Free CLONER : a Sci-Fi Novel about Human Cloning (A Captivating Story about Reproduction Outside the Womb and Identical Humans) by Emma Lorant

stage. No need to worry, Mr Wildmore. You have a pair of strong healthy sons. You’re very lucky.’
    They were identical: big ears, wide mouths, and the silken fuzz of premature hair so fair as to be almost invisible, deep frown lines across their foreheads. And there was a tiny mark, right on their lower left earlobe, identically present on them both.
    ‘No need to check whether there’s one afterbirth or two,’ Dr Witherton laughed, ‘we know these two are monozygotes - identicals. Have you seen those little indentations on their ears? Exactly the same, in exactly the same spot!’
    How would she and Alec be able to tell them apart, Lisa wondered, rather vaguely, to herself. Perhaps it was just tiredness which gave her the uncomfortable, almost unnerving, feeling that there was no difference between them whatsoever. It was positively uncanny.
    Alec had, by now, put the second baby in one of Meg’s cots and marked it ‘Jeffrey the Second’.
    ‘Could you bring them a little nearer?’ Lisa’s eyes, sharpened by motherhood, had noted a difference after all. The firstborn, Janus, had a somewhat pointed skull. ‘Janus has a differently shaped head,’ she announced triumphantly.
    ‘That’s temporary,’ Witherton pointed out. ‘The head is very soft, you see. The bones aren’t closed. The top - the fontanel - is open, to avoid damage when pushing through the birth canal. The second twin has obviously profited from his brother’s work and was able to slide through with his head much squarer.’
    ‘It’ll sort itself out quite quickly,’ the midwife told them. ‘You can’t rely on that staying different for more than a few weeks at most.’
    Lisa, content, had exactly what she’d wished for - two more sons, Janus and Jeffrey. Both strong, thin bodies, limpid blue eyes, squat noses. She would sort out how to tell them apart another time. An overwhelming sense of motherhood, of flesh of her flesh, flowed through her, warmed pink into her cheeks.
    ‘Could you bring the cots right up to the bed?’ she asked Rita. ‘I’d like one on either side.’
    The midwife moved the cots without a murmur. ‘They’ll be with you for life,’ she said. ‘You’ll never be free of them.’
    Lisa stretched out sensitive fingertips, felt the silky fuzz on her newborns’ heads, pulled Janus to her and brushed her lips over his eyes. They opened wide, brilliant, aware. A surge of happiness brought tears to Lisa’s eyes. She put him back and picked Jeffrey up, snuggled him to her breast, oblivious to the rest of the world.
    ‘Right, then, mother, you’re on your own,’ Rita announced, packed up and ready to leave.
    Lisa smiled, nodded at her absently.
    ‘They look just like Seb when he was born,’ Lisa mentioned to her husband as soon as they were alone.
    ‘I know,’ he laughed. ‘We seem to have reproduced ourselves in a set of three.’
    ‘By the time they’re ten or eleven people might think they’re triplets.’ It just slipped out, as though pre-programmed. Lisa had no idea why she felt impelled to talk of triplets.
    ‘The doctors could be wrong again,’ she worried, keeping Alec from going to bed. ‘That bulge has not gone down at all. I might be carrying another one.’
    He laughed at her. ‘Honestly, Lisa. You really are taking this obsession of yours too far. First you imagine you’re...’ He stopped and looked at her again, and frowned. ‘I suppose they did mix up the scan, or misread it, or something,’ he finally conceded. ‘Though I can’t see how. After all, we both saw the one baby.’
    ‘They can’t have it both ways, Alec. Either they didn’t interpret the scan properly - and we simply allowed them to do it for us - or the foetus split later.’
    ‘Or they were lying in such a way that one completely obscured the other,’ Alec said gently. ‘That could account for it.’
    ‘I thought of that as well,’ she smiled at him. ‘Perhaps that explains it.’ She sat up straighter in