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Clone

by Rosalind 

Posted: 22 April 2003
Word Count: 1382


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Chapter One - The Child: Her Story 2004

March

I'm 24 now and seems more and more unlikely each day that my husband and I will ever get pregnant by any conventional means. Yet there is a new hope for us. Just yesterday a new law was passed which finally allows human cloning to take place. I only hope that i may be among the first to gain access to this new technology.

May

I'm so excited. I got a letter today from Dr. C, I've been accepted to have my cells cloned. If all goes well I could be carrying a child by the end of the month.

June

Finally after nearly two months of treatment I have been informed that an embryo implantation has been successful. I'm pregnant.

Sept

My Husband is becoming more and more distant from me. I can't understand. He wanted a baby as much as i did. I wonder if he feels any love toward my unborn child, after all it is no relation of his, it is completely my child, and my child alone.

April 2005

Today at 9:22 am I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, I am going to call her Emma after my mother. She is so beautiful. My Husband says she looks just like the baby photos he has seen of me. That is not surprising I suppose.


Chapter Two - The Child: His Story 2004

March

I'm 27 now, My wife has been wanting children for some time now with no luck. I was almost relieved when the doctors told us that we would never be able to conceive. I never felt that I was ready, or mature enough to father children.....

....and she told me about her 'new hope', she wants to clone a child from her cells. It sounds like madness to me but if it will make her happy then who am I to go against it. I just don't seem able to tell her my concerns.

May

My Wife got the go ahead today to be cloned and implanted with the resulting embryo. I took her out for special meal to celebrate, why do I feel as if my fate has been sealed...

June

I feel as If I want to weep today. My wife has conceived and it is not my child. This is the first time that this thought has occurred to me. All the time that she was desperate to get pregnant with 'our' child I was happy to support her, I don't know how I will feel about this baby, will I love her? (for it will definitely be a female child, and more than that a near exact match of my wife. a latter twin.) I love my wife so I will love her child, her clone.

April 2005

Today at 9:22 my wife gave birth to her child whom she has named Emma after her mother. When I look at the child it shocks me to see how much like my wife she looks. I have often heard people say, and even said myself, that a child looks like one of its parents, but have never known it to be so true as it is now. I find my self to be spooked by this little clone of hers.


Chapter Three - Emma: Her story 2021

April

My Child has grown up so fast. She reminds me so much of myself at her age. Sometimes it is scary how like me she is, but then i remember that she carries an exact copy of my genes and the only thing that makes us different is the experiences that we have had. She is beautiful and so intelligent. Today she celebrates her 16th birthday....

.....she talks to my husband for hours but i don't seem able to join in, I feel so jealous, after all she is my child and not really any relation of his at all. Maybe I should have brought her up to know the truth....

..... and today I found out she has a boyfriend but he isn't good enough for her. Who could be. His name is Peter, a common name, he lacks the intelligence to match hers. I just hope she knows what she is doing. At least she is spending less time my husband.

May

My Husband and I grow more and apart every day. I don't feel the same about him any more because he is not the father of my child, yet he gives his attention to her and her to him.

....I see the way that they look at each other. He is my husband dammit and she is my child. What does she think she is playing at, she has a perfectly decent boyfriend of her own, but she says he is not mature enough for her....

....I think that they are laughing at me all the time....

....see has evil in her eyes.....

June

My doctor has given me drugs to stem my paranoia but I will not take them, I am not mad, and I cannot tell my husband, the one person I have always been able to lean on. i think that he will leave me soon....

....evil evil evil Emma....

...lying cow is trying to steal my husband....

...she has youth and I have not, how can I compete.....

July

Emma admits that she love my husband. I have thrown the evil witch out. I never want to see her again. My husband has left too, he has gone after her. My husband tells me he loves Emma and he wants to divorce me. He can legally do that because I was too selfish to put his name on the birth certificate. She was my child. I can't believe she is his now.

Its all my fault I wanted a child so much but in keeping her to myself I have alienated both of them. I have nothing left. I end this now.


Chapter Four - Emma: His story 2021
April

Emma was 16 today. The same age my wife was when I met her. My god she looks like her. She acts like her and talks like her. I catch myself looking at her the way I used to look at my wife....

....she has become obsessive, no one is ever good enough for her precious child. I don't seem to matter any more, I get no attention from her. At least Emma likes to spend time with me. Sometimes we talk for hours about nothing....

