Free Lucy by Laurence Gonzales Page A

disease in Congo. Papa’s idea was that I would be the universal Eve for a new race of people.”
    “So you were supposed to have children?”
    “Yes. Assuming that I could get pregnant. That was always a question. It still is. But if I could, then I’d raise my children to be leaders, teachers, thinkers. They would have children … and so on.”
    “Breeding … He created you to breed. Oh, God.”
    “Yes, that. But also because Papa loved bonobos. They would be spared extinction, at least in part. Papa envisioned a new race coming into its own in perhaps as little as a thousand years, because they would have the advantage of a material culture that had already been invented. And language.”
    Jenny sat heavily in her chair and looked down into her lap, breathing in and out. She gave a shuddering sigh. Then she looked up and stared at Lucy. “Do you understand how crazy this is?”
    “No, not really. It’s all I’ve ever known. It was always the plan. I knew that he felt a lot of guilt in the end. I wasn’t sure exactly why.”
    “Lucy. I’m sorry. But to take another human being and—” Jenny stopped herself and gestured. “We’ll talk about this more as time goes on. But that plan, his plan …” She took a deep breath. “Just let’s wait until you’ve become a bit more used to things outside the jungle.”
    “What will we do now? Are you going to send me away?”
    “No, no, of course not. I can’t. I mean, I brought you here.” Jenny thought for a moment and then fixed her eyes on the girl. “Then you really don’t have any family in England, right?”
    “No. My family’s in the jungle. I’m a humanzee.”
    “Where did you hear that word?”
    “It was in one of Papa’s books. Half human, half pygmy chimpanzee.”
    “Don’t ever call yourself that. You’re a person.” Jenny hugged herself as if she were cold. Bands of yellow sunlight lay hot across her knees. “I just have to think and plan. You can’t go to England. You obviously can’t go back to Congo.”
    Lucy took a step and stood before her chair. Jenny raised her head and they looked at each other for a long time. “I’m afraid, Jenny. I’m afraid of what you’ll do now that you know. You’re a scientist. What if you think and plan and then you decide that the best place for me is in somebody’s laboratory?”
    Jenny took Lucy’s hands and firmly pulled her down until she was kneeling. Jenny’s sandy-red hair hung around her face in great cascades of curls. “I would never do that. I would never do anything to harm you. I’m in a bit of shock, that’s all. Lucy, I promise you this: I won’t abandon you. I’ll take care of you. But we have to think ahead in case the truth comes out.”
    “All right. I trust you, Jenny.”
    Jenny stood with a sigh. Lucy sat back on her heels on the African carpet and watched as Jenny went to the window to look out into the garden. Lucy could feel Jenny’s sadness pouring through her.
    “Obviously, you’ll have to stay here.”
    “I’m sorry that makes you sad.”
    Jenny turned to face her. “That doesn’t make me sad. You’re charming and lovely and I’ve already grown very fond of you. What makes me sad is thinking about the future and what might happen to you—to us—because I brought you here.”
    “What will I do here?”
    “You’ll go to school just like any other teenager. You’ll live with me. That’s all there is to it.” And then brightly: “I could adopt you. You’ll be an adult in less than four years. I could adopt you in the meantime.”
    Lucy felt a thrill at the thought. “You’d do that?”
    Jenny thought for a moment and then laughed carelessly, almost crazily. “I can’t believe this is happening. Yes, I suppose I would do that. I don’t see any other way. You have to stay here now. That will make it official.”
    Lucy desperately wanted to have a place in the world once more. But she didn’t want to ruin Jenny’s life. “There will