Author: Hillary Lyon

“I’d do it in a flash,” Jason declared, tightening the lid of the cocktail shaker. “Clone you, I mean. And how about you? What would you do?” In his hands, the shaker was a percussion instrument. The rhythm was enticing; it made Kerra want to dance.

She gave him a teasing, crooked smile. “I’d have to think about it.”

“Wow,” Jason snorted. “Thanks.”

As annoying as her answer was, he couldn’t get mad at her. Looking at her out of the corner of his eye he thought, She’s so lovely. Like the reflection of the moon on still water.

* * *

Jason didn’t have to wait long to act on his declaration. Kerra was dead, taken down by a distracted driver as she crossed a busy city street on her way to work.

He pushed his grief aside to contact reLive, to set up an emergency meeting with a consultant. Within 8 hours after the accident, Kerra was in their industrial compound having her DNA extracted, cleaned, copied, and inserted into an appropriate organic, fully-grown female manikin.

Transferring her memories and personality into the manikin was trickier. It was a delicate process Jason was not privy to, but he signed off on it anyway. He was willing to do anything to have her back.

In less than a month, Kerra was home, lounging on the couch as Jason made martinis for them.

“So,” he said from the bar in their den, “if I died, do you love me enough to have me cloned? If it was you, I’d do it in a flash. Matter of fact…I did do it for you. You didn’t survive that hit-and-run.” Jason never could keep a secret.

“I know,” Kerra said as she rose from the couch and moved to the large window overlooking the city. She watched his reflection in the window as he approached with drinks in hand. You are like the reflection of the moon on water, she thought, but you are not the moon.

“I’ve already done that,” Kerra said absently to his reflection. “Twice.”

“What are you talking about?” Jason asked as he handed Kerra her drink.

She walked back to the couch and sitting, took a long pull on her martini before answering. “Remember our vacation in Mexico last Spring? Remember you got so drunk you decided you’d dive off our balcony into the hotel pool below?”

She patted the couch. He sat down beside her. “You missed,” she said flatly.

Jason shook his head. “But…”

“And two years before, when we were going to see the Cloned Stones Reunion Tour,” she interrupted. “You got in an argument with a biker in the parking lot over an empty spot. You ended up with a knife in your neck.”

Jason put his hand to his throat; there was no scar.

“Every time someone is cloned, they get a fresh health re-set. No more diabetes, no more heart disease. No more carpel tunnel, no more arthritis.” Kerra flexed her hands. “That’s how I knew I’d been cloned.”

“So if you’re a clone….and I’m a clone…what does this mean?”

Kerra squeezed his thigh affectionately. “It means welcome to a whole new world.”