Page:Clones - Ryan Somma.pdf/26

 responsibility? Of course you're their responsibility! They have to let you finish your education! What the hell are my taxes paying for?"

"Well, they're not paying to detain me another year," he put on a fake casual smile, knowing exactly what buttons to push.

"I'll send you to private school," I said. "You have to graduate."

"You can't afford it," he countered "You can't even keep the electricity on. You hide the pickup two streets over to fool the repo guy. It's even got me looking over my shoulder… seeing as how you bought me on credit."

"You can afford it," I nodded at him, one eyebrow cocked knowingly. "You‘ll get your degree at the community college, and you'll pay for it with the money from the gas station."

"Like hell I will," he snapped and I wanted to slug him.

Instead I got red-faced and shouted, "As long as you live under my roof you will do as I say!"

He just stared at me, shaking his head calmly, resolved. With his hand hidden behind his back, I didn't notice him twist the doorknob. In one swift motion he disappeared. I lunged forward too late, and came up against the closed oak door. By the time I got onto the porch, he'd vanished into the night.

"Will you need a surrogate to carry the embryo to maturity?" I remember how that question leapt off the form at me. I hadn't thought about it. Somehow I always associated cloning with bubbling vats of embryonic fluid, fetuses floating peacefully inside. Of course I would need a damn surrogate.

It took months to decide on one. My ideal choice was far beyond my budget. For the "limousine" of womb-rentals I would get a woman who's fulltime job was growing my baby, eating a prescribed diet, no seafood or smoking, and avoiding even weak electromagnetic fields, like televisions. She would also play a selection of music and audio readings for the baby, for when the brain was grown enough to hear it. Just imagine the genius developing in that womb, coming into the world already familiar with classical music, foreign languages, and books on tape.

The best I could afford was Latanya, who worked fulltime at a dry-cleaning joint renting out her womb for the extra cash. I signed a contract with her assuring me she would not smoke, drink alcohol, or take illegal drugs for the duration of the