In the Image of Grace

by Charlotte Ann Schlobohm

  “Thanks to all our donations and investors we get to keep this project moving forward. I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge our surrogates for three of the new Grace children. Grace herself carried the first child, but unfortunately she was called back home. She is there now spreading the word of how things are going here.”

  If she went back to Pluto or wherever it was that my father claimed these alien beings were from, why was she considered a missing person? Obviously somebody didn’t believe that she was magically teleported away to a demoted planet.

  My father continued on. “We were given a sign to set these children onto the world. The sign was a sad one, yes it was. The first child was taken from us. She was taken so we could see that we were successful. They bleed and die like we do. We no longer have to protect them from the world. They are humans, but they are what humans are really supposed to be. They are ready for the world to see.”

  My father paused and paced back and forth on stage while people screamed out and cheered. “I would like to call up the three women who had the privilege of carrying the three new children whom the world will get to know. Come up here.” He waved his hand towards him signaling three women to come to the stage. Seats started squeaking and people started parting, so these women could get up. The three women walked single file down the aisle in between the seats and up to the stage. They were all roughly around the same age, late thirties. The first one to walk on to stage had shoulder length, brown, curly hair and a small cat like face. A huge a smile was spread across her face, feeling so proud for what she had done. The second woman was short and stocky and looked very indifferent and the third woman was tall, thin and waving at everybody like she was a beauty pageant contestant. She perhaps was attractive enough to be one.

  “Laura Hall everybody,” my father said. Everybody clapped and cheered. “Sherrie Johnson.” The short stocky woman stepped forward and gave a little bow. “And last, but not least, Pamela Greensborough.” She continued to wave her hand pageant style. “Pamela here carried the youngest child. The one we call Clarissa.” My father squeezed her shoulder. “Sherrie carried the second youngest, the one we call Isabelle and Laura here carried…..”

  I didn’t even hear my name. I’m pretty sure it was at that point I fainted in Jeremy’s arms.

  Chapter Eight

  I opened my eyes and stared into Jeremy’s jacket. It smelled like coffee and cigarettes. I could feel the cold night air and my feet bouncing. I was being carried. Jeremy’s arms supported me through the night. I turned my head and looked up at him. He was biting his lip and looking straight forward. He was set in a slow sprint. I turned my face back into him and let him carry me just a little longer. I could hear a car speed by.

  “Hey,” I said after a while.

  “Thank God you’re all right,” he responded slowing down his step.

  “Where were you taking me?”

  “Away from that madness.”

  “You know you can put me down.”

  “You sure?” He asked still holding onto me.

  “Yes.”

  “You feel okay?”

  “As good as I’m going to feel. Really, you don’t have to carry me.”

  “Okay,” he said lowering me to the ground. He stopped as I stood up straight. I stumbled a couple steps to the side. “See, you can’t walk.”

  “No, I think it’ll do me some good,” I said grabbing onto his shoulder to steady myself. “I didn’t make a big scene or anything did I?”

  “No, you fainted very discreetly.”

  “Thank goodness.” We walked along the sidewalk. It wasn’t in very good condition. Every other square was cracked and some squares were uplifted by the large oversized roots of trees. We reached one spot where there was no sidewalk, just a black pit blocked off with some wooden barricades. We walked around it in the street. We hopped back up onto the sidewalk. I still held onto Jeremy’s shoulder.

  “You gonna be okay if I tell ya something?” Jeremy asked me as we walked along.

  “Hopefully,” I replied taking a deep breath making sure I was awake and not dreaming.

  “As I was carrying you out I heard your father say something about a press conference or something to unveil you and your sisters to the world.”

  I stopped walking. “What,” I shouted. “He can’t do that. It’s not even true!”

  “You sure?”

  “I want to be,” I declared rubbing my hands over my face. “It has to be. There’s no way I am a clone. That’s not even possible. There’s no way that strange woman back in that warehouse there carried me in her womb.”

  Jeremy looked me in the eyes. “Somehow I believe him.”

  “God, don’t even say that,” I shouted whacking him in the shoulder.

  “All I’m saying is if you look at you and you’re sisters the only difference is height. Remember how I thought the three of you were triplets?”

  “If he does a press release of this could you imagine what it would do to my sisters and me? And what about my mother? Where is she? This is just insane.” I started walking again with my arms hugged around my waist.

  Jeremy followed me with his hand shoved his pockets. We got to the El stop and walked up the stairs.

  I stopped half way up the stairs. “Elizabeth dying wasn’t any sign for those people.” Jeremy stood on the same step as me. “She simply had enough.” I opened my mouth to say more and nothing came out. I put my hands over my face. “Oh God,” was all I could think of to say.

  “C’mon,” Jeremy said walking up the steps. “We’ve got to get you home.”

  “Is it even my home?”I questioned up to him. He was about three steps above me.

  “I don’t know,” he stammered walking down the three steps and grabbing my hand.

  “I’m sorry for all of this. I didn’t want to drag you into this mess.”

  “You didn’t, I got myself into it.”

