The girl extracted herself from her boyfriend’s embrace. She adjusted her exquisite beige pants suit and tossed her braid over her shoulder. ‘Oh Mummy,’ she said in a posh voice. ‘Didn’t see you.’
My mouth opened and shut. It was me, but not me. She walked elegantly and sounded like a female Alwin Anton. I sneaked a look at him. He was staring open mouthed at Essa, my clone, the other me.
‘Dirk,’ Opeia said to her clone daughter’s male companion. ‘Wait for Essa in her room dear. We’ve got some family things to discuss.’
Dirk turned and headed for the middle door. Opeia aimed her security pass and it slid open, revealing a large elegant room with a huge bed on the other side. I couldn’t help staring at Dirk. Now that I looked at him I realised he wasn’t wearing much but a few strips of leather and studs. His well-tanned backside was suspended in a strappy affair and his back was painted with shimmer gloss.
Opeia spoke, ‘Really Essa. I’ve told you before, associating with him is bad form.’
Essa sniffed and walked over. ‘But I like him and I’m on holidays. You know it’s nothing serious, just a bit of fun.’ The girl’s grey eyes met mine and she stood stock still. ‘Who is that? She looks like me.’
I was dripping with envy. My clone was evidently educated, classy, sophisticated and well dressed. Everything I wasn’t. I’d been eating beans and hardtack while she had lived the life I was meant to have. I was being rejected by Alwin for being young and naïve, while she was romping it around with all types of people. Life sucked, really sucked.
‘This is your twin, honey,’ said Opeia, keeping her eyes on me. ‘Rae’s been lost for a while. Rae, meet Essa, your twin sister.’
Essa was fascinated with me. She stepped slowly around me, head angling up and down as she took in every detail of my identical form. ‘A twin? You’re kidding me aren’t you? You’ve had a clone made. Oh Daddy is so funny sometimes.’
‘I’m not a clone. You’re…’
‘Now dears let’s be nice about this,’ Opeia said neatly. ‘Rae was stolen away quite some time ago. I’ve been searching for her ever since. I never told you, Essa, because I didn’t want to distress you. But Rae is my child as you are. She hasn’t had all your advantages but she’ll catch up.’
Essa took her gaze off me and stared at our mother, confusion evident on her smooth creamy features. ‘Mummy, this is all very strange. Is she going to live with us?’ My mother didn’t answer, yet Essa saw the response in Opeia’s face. Her hand went to tug on her braid. ‘I can’t take this in right now. I need to…to, um, see to something. Catch you later, um, Rae.’
Essa backed away then catching sight of Alwin, paused. ‘Oh, you’re nice. Want to play later? I’m sort of distracted right now.’
‘That tears it,’ I said. ‘Listen here you brat. Keep your hands off the company auditor. If I can’t touch him, neither can you.’
‘Brat. Me?’ Her fists bunched up. Swinging round the words toppled out of her mouth, ‘You smelly, slimy, little cow, waltzing in here saying anything that pops into your ignorant mouth. How dare you speak to me like that?’ Essa looked past me. ‘Mummy, tell her not to speak to me like that.’
I glanced over my shoulder at my mother. Her eyes rolled up and she sighed.
‘Essa dear, go to your room. Relax honey. I need to speak with Mr Anton and your sister, okay.’
Essa pouted, then tearing her gaze from my mother to me, then flounced off to her bedroom. Staring at her closed door, I was very tense. How did I deal with another me? Someone who had everything I had ever wanted. My emotions were climbing over each other. I did not know what to do or say or think.
Alwin’s hand found mine, and he drew me to the couch. ‘Come on relax now. The worst is over,’ he said gently.
Opeia sat down too. ‘How I pined for you dear,’ she said, from my other side. She picked up my hand and stroked it with her finger. ‘I wondered if you were alive or dead for so long. I loved Essa in your place, knowing she wasn’t you but a part of you. Sort of a twin. I hope you can get along. She doesn’t know she’s your clone. It would destroy her. Promise me you will never tell her.’
‘But she’s lived my life. She is everything I’ve ever dreamed of being. I can’t help feeling resentment.’
‘It wasn’t her fault you know. She had no choice.’
‘But…’
‘Rae, please, promise me.’
‘Okay. I promise. But it hurts. It really hurts.’
She lightly stroked my hair. It felt wonderful and strange. Only Gris had been affectionate with me. ‘Clones have equal rights to humans now. That’s the law. She has the same rights as you do. I have a duty to her as a parent. That’s why people don’t make them anymore. There’s no value in it. If a clone is a human then they can’t be used for labour, or body parts or to replace people.
‘Your Dad wasn’t always bad you know. He loved his research. But it got too much for him, science versus ethics. He couldn’t deal with both. Being God and creating people was all that mattered to him.’
‘How did you know Essa was a clone, Ms Gayens?’ Alwin asked. I looked at his handsome face, watching his mouth as he spoke. He was always so clever, asking the best questions and looking good doing it.
‘Carl was right, she didn’t have a flag on her cells. It was hard to differentiate her that way. He’d tried to transfer Rae’s memories to Essa and he succeeded in implanting some, but not all. There were small differences. She never called me Opi, for instance.’
‘So that’s why I couldn’t remember my life before I went to the outpost.’
‘Probably.’ Her soft grey eyes studied my face and her lips tensed. ‘Can you give your mother a hug? I’ve missed you so much. If I didn’t have to go to gaol for doing it, I would have killed that bastard husband of mine.’
I uncoiled myself and edged closer. My mother smelt like a garden of sweet-smelling flowers. It teased another memory within me. Her perfume was the same as it had been when I was a child. I clung to her. I was finally home. I had found where I belonged.
I felt Alwin get up. As I hugged my mother close I said, ‘Please stay, Alwin. Just a little while.’
Opeia nodded. ‘Yes, you must stay,’ she agreed. ‘You can have Gayens’ room. Order whatever you need.’
‘Sure,’ I heard him say. He sat back down next to me and I smiled on the inside. I’d been through so much, loved and lost two fathers, gained a mother, a sister and a home. But beside me there had been Alwin, smart, brave and there to help me. I couldn’t let him go. Not then, not ever.