Carola Dibbell - The Only Ones

Which I didn’t.

So he just stood up and walked around the room. “You may well ask — will this child be half a child?”

I’m not going to ask that.

But Rauden bends over where I’m sitting and says, quiet, “It will be a whole child.”

They both got really quiet now.

Then he takes a deep and noisy breath. Then he starts talking really fast. “We empty out that egg until it has nothing in it. Well! Mitochondria — which arguably makes the whole thing happen. Well, cytoplasm.”

Rini is going, “Rauden, that is beside the point.”

So he leans back and goes on, “How will this child know who to be, then?”

Ok.

Rauden opens both puffy hands wide, like here is the answer. “It will simply take its cues from somewhere else, not eggs, not sperm, but a single cell of a complete human being from, say, the skin, or breast — what we call soma! From a single cell from one Donor — say, you — from the nucleus of that cell, actually — which is the center, or boss, or instructions — the code — well! DNA — of that somatic cell from the skin, or breast—”

“Rauden!”

“Yes! And all that information from the single nucleus of that somatic cell will go into that egg which has — for the purposes of this discussion — nothing in it. And it will tell the child who it will be. Do you get that, I?”

Now Rini says, to me, “You must tell us, Inez.”

This is not regular intake. This is like a game, where they know the answer, and I must guess it. I take a few deep breaths like Rauden told Delmore to. Then I give it a shot. “You want me to provide the egg with nothing in it.”

They both look at each other. Then Rini sat up tall, like she is proud. “I will provide the egg with nothing in it.”

So try again. “Bernie will patch me up, though it is risky, Rini will change her mind again, and I’m the Host.”

Rauden just looked at me this time, hard, like, where did that come from, before he answered, “She wants a virgin Host. God help us all.”

I’m running out of answers here. “I don’t provide anything, but will still be paid.”

Rauden coughed, the way he does. “You provide the soma, actuallatch out for the neck of the back and forthof9Hy,” he said.

Nobody said anything.

The Alert buzzed. Nobody went to pick it up. So I go, “Like the pigeon for Larraine?”

Rauden seems stunned again, like something hit him on the head. Finally he goes, “Well, yes! You could say that.” Then he adds, “Like Daisy too.”

Wait.

Rini said, “People will say this child is you.”

I start to think I heard of this.

“Rini, the child won’t be her. That’s a physical impossibility.”

“The child will look exactly like her.”

Maybe I saw it in a cartoon.

“Well, so do twins. Take Henry and me. We even shared the same environmental factors in our upbringing and you know he’s not me.”

“You must tell Inez what that means.”

“Well! Yes!” He mops his sweat off with a sleeve. “The environmental factors are — well! What happens in someone’s life. It’s someone’s life, but — not the kind the Knights are on about — it’s not a thing. Well — neither is Life. But environmental factors can legally be bought and sold.” He seemed to have trouble following himself here.

I go, “You want to make a clone from me.”

So now it’s like they are both stunned, like what fell on their heads is a heavy box. They are never going to talk again, they are so stunned.

“Well!” Rauden gets out. “You can call it that if you want. We prefer SCNT. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer.”

I look at both of them, like, that’s the answer?

“You could just say Transfer,” he goes, “if it’s simpler.”

“Clone sounds so negative,” goes Rini.

“And then — we could go to jail. Or worse.”

But Rini shut him up. “It does not matter what you call it. What matters is how Inez feels about it.”

Not this again.

She pulls me around by my shoulders so I have to look right in her face. “You must tell me how you feel. Because there will be foolish people who will tell you she is you.”

“For God’s sake, Rini! Nobody’s going to know! They’d have to see them in the same room, side by side.”

But Rini would not let me go. “How will you feel, if they say the child is you?”

Man! How do I know? But she is not going to let me go till I come up with something, so I try. “I would feel, will I still be paid?”

Rini let go of me so fast I almost fell. She sank back on the couch. She looked loose and floppy, like an old rag. “Does this girl think only about money? Has she no self-esteem? No character? Has she no feelings at all?”

I’m never saying anything again! Every time I say anything, it is a problem. Even Rauden’s eyes are closed.

Finally Rini whispered, and it is like a hiss, “Why do you do this? Why do you treat your life like something that can be bought and sold? New Life labs — my God! Will you do anything for money?”

Well, Rini knew more than me about Fate, but ho looks me up and downisis walkedof9Hw it looked, she was a little challenged when it came to girls like me. But remember when I said she was a part of it? And I don’t mean mito-whatever or even money. She was like an environmental factor. And I will tell you this. I never met an environmental factor like her. I did need the money, but I never gave any thought before why I do these things? I gave it now.

“I like to see what happens,” I told Rini.

And I could see her eyes change when I said that, like, would someone do these terrible things just to see what happens? Then they change again, like, ok. There are worse things. “In school,” I told Rini, “one of the Sisters said I could of passed, if I did the work.”

“She gets it, Rini. She gets more than she shows,” Rauden said.

But Rini got something else. She burst into tears and pulled me to her, right where her breasts were large and warm and damp under her dress, gasping, “She wants me to know her good points, in case my child is her!”

Well, I’m not even sure that’s why I said it. I don’t know why I said it. But I’m glad I said it if it worked for her.

I just know when Rini pulled back, and I could breathe, she looked down and said, “You must think about it and say is there any part you do not understand.”

And I did think about it. Hard. Then I go, “If we have the same gene for gene, you know, DNA. If somebody runs her pure code ID, will it come up, Subject: I Kissena Fardo. Origins: unknown?”

Now Rini and Rauden are looking at each other the way Rauden and Henry did. Do sofas think?

Finally Rauden said, “It can be a problem. Henry and I have to deal with that sometimes. You can usually talk your way out of it. The conventional ID swipe is less of a problem. Henry will fix that when he rigs up her ID. Why do you ask?”

“I got a way to bump stuff off I could show Rini.”

Now they are both staring at me.

So I just say, “That I heard.”

Finally Rauden says, very polite, “Inez.” He calls me that in front of Rini, like he doesn’t want her to hear him call me I. “Will you come in the next room for a moment?” We get to the Box Room and, remember how Rini hissed? He hisses, “Did you bump something off your files?”

I shook my head. “Lonnie Vertov did.”

“Can you call it back?”

“It doesn’t all come back.”

“You sit down at the goddamn keyboard and show me how to call your files back. You fucking show me now.”

I sat down at the keyboard, swiped in my ID, and punched in a reverse code I saw Lonnie Vertov use.