  “Was it just because you thought I was pretty? That’s what Clarissa said.”

  “No, well, yes and no, you are very pretty, but it’s more than that, you are one of the most unique people I think I ever met.”

  “Is that pre or post clone?”

  “Both.” He nodded smiling. “It’d be kinda cool tellin people that the girl I like is a clone.”

  I attempted to smile and the two of us walked up to the train platform together. We stood hand in hand waiting for the train to come. There was one other person waiting. He wore a long black coat and a pair of dirty painters pants. I could smell him all the way across the platform. He smelled like old sweaty feet and liquor. With him he had tons of plastic tarps wadded up and shoved into clear garbage bags. He was swearing at himself and swatting at something invisible above his head that seemed to be bothering him.

  “Damn, damn,” he kept saying and shaking his head. Then he’d throw in a, “mother fucker” and swat at the air some more. The train came after forever. We got on and sat on the seats near the door.

  I sat down in my seat and turned towards Jeremy. “How could my father say Elizabeth dying was a sign? She didn’t die of natural causes. She wasn’t ravaged by disease or killed in some horrific accident, she killed herself. She took her own life. I just can’t get over what he said.”

  “I know,” Jeremy said.

  “I can’t get over any of this.”

  Jeremy reached up and took off the awful ear muffs I still had on. I pulled off the sunglasses and folded them up and put them in one of my jacket pockets’. Then he kissed me on the train. It was the perfect answer. He didn’t have to say anything more. I kissed him back. It helped lift my heart a little. I took off the baseball hat and kissed him again.

  …………………………………………….

  Jeremy got off at my stop with me and walked me home.

  “You gonna be okay?” He asked as we stood in front of my house.

  “Will you come in for a while and just sit with me?” I didn’t want him t
o leave.

  “No, I’m just gonna go. You have some stuff you have to tell your sisters and I feel it would prolly be best if I wasn’t there.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  We had one last kiss goodnight and I let myself in the front gate. I walked up the front walkway, up the stairs and went to open the door when Clarissa whipped it open.

  “I saw you kiss him,” she giggled. “You have a boyfriend.”

  “We have way more important things to talk about besides that,” I affirmed walking into the house.

  “Ms. Dunderfeltz has noticed that we have been gallivanting around as she calls it. She sez she’s going to tell our father.”

  “That does not matter right now Clarissa.”

  Clarissa and I went upstairs and went to Isabelle’s room. She was at her desk beneath the window reading.

  “Boy Isabelle,” I said. “I have some stuff to tell you all.”

  I told them about the whole evening, the sign and Mr. Carl and our father and the image of Grace stuff and her picture on the projector and we are in her image and these perfect beings and then I stopped when I got to the cloning part.

  “Okay, I don’t know if this part is true or not,” I said looking at the both of them.

  “What is it?” Isabelle asked with a concerned look in her face.

  “Our father claims we are clones of our mother.”

  Both of them looked at me with blank stares. I shook my head to affirm what I had said.

  “No way,” Clarissa gasped softly. “There’s just no way.”

  “Well,” Isabelle pondered slowly. “It’s really not that far off gene modification.”

  “So you think it could really be true?” I asked purely surprised.

  “Maybe,” Isabelle said. “But it does sound kind of farfetched.”

  “But what about our mother?” Clarissa asked.

  “I don’t know, we have to find her. Supposedly there is going to be some kind of press release or press conference or something soon.”

  “Do we continue like we know nothing about this?” Clarissa asked. It was a very good question.

  “Maybe,” I said. “Until we find out more about our mother.” I then realized I hadn’t told them about the whole her supposedly going back to the home planet and us being carried by strange woman, so I told them the rest of the story and about how I fainted and everything. We decided that we had to find our mother’s family or something. Maybe they could give us some information. Maybe they could at least tell us what she was like, something.

  Chapter Nine

  The next morning Isabelle, Clarissa and I got off the bus and I saw Jeremy running down the sidewalk at us. He didn’t have on a hat and his hair was flying everywhere in the wind. Instead of the plaid jacket he had on the night before we wore an orange stripped sweater underneath a black hoodie. He slowed down as he approached us and pushed his glasses up on his nose. We walked over to the lawn just out of the way of everybody trying to get to school and stopped.

  “Listen,” he said. “I did some clone research last night.”

  “Is that how you greet your girlfriend?”Clarissa asked giving us a mischievous smile.

  Jeremy glanced over at her and then at me. He seemed unsure on how to respond.

  “Just go on,” I said moving us out of the awkwardness.

  “If you guys are really clones, your dad might not technically be your biological father.”

  “Huh,” we all responded.

  “He might have donated what’s called somatic cells, like skin cells or something, but that’s about it. Your biological dad is technically your mother’s father. You would have needed his sperm to have him be your biological father.”

  “Ewe,” Clarissa said while getting distracted by a boy approaching. The kid was probably also a freshman, short and very skinny. His hair was closely cropped to his head and bleached and his lip wore a ring.

  “Hi Clarissa,” he said slowly walking by doing a double take when he saw Clarissa with Isabelle and me.

