The Tomorrow Paradox

Chapter 2 - Meet the Clone

The girl quickly closed the door behind her. She braced her back against it, trembling as her hazel eyes scanned Mackenzie's hospital room. Her light brown hair was disheveled and she gasped several times, attempting to regain her breath. She wore a pink nightgown that stopped above her knees. Property of Simulacrum Institute was stenciled in small black letters beneath her right breast. The 15-year-old pleaded with the startled boy. "Please, let me hide here. I'm not ready to go back. I want to be free, even if it's only for a few more minutes."

"Who are you?" Mackenzie asked.

"I'm Gemma. Who are you?"

"I'm..." Mackenzie recalled his father's admonition about creating a new identity for himself while in the future so as not to be confused with his adult counterpart. He remembered his previous trip through time, to the past, where he had met Gramps and gone by the name 'Kenzie'. He smiled at the nervous girl. "I'm Kenzie. I'm not from around here. Just visiting my cousins for a few days."

The girl tilted her head. "What are... cousins?"

Mackenzie shrugged. "Cousins. You know, family. Your aunts' and uncles' kids."

"I don't have any," Gemma replied.

"You don't have any aunts or uncles?"

"I don't have any family."

"Gee, I'm sorry. How long ago did your parents die?"

Gemma laughed. "I never had any."

"That's ridiculous. Everyone has parents, even if you never met them."

"Not me. I'm a clone. I came from a DNA scraping on a glass microscope slide. The closest I got to having a mother was a cotton swab."

Mackenzie gulped. "You're a clone," he uttered in disbelief. "I've read science fiction stories about clones, but you look so real."

"I am real. My flesh is as warm as yours, and my heart beats between seventy and one hundred beats per minute. I look exactly like my donor, since I came from her DNA. See?" She unclasped her nightgown and it slid to her ankles, covering her bare feet.

Mackenzie's jaw dropped. "You're naked! Don't they have underwear in this era?"

He turned his head away. "Aren't you embarrassed?"

Gemma looked puzzled. "What is embarrassed?"

Mackenzie fumbled for the right response. "You know, ashamed? Shy? Cold, even?"

"Oh, societal customs and mores of advanced cultures. I've read about that on the neural net." She paused. "Then, you must never have seen a naked girl before."

"Of course I have." Mackenzie turned to face her, and his eyes perused her from head to toe, before swiftly refocusing his gaze at the distant wall. "Just not this close... I mean, in the same room... Instead of on a screen." He blushed. "Just put your clothes back on."

"I can't wear that, anyway. It's a clone outfit with the institute's name on it. I can't hide dressed in that. I'll stand out a mile away."

"You'll stand out even more in your birthday suit. If my dad walked in now and caught me with you like that... let's see, if I'm sixty-three now... I'd be grounded until I'm a hundred and twenty! Wait, my dad left a bunch of weird shirts and pants for me in the closet. Pick out whatever you want to wear. I won't need any of those future togs, anyway."

Gemma chose an outfit from the closet. "These are all boys' clothes. They'll make a good disguise. I'll look like a boy."

Mackenzie gazed back at the unclothed girl, admiring her features. "Nothing will make you look like a boy. But put them on, anyway." As Gemma dressed, he asked, "Who are you hiding from?"