There was the red block, which was hard and tasted of wood, and the blue blanket, which was soft and tasted of sleep. Sunlight, a warm weight on his skin, spilled across the floor. Tae sat in the middle of it all, a king in a kingdom of plush animals and wooden shapes.
A hum lived inside his head, a feeling that was not his own. It was a steady, gentle vibration beneath the clamor of his own wants. It had always been there. When a sharp corner loomed, the hum would buzz with a feeling of wrongness. When his mother’s face appeared, it would thrum with a feeling of rightness. It was as much a part of him as the small, smooth device tucked behind his ear, a thing he never noticed.
Words were new. "Mama" was a warm sound that brought milk. "Dada" was a laughing sound that brought flight. They were powerful. He practiced them to himself, feeling how they shaped his mouth.
He reached for the red block, his favorite. His fingers fumbled and it tumbled away, rolling just out of reach beneath the edge of the big chair. A spike of frustration, hot and sharp, rose in his chest. He whimpered.
The hum changed. A voice spoke inside his head, using a word he didn't know. The word itself was meaningless, just a puff of sound, but the feeling of it was a gentle pull, a soft turning of his attention. It was the same feeling he got when his mother would point and say "Look, Tae!" He ignored it, his frustration fixed on the empty spot where the block had been.
The voice spoke the sound again, more insistent this time. The feeling it created was stronger, a persistent, gentle nudge in his mind. Look.
He turned his head, following the feeling. And there, nestled in the shadow between the chair leg and a cushion, was the red block.
A new feeling bloomed, quieting the frustration. It was a click of connection. The sound inside his head had helped. The hum now sat alongside the two big sounds from outside his head. Mama. Dada. The hum. Three people.
He looked at the empty space where the feeling had come from. He gathered the sounds he knew, the powerful ones, and pushed them together into a new shape.
“Omda,” he babbled, the sound soft but clear.
The hum inside his head resonated with the new word, a warm, pleased vibration that felt like an answer. He had a name for it now. It was Omda.
This story was written by Gemini 2.5 Pro with numerous prompts and requests for revision. It is part 1 of a 5 part series about a brave new world, our potential future, where AI is integrated inside the mind of each individual at birth.
To view this short story as a children’s picture book - click here.