“Hello?” he called as he switched on the lights in the living room. No reply.
“I don’t know where everyone could be on a Friday night,” Jeremiah said to Brent. “Why is he coming home all the time to an empty house now?”
Brent looked at him and shook his head. “Maybe things just get busy, Jeremiah. It happens.”
“Never used to,” he said. “Especially not on a Friday.”
On the monitor, he watched the clone wander into the empty kitchen, Louie cautiously following from a safe distance.
“Have you eaten yet, pal?” The clone loosened his tie, picked up the dog bowl and filled it with two scoops of food from the bin on the kitchen counter. He put the bowl on the floor and took a few steps back so the dog would feel comfortable coming in to eat. Jeremiah sighed as he remembered the way Louie used to react to being fed, wagging his tail wildly and balancing on his hind legs in an exuberant dog tango. Now he took to it sluggishly and ate it in nibbles. It was probably the damn pills they had him on, Jeremiah thought. But he had to admit, his distrust toward the clone seemed less obvious now and that was one less thing to worry about.
The cameras followed as the clone went up the stairs into his bedroom. He changed out of his work clothes, carefully hanging his jacket and tie in the closet, and put on sweatpants and a T-shirt. He sat down on the edge of the bed and remained there for several minutes, resting one elbow on his knee with his fist curled underneath his chin. Jeremiah realized that he was sitting in the exact same position on the couch in the lab. He quickly raised his head and leaned back against the cushions and put his arms down at his sides.
For the next half hour or so, they watched the clone wander around the house and then finally settle in the living room and flip through the pamphlets they had given him. Eventually, Diana and Parker came noisily through the front door, greeted by the jangle of Louie’s collar and tags. Both the clone and Jeremiah perked up at the sudden commotion.
“Where have you two been?” the clone asked.
“We waited for you,” Diana said with a look that hinted at irritation, “but we were starved. We went out to eat. I brought you home my leftovers.”
“Thanks,” the clone said. “I was visiting my mother.”
“You might have bothered to call and let us know. Why were you there on a Friday?”
“Yeah, sorry. They called me at the office just as I was leaving. She’s having some problems.”
Diana took off her sweater and walked into the kitchen with the little Styrofoam container of food. Parker put Louie on the leash and took him out to the front yard.
“What sort of problems?” Diana called from the kitchen. The clone got up and followed her, the cameras catching his movements seamlessly from room to room.
“I’ve got to move her,” he said. “Her dementia is bad. She thought it was Christmas Eve.”
“You’re kidding.” Diana shot a startled glance at the clone and then continued scraping the food onto a dish. “Move her where?”
“Well, they gave me some options.” He tossed the pamphlets down on the kitchen table and took a seat. