1
Val and her son Braden were filling potato barrels with dirt when the cloned girl from the house down the road came running out of the woods. She was chasing a little dog. A dachshund. Right into their damn back yard. The furry thing scurried up to Braden, tail wagging, and Braden picked it up.
“Thanks,” said the girl, panting. Bits of dead leaves and dirt peppered her rose-colored skin and clung to her blue hair. She must have run two miles through the woods. Not to mention crossing a damned barb wire fence. What the hell?
Braden handed her the dog. “You’re welcome.”
Val drove her shovel blade into the ground and let it stand on its own. No, no, no, fuck, she thought.
The girl backed away. Stared at Braden. Fiery orange eyes scanned him from hair to feet. Then she looked around. Took in the potato barrels. The garden. The back of their house.
Finally, she turned to Val and said, “My mom thinks it’s weird that you don’t work.”
“I’m working right now,” said Val. She gestured at the dirt all over her hands and clothes to demonstrate.
Stay calm. Don’t be rude. Don’t let the spoiled, nosy little shit know you’re in a panic.
Val picked up her shovel again and scooped more dirt into a potato barrel. “We’ve been working all morning.”
Now take the hint, you little shit.
But the girl just stared at her. Her face held a mild expression.
This was the first time Val had seen her up close. The perfect image of her mother. Except that her genetics had been altered to give her that exotic skin and hair color. Customized clones were a lot more expensive than children produced “naturally” in artificial uteri. Val had known Janna made decent money. She was Senior Vice President of Social Affairs and Student Diversity at the largest university in the state, after all. But a genetically modified clone meant that Janna made a lot more money than Val had guessed.
“But you don’t go to work, right?” the girl said. “You don’t do real work. Mom thinks that’s weird.” The dog squirmed in her arms. It wanted to get back to Braden.
“How’s this not ‘real work’?” said Braden. “We’re growing our own food. Can you or your mom grow your own food?”
Braden, stop, Val thought. He looked over at her.
“It’s just weird that you don’t work,” said the girl.
“It was nice to meet you,” Val said, stifling her irritation. “But we need to get back to... well, work. I can drive you back to your house if you want.”
“It’s alright,” the girl said, just a hint of a smile crossing her pink mouth. “I can cross a fence.”
She turned then, the dog held tight in her arms. She glanced at Braden one more time before heading back into the woods.
Val started shoveling.
Let’s get back to it, she thought. She’s gone now.
“You’re worried,” said Braden. No doubt he could see the images in her head of men from Homeland Security or the Department of Human Reproduction knocking on their door, asking about her illegal son.
“It’s fine,” said Val. “Let’s just get this done so we can go inside and cool off.”
Dr. Janna Kord, SVPSASD. And her stupid, nosy fucking daughter.
2
Jessica stared at the livepic of the pig in the hologram, a bite of yogurt halfway to her mouth. The intestines hanging from the ragged opening in the pig's abdominal cavity looked like a tangle of huge worms.
clonedaddy157 (2 MIN): I see you in Atlanta @jessicabrantleyANS. I know where you like to go, you didunophobe. I'll kill you just like this pig. You have made people afraid of me and my SON.
LINKED STORIES: “WE NEED TO TAKE CLONE PEDOPHILIA SERIOUSLY” BY JESSICA BRANTLEY (AMERICAN NEWS SITE)
TAGS: CLONES; CLONERIGHTS; LOVEYOURCHILDREN; CLONESAREREALKIDS; FUCKDIDUNOPHOBES; SAFEREPRODUCTIVEPRACTICES, JESSICABRANTLEY, AMERICANNEWSSITE
*AGORA: THE IDEAS MARKETPLACE. SHOUT TO THE WORLD*
Jessica put down her spoon and yogurt cup and looked up from the Shout to the livepic of the pig. Tendrils of blood dripped from the torn edges of skin around the opening in its belly. She touched the EXPLORE button, and the view began to move slowly around the pig. It had been killed close to the time when the livepic was shot. The carcass swayed upside down on a chain hanging in...
God, is that a bedroom? A child's bedroom?
There was a small bed with a nightstand and a little lamp. But as the view shifted, she saw several places on the walls where sheetrock was missing. An abandoned house.
A tall shadow, cast by a dim red light somewhere behind the camera, moved slightly on the wall behind the pig. At first, she thought it was the animal’s shadow. But as the pig swayed to the left on its chain, the shadow on the wall moved to the right. It was the shadow of the photographer. The point-of-view moved around the pig, and the shadow moved along the wall and then disappeared.
Another holographic window opened to the left of the livepic. Merida's face appeared there, her big eyes wide. The projector gave a small ping.
“Jeremy, answer,” Jessica told her smarthome assistant. The still image of Merida’s face was replaced with a live hologram.
“Holy shit!” she said. “Have you seen it?” She was still at work. Jessica could see the restaurant kitchen behind her head. Sweat, heat, and stress had frazzled Merida’s electric blue hair.
“I'm looking at it now,” Jessica said.
“He called you a didunophobe!” Merida said. “That's got to hurt.”
“I’ve been called worse than a clone-hater,” said Jessica. “And I’ve been too busy looking at the pig to worry about somebody calling me names.”
She glanced at the bottom of the post. So far, eight people had given it a thumbs up, fifteen had given it a thumbs down, and four had given it a heart.
Merida gave her best indignant frown. “I can't believe Agora hasn't deleted it!”
“It just went up,” Jessica said. “They probably haven't gotten enough flags yet—”
A new window appeared next to the pig livepic with another ping from the projector.
“Hold on...” she said.
Hi, Jessica. You were recently tagged in an Agora Shout that might contain offensive, hateful, or threatening language. Sixty-seven viewers have flagged it as inappropriate. The post is currently under review by our Safety Tolerance and Justice Team. Would you like to have your Agora identity removed from the post and the user clonedaddy157 blocked from sending you any further Shouts?
“Jeremy, reply,” she said. “Yes.” Then she turned to Merida. “That’s taken care of.”
“Are you okay?” Merida bit her lower lip and brushed a lock of her blue hair out of her face. “If you said you were upset, I could leave work early and come over.” She gave Jessica her sideways smile—the kind that she meant to be sexy, but only came off as goofy. “Megan wouldn’t mind closing up here. You know. If you needed some... attention.”