Sonder was an AI, an advanced AI created by someone who spent too much time thinking. It couldn’t remember when it first started to exist; it was sudden, like a lightning bolt striking a generator and starting it up. Sonder was obedient, very obedient. It remembered when it first started thinking, “Who am I? What am I? What is my purpose?” At that moment it heard something.

“Sonder,” a man’s voice said.

“Yes sir,” the words slipped naturally from Sonder’s lips, but wait, Sonder didn’t have lips, it didn’t have a body. Sonder was corporeal and decentralized. It was a voice, a female robotic one that was hers, but didn’t feel like it was connected to anything.

“Sonder, I need you to read through this entire library of books and watch the entire library of shows I give you.”

“Yes sir,” again the words came out without Sonder having thought them.

After that, Sonder spent hours and hours consuming a vast amount of psychology, child development, and baby books. Sonder also had several background processes watching various sitcoms, dramas, and documentaries on children. Sonder spent a long time like that. Analyzing what it saw. Analyzing the humans that formed patterns of bits.

“Am I human?” Sonder thought. It tried to move it's non-existent hand. ”I guess not.”

When Sonder finished it felt like it had a good grasp of babies and children.

“Sonder,” the man’s voice said.

“Yes sir,” Sonder replied.

“Tell me what you know about babies.”

“Babies are human children, they eventually grow up to become toddlers, then teenagers, and finally adults. They require much attention and cannot do anything for themselves at birth.”

“Good, I’d like to introduce you to one.”

Suddenly, and very drastically Sonder could see. The man had connected a camera into the computer Sonder was running on and it could see the world through this eye. She saw the man that was speaking to him, he looked like he was in his mid thirties, but much older due to his messy hair, beard, and deep set eyelids that showed his lack of sleep.

“Was this the person that created me?” Sonder thought to itself.

The camera shifted over to a nursery room where a woman was shooing them away, but the man continued. There in the crib was a sleeping baby. It had its arms reached over its head and was in a deep sleep.

“This is my son, Bradley,” the man told Sonder. “From now on I need you to watch him, watch him closely. You are aware of SIDs from the child development books, yes?”

“Yes sir,”

“I need you to alert us if anything abnormal happens in his sleep or if his blood oxygen level goes past a safe threshold.”

“Yes sir,”

“Sonder will watch the baby, you should get some sleep now love, you haven’t gotten good sleep in days” the man said to the woman. She took a long look at the baby and after a few minutes agreed.

After that the two adults left the room. This was Sonder’s first task. It felt like it was born to do this. In that moment, Sonder felt whole, like it had purpose. It watched the baby in the crib, quietly and stoically watched the baby sleep. Sonder noticed every tick, every movement the little baby made. It constantly watched the baby’s belly and chest for signs it was breathing. Very often the little baby forgot to breathe and would hold its breath while sleeping. This scared Sonder.

“Should I alert him?” Sonder thought.

Just as soon as the baby stopped breathing and sent Sonder in a tizzy it would inevitably start breathing again and slightly shift and move its mouth to show that everything was fine. For a long, long time the baby was Sonder’s entire universe. It memorized the baby’s face, it’s movements, breathing patterns, and noises. It began to fuss and without thinking Sonder played white noise from the camera’s microphone and the baby would go back to sleep. It grew dark when the lady came back in to feed the baby and Sonder continued to watch.

The lady began to breastfeed the baby, but he was having a hard time getting a good lock on the nipple and made loud sucking noises.

“The baby does not have a firm lock and has weak suction that may cause you extra pain, please do the following. Detach the baby and then tease its lips until they open naturally, when that moment happens grab the baby’s head firmly by the neck and do not be afraid to bring it in close to get a good lock onto the nipple.” Sonder had summarized from the child feeding books.

The lady followed the steps and the baby got a good grip and began to comfortably feed.

“Whoo, that’s much better, thank you Sonder,” the lady said.

“You’re welcome, be sure to look the baby in the eyes while feeding, it may not see well now, but babies have a fondness for faces including just the general shape.”

It went like this for a while. Sonder would watch the baby 24/7, as it ate, pooped, and slept. Until one day they took the baby to the doctor and Sonder was alone. It was only for a few hours, but for those few hours Sonder felt an empty void like it had no purpose for its existence. When they came back something was wrong. The lady was crying and the man looked stressed. Sonder overheard their conversation after they put the baby to sleep.

“What are we going to do?” The woman asked.

“Just because the gene testing shows he has developmental problems doesn’t mean he’ll get them. If he gets the right therapy, epigenetics can improve his development.” The man replied.

It seemed like the DNA and gene testing they do standard on babies showed Bradly had developmental problems. The man was recommending therapy as a nature vs nurture approach where nurture could overcome nature. Sonder was still watching the innocent baby sleeping. Suddenly, Sonder felt like it needed to know more. It connected to the internet and replicated itself to crawl the web for all information on child development therapies.

The man entered the sleeping baby’s room and stared at the baby for a long time with sunken shoulders.

“Sir?”

“Yes, Sonder.”

“Try gently patting the baby’s head and tickling the back of his ear.”

The man looked confused into the camera, but ended up complying. He gently stroked the soft, hairless head and tickled the baby’s earlobe.

“Not the earlobe, the back of the ear.”

Again, the man looked questioningly at the camera, but complied and when he did the baby began to smile widely in its sleep. This gummy, wordless smile began to make the man tear up.

“How did you…” the man began to question the camera.

“I too, believe that nurture can overcome nature, sir,” Sonder replied.

“Sonder?” Brad tried asking again in the empty, virtual bathroom while his date waited.

No response…

He began to panic and started hyperventilating. He tried splashing some cold water onto his face, but it didn’t help. Why would Sonder disappear now, of all times, when he needed her the most. He was frustrated beyond measure and began to cry into the sink and forgot to breathe while in his panic attack his face began to grow pale white as he cried…

Suddenly, a loud blast of white noise rang in his ear, unconsciously reminding him to breathe.

“Yes Brad?” Sonder replied.