My Favorite Human

A woman inherits a house with a surprising secret.

My Favorite Human (This story won the April 2026 Science Fiction Microstory Conest on Goodreads)


With bittersweet reverence, Molly McCracken pulled the old sheets from the living room furniture, shaking off the dust. She always loved this house but would give it up a hundred times just to have the old man back. She ran her thumb along a photo of them – ten years ago at Coney Island in the shadow the carousel. A lifelong friend, Saul Marino had taken her in when her parents died. He was just that sort of man. A single tear dropped onto the glass and she brushed it away. Now, off to work.

She’d start in the bathrooms, for the house was best described as clean-ish, even when she was living there. Setting her bucket inside the pedestal sink of the downstairs half-bath, she pressed her cloth into the mirror. ‘Crack’

“Damn.” She backed away from a new fissure running top to bottom. “Next task – new bathroom mirror.” A subtle glow peeked from between the fractured panes and the surface shimmering with pixelated effect. Tapping a fingertip, the glass rippled, then the mirror disappeared.

“Good evening, Saul. Mirror simulation 1A has been compromised, would you like me to rectify?”

Molly stumbled back. “Hello?”

“You’re not Saul,” it puzzled.

She lurched out the doorway into the hall, before daring a peak back inside. “Who are you?”

“A friend of Saul’s.” A beam scanned her face. “You are Molly McCracken - guest resident in this facility for 7.8 Sol years – last occupied 3.4 Sol years ago, pending university attendance. I was not expecting you. Where is Saul?”

“Saul…Saul died,” she sulked.

“I see,” the voice acknowledged. “In the case of the owner’s termination, the terms of the purchase agreement allow for two scenarios. First option - a reset to factory specifications and return to the warehouse on K’thornix. Alternatively, this facility shall pass to a designated appointee. I must ask, why are you here?”

Summoning her courage, she stepped back into the bathroom. “Saul left this house to me when he died. I have all the paperwork.”

“May I see it?” the voice requested.

“See it? Where are you?”

“I am everywhere.”

“Everywhere in the bathroom?”

“I am everywhere in the house,” it chuckled. “So, if you’d like to continue this conversation in the living room, please make yourself comfortable.”

Dropping onto the sofa, Molly brushed her hair back. “If you’ve been here all this time, why haven’t I ever noticed you?”

“You have,” the house answered. “Saul was very effective at explaining it away. A flash in a doorway became a bad bulb. Explosive sounds downstairs were a television left on. And the best sleep of your life was merely a kindly friend thinking of you, for in fact he was…always.”

“I…didn’t realize.”

“You were a child and wouldn’t have understood. And explaining a somnolence field to a ten-year-old just wasn’t practical. Now, you explained that you had paperwork?”

“Right.” Molly dumped the contents of her pack onto the table, unfolding Saul Marino’s ‘Last Will and Testament’ and flattening it out.

“‘Dearest Molly, I Saul Marino, being of sound mind…’” it began, in Saul’s voice. “…‘believing in the potential of all humankind, do hereby bequeath my home and all the contents therein to one Molly McCracken, former resident of the property and my favorite human...” A beam scanned the document. “Is that it?” the house asked.

“Isn’t that enough?”

“I expected a visual glyph of some sort, a hallmark to make the transaction official. K’thornix doesn’t recognize Earth’s jurisdiction. That corner there, the fold beside his signature.”

Molly turned the dog-ear, revealing a gilded stamp shaped like an atom, or perhaps three worlds circling a star. “I missed that.”

“Contract transferred,” the house immediately announced. “Molly McCracken, welcome to your Olerient-Class Transdimensional Domicile, capable of limitless panuniversal domiciliate configurations, internal and external recombination, and infrawarpspeed drive. This model features adaptive artificial intelligence, wormhole transplanetary passage, and matter remolecularization.”

“What does that all mean?” she asked, confused.

“This house can be whatever you want and take you wherever you want to go within the Alliance of Benevolent Worlds. Saul Marino was, in fact, agent 314278653 of the Alliance Surveillance Program, assigned to study the Earth, even deciding to stay, long after his assignment was over. He loved your people very much, particularly you, as a father would love a daughter.”

It was a lot to take in.

“Molly, how would you like to proceed?”

Totally overwhelmed, she began with, “Let’s just start with the bathroom mirror.”

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