn’t see it anywhere.

How did it know I was thinking about pizza, I thought.

“Located Just Like Home Pizza. Would you like your regular order?” the voice asked.

“Yes, please,” I replied, confused.

I noticed the dishes in the sink and thought I should probably get those done, too.

“Setting reminder for the dishes,” the voice said.

I turned around in a panic. Where is that coming from?

Just then I heard the keys at the front door of the apartment. In walked my husband and my beautiful little….

Wait…

That was Jelsey, but she looked much older than 11. Was that makeup on her face?

“Jelsey! Wash that face! You’re too young for makeup!” I cried out.

“Setting reminder for Jelsey to wash face,” the auto voice declared.

Jelsey paused and looked at her dad for a moment.

“Wash my face?” she asked him.

Cam sighed and said, “She must be glitching again. I’ll reset her while you go change and get washed up for dinner.”

Jelsey left down the hall as Cam approached me.

“Cam, why didn’t you have my back on this?” I asked.

He did not answer me.

“Cam?”

Cam groaned as he reached somewhere behind me muttering about a switch.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“Reading calendar” the auto voice said.

Cam paused his reaching for a moment and stared at me as the auto voice began to read off his schedule for the next two days.

“What is going on,” I asked.

“Would you like the calendar read again?” the voice asked.

I started to say no, but Cameron beat me to it. “No, Janny. Can you give me a reading on any malfunctions?”

Janny? Who the hell is Janny?

“Yes. I can do that,” the auto voice, Janny replied. “One moment please…”

I heard a series of beeps and whirring. As this was happening, I felt dizzy. Like something had been slipped in my drink. Then, suddenly, just as though it never happened, the dizziness went away.

“It appears there is a past life memory interfering with the chip’s main capacitor.”

“What memory would that be, Janny?” Cam asked.

Janny replied, “It seems the original cookie is remembering you, Sir bringing home your daughter from soccer practice.”

“Soccer practice?” Cam looked stunned. “Wow. Jels hasn’t been in soccer since she was … um… 12? 11?”

“Eleven is correct, Sir.” Janny replied.

I stared in horror.

“Is that all” Cam asked.

“No, Sir. The original cookie has ordered pizza for dinner and would like the dishes in the sink to be washed.”

Cameron laughed. “Ok, Janny. Please keep my calendar and the pizza order. I’m going to reset the rest.”

“Very good, Sir.”

Cameron reached behind me again and ……………………..

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say,” the man on the children’s television show declared. “Let’s put it to the test.”