....she has a boyfriend, he is called Peter. He is a nice enough boy, but I can't bear to see Emma spend all her time with him, she seems to talk less and less to me these days.

May

Today I told Emma the truth. She was shocked, but I couldn't go on lying to her this was. She has become the most important thing in my life, she is just like my wife was when I first met her. I am 43 now but I am having the same thought about a 16 year old that I had when i was 19. I could never act on my feeling. I love my wife.

June

I think my wife has finally gone mad. She accused Emma of having an affair with me. An accusation which has no truth. There is no way that Emma could possibly have feelings for me, she sees me as her father. She cannot ever know the way I feel about her

....She has thrown Emma out. I do not think that i can live with her anymore, she is not the woman that i married.

Emma told me today that she loves me! I am confounded what shall I do. I love her back probably more than she will ever know but she is my daughter. She is not my daughter i can tell her I love her but is right. Emma says we can be together, after all we are no relation to each other

July

Today my wife killed herself. She took an overdose. It is sad but I don't feel any grief, after all she lives on in Emma, and Emma is now expecting our child, she has done for me what my wife never could.






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Comments by other Members



roger at 15:08 on 22 April 2003  Report this post
What a clever piece of writing, with an unusual and interesting structure. And it says something, perhaps something we should listen to, carefully.

There are a few typos (sorry, I'm a bit of a typo freak) but that's not really relevant. The concept, structure and writing are what's relevant, and, for what it's worth, I'm very impressed.

Shadowgirl at 16:31 on 22 April 2003  Report this post
Oh Rosalind!!!!!!
This is SOOOO POWERFUL and so close to my heart.
I don't know what to say. Not often I am lost for words (eh Rog?)but I am.....
Clever, yes, very - but more than that, much more.
I too am impressed, but freaked out too. Again, powerful stuff.
WOW!!!!!!!
Shads

Jibunnessa at 16:49 on 22 April 2003  Report this post
SUPERB! POWERFUL! PSYCHOLOGICAL!

Great stuff Rosalind! And what an interesting idea.

Becca at 14:07 on 29 April 2003  Report this post
Rosalind,
A tight and interesting idea this, I liked the circular feeling about it, (not a pun about pregnancy!) One way to deal with typos is to not look at the work for a couple of weeks and then read it out aloud to yourself and you'll pick up everyone of them. Or, get a friend to read it back to you, that way also you can sometimes get other ideas about it, or pick up jarring words. Not that I mean there were any, just to illustrate how useful reading out can be. I sometimes read a story onto a tape and play it back.
I think the idea is good enough to develop it further, pin it down in time and place. It's leaness is good, but I think it could pack more punch if it was fleshed out, without losing the really good simplicity of the writing.
I wait for more.
Becca.

Glimity at 16:55 on 04 May 2003  Report this post
Bloody Brilliant Rosalind!!! I'm absolutely gobsmacked!

This kept my attention right to the last full-stop. Wow. I'm speechless and am sat here stunned at the whole story, format, style - everything!

Gracious, I'm going back for another read.

Well done!
regards
Jennifer

noddy at 16:10 on 10 May 2003  Report this post
What an interesting concept.... this would make a good movie plot. Also, very readable and unique style. Is there more to come... ?

Regards,
Nod

Jubbly at 22:06 on 01 July 2003  Report this post
Fantastic, loved every bit of it. I agree with Noddy, this would be brilliant film, very very visual.

Thumbs Up!!

Jubbly

TheGodfather at 16:56 on 18 August 2004  Report this post
Rosalind,

Excellent idea and execution. I love the fact that Emma is able to actually have a baby. Cloning is gonna have all kinds of issues, one of which you've developed nicely here. I think the husband could share a little more about his thoughts on the wife. That angle seemed relatively unexplored and potentially offers much. Good work here. I enjoyed the read thoroughly.

TheGodfather

___________________
Some suggestions:

If all goes well I could be carrying >> If all goes well, I could be carrying

spending less time my husband >> spending less time with my husband

but I couldn't go on lying to her this was. >> 'this was'?

I am confounded what shall I do >> I am confounded as to what I shall do

She is not my daughter i can tell her I love her but is right >> She is not my daughter. I can tell her I love her, but is it right?


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