The video recording stops and the screen turned black. Sipho and Parla do not understand what is happening because they barely understood a single word of what the professor said let alone know how to speak a language. After all the commotion of the video recording, there is a black portrait-shaped rectangle button on the counter that kept flashing on and off. Through the indication of their facial expression, they look at one another in curiosity by trying to figure out what would happen if they touch the flashing rectangular button, Sipho stretches his left index finger out, taps it and pulls his hand back quickly, but nothing happens. He looks at Parla with doubt and fear in his eyes. He stretches his left hand out this time; his heart beating rapidly as the hand goes closer and closer until he presses on it, the screen lights up again and a feminine voice in the computer says "Confirm. Clone identified as number #01209; also known as, code name Sipho of the South African representative. The map will activate in locating the other clones".
Parla takes the map willingly to be useful in the journey to find their fellow brothers and sisters. They search for clothes under the rubble, high and low they continued until they found a metal wardrobe locker. Inside there were men's black and khaki formal pants and navy jean, and white coats that ends on the knees in length. A purple v-neck shirt, mustard and green coloured three-button shirts, and options of size nine, ten and eleven black shoes.
For the ladies, there is a black with vertical white striped pencil skirt, two blue skinny jeans and two indigo pants. The shirts were made out of cotton that was white in colour with pink stripes going across and of silk fabric; a midnight-purple, both having buttons from top to bottom. The black shoes were either size four, five or six that are flat or half heeled. Parla dresses in the midnight-purple shirt with indigo pants, and size five flat shoes. While Sipho dresses in a green three-button shirt with navy jeans, and size eleven shoes and; lastly, both wear the white coats.
After dressing up they walk up the stairs exploring the different levels of the laboratory; until, they reach the ground floor where everything is destroyed and damaged through years of climate changes. The clouds evaporate in the sky and rays of sunshine embody the land after it drizzled. It is a wet atmosphere and the dews glittering on the grass like sparkling diamonds. Sipho and Parla cover their eyes with their hands as the sunshine is magnified by pieces of the window glass - making the the sunlight intensify and temporary blindness. There is a beautiful rainbow and a flock of pigeons are flying towards it, they bask in the moment of Mother Nature's beauty.
They go back to the laboratory and they find old dusty books and journals covered in spider webs, each blowing and wiping off the dust and web on the books, they start opening page after page reading words carefully. They kept on reading until the sun set: they read from geography; romantic novels; literature; how airplanes, and motor vehicles operate; mathematics; to myths and fables. They stored this information that have been told or depicted from actual events.
YOU ARE READING
ISIPHO SOKUZALWA (Gift of Birth) by MINENHLE S MKHIZE
Science FictionSipho and Parla wake up in a cindered Earth from the a ice slumber - not knowing they are clones. They travel across the ash-covered world trying to find self-identity, the reason for their creation, and will there be others like them.