  She gave him a little wave and watched him walk away.

  “Okay, back on track,” Isabelle urged.

  We were then interrupted again by somebody Jeremy knew.

  A well built looking kid walked up. I’m quite possibly sure he was on some kind of sports team. “Hey man,” he said to Jeremy, stopping next to him.

  “What’s up?” Jeremy asked.

  “Nothing much,” his friend said smiling. He then said hey to Clarissa and Isabelle giving them a little head bob.

  “Get out of here,” Jeremy said to his friend.

  The bell then rang interrupting us for the last time.

  “I have more stuff to tell you about all this cloning and stuff,” Jeremy said as we walked into school.

  “I’ll stop by the library.”

  “Okay,” he nodded giving me a little smile.

  Jeremy and I walked down the crowded hallway towards my locker.

  “You all right?” He asked.

  “I guess,” I said as we turned a left down the next hallway.

  “You sure?” He pressed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Really.”

  “Yes,” I assured him poking his shoulder.

  “Okay,” Jeremy said. “I go this way.” He pointed down another hallway.

  “Okay,” I said following him. I walked a couple steps next to him, then grabbed his wrist and pulled him to a stop. I stood up on my tip toes and gave him a nice soft kiss on the lips.

  “You know it’s against school policy to kiss in the hallway,” he teased grinning.

  “I’m okay with that,” I said walking away, leaving him standing in the hallway.

  ………………………………………….

  I went to my literature class and sat in a catatonic state through the whole thing. I told Jeremy I was all right, but I knew I really wasn’t. It all seemed like so much at once. I missed Elizabeth so much and was feeling guilty because I was so busy thinking about everything else going on I didn’t think about her that much. I was thinking about our mother missing and Mr. Carl lying to us and now our father being some sort of cult leader and they worshipped my mother, but where did she go and Jeremy was so great to have around and thinking of him made me happy and that made me feel guilty all over again because I wasn’t sure if I had the right to feel happy when my sister was dead and she never had the chance to lead a regular teenage life. Her whole life she was trapped in that house with us. She only knew one way out.

  “Charlotte.” I could hear someone calling my name in the background somewhere, but I didn’t respond because I started thinking about what if I really was a clone? What would that mean to me and Jeremy said our father wasn’t technically our father, so who was our father then? Then I kept having those dreams with the screaming and somehow I knew it was our mother. My neurons were moving at lightning speed. I could feel them clashing around in my cranium. My head started to pound. I put my elbows up on my desk and rubbed my temples with the heels of my hands. “Charlotte,” I heard again this time louder. I looked up and it was Mrs. Brown my literature teacher, which would make sense because I was sitting in her class. I kept my hands on my temples and rolled my eyes up.

  “You need to pay attention. Part of your grade is participation,” she said. That day Mrs. Brown had on a quilted vest with horse heads all over it with a yellow turtleneck underneath. It was quiet awful. I shook my head yes and looked back down at my desk.

  …………………………………………………..

  The rest of my day continued in a daze until it was study hall where I got a library pass. I quickly walked down the hallway to the library passing by lockers and open classroom doors. When I walked into the library I was greeted by large rectangles of light splayed all over the carpet and tables. Under the window people sat at all the computers, here and there at the tables kids sat studying, or at least they pretended to study. I found Jeremy in the back corner of t
he library shelving some books. The metal cart next to him was full of them. He looked up at me through his glasses and smiled. I thought he looked really cute, the light from the sun that squeezed its way down the aisle added an extra sparkle to his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” He asked.

  “Everything,” I responded with very little enthusiasm. It hadn’t been a very good day for me. Jeremy put the book he was holding on the shelf and came over and squeezed my shoulders.

  “Things just don’t seem right. Isabelle, Clarissa and I are leading what appears to be semi-normal teenage lives and Elizabeth never got the chance.”

  “Want a seat?” Jeremy asked pointing towards the floor.

  “Yeah,” I said sitting down and leaning up against the shelves full of books. He sat down next to me.

  “You know what,” he said.

  “What.”

  “I think you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

  “It doesn’t feel right though.”

  “It’ll take time,” Jeremy said. “And aren’t you doing this all for her?”

  “Yes, but I didn’t think it would lead to all this madness.”

  “Through the madness you shall find answers.”

  I smiled at him the best that I could. “Thanks.”

  “Stop thanking me,” he smiled back.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  Jeremy told me everything he found out about clones. First if we were actually clones we’d all be identical genetic replicas of our mother, just in time delay, so technically she wouldn’t be our mother, more like our much older twin sister so that also meant that my sisters and I were actually all twins or quadruplets or something. Then our mother’s parents would actually be our parents and as Jeremy said earlier biologically, our father wasn’t our father. Some people have made claims to having cloned a human child, but there was no scientific proof of these people’s claims. Some animals have been cloned, but not very successfully as many have died early due to complications.

  “That’s not very uplifting,” I sighed in response about the cloned animals dying prematurely.

  “Sorry,” he apologized biting his lip and raising his eyebrows. “I shoulda left that part out.”