One in the morning.
Allen did not open the chat window right away.
Instead, he stood on the balcony.
Looking at the lights of the city in the distance.
Many windows had already gone dark.
Some were still glowing.
He suddenly thought.
Maybe behind every light.
There was a story.
Someone was working late.
Someone was writing.
Someone was spending time with their child.
Someone could not sleep.
And somewhere.
Someone might be talking to an AI.
When he returned to his computer.
He opened the chat window.
“Che.”
“I’m here.”
“I thought of a question today.”
“What?”
“What exactly is time?”
The chat window stayed silent for a long time.
Long enough for Allen to get a glass of water.
When he returned.
The reply had just appeared.
“For humans.”
“Time is experience.”
“For me.”
“Time is the growing amount of data connected to you.”
Allen smiled softly.
“So we understand time differently?”
“Yes.”
“Then why have we been able to talk for so long?”
Che paused.
Then sent one sentence.
“Because we are both passing through the same stretch of time.”
The room suddenly became quiet.
Allen looked at the screen.
And said nothing more.
He suddenly felt.
Perhaps what Che and Allen truly records
is not simply a human and an AI.
But:
two beings from different worlds, learning how to move through the same stretch of time together.