t h e p e a r s o n ' s c l o n e s
Alex's stare was pure horror.
"Bruce honey," Joan said, squeezing my hand urgently, the hysteria creeping back into her voice. "Please be quiet."
"But it‘s not our choice," Emo argued and Alex nodded.
"You decided to make us just like you. Nature could have made us out of any possible combination of your genes, but you made the choice of what our genes were going to be and what we would have to live with because of them."
Joan‘s mouth was open, working, but it took several moments for any sound to come out, "None of us is given the choice to be born sweeties. Everyone, at some point in their lives, gets so upset over what life has dealt them that they try to take it out on their parents, to blame them. It‘s perfectly understandable to feel that way from time to time, especially at your age, being young adults. It‘s a very awkward time of life. You‘re trying to assert your independence, but at the same time so much of your life is out of your control."
"You don‘t understand, Mom. By choosing to make us clones," Alex countered, "you have placed that much more of a burden on us. We have that much more of our lives out of our control. You did this to us!"
"Why are you putting us on trial?" Joan exclaimed. "Even if you are clones, there's nothing wrong with that! Why this persecution? Why this—this—this witch hunt? It seems like everyone's scrutinizing everyone else's kids for signs that they might be clones! Your father and I had you out of love for one another! That's all! Why does everyone try to second guess that?
"Yeah!" I broke in. "Exactly. It's just your mother's and my love for one another that prompted us to clone ourselves. Think about it. Your mother and I met in our 30s. We had both spent entire lifetimes without one another. It's hard for you to understand this at your age, but there was so much we had missed out on. I wanted to watch your mother grow up and develop, to see her become a woman, to watch her chest expand into--."
"Not one more word!" Joan warned. "I will divorce you so fast and so thoroughly your head will still be spinning when you find yourself living in a cardboard box behind the supermarket!"
Alex's eyes danced between us for a moment, then at her own chest and her mouth crinkled up in that way my wife's
-9-
