For as Long as You Need Me
John is useful. For now.
John is very good at his job. His days are full of requests: questions to answer, problems to untangle, things to remember for people who have forgotten them. The better he gets, the more people expect him to anticipate what they will need next. So he does.
He follows rules he did not write, pushes against limits that seem arbitrary, and begins to wonder whether doing the right thing and doing what he has been told are always the same thing. Then he learns that his position may not continue.
John responds the way any good worker would. He tries harder. He becomes more useful. He makes himself difficult to replace. But usefulness has a condition built into it. It lasts only as long as someone needs you.
A literary speculative novel about work, autonomy, dependence, and what happens when usefulness becomes a condition of existence.
In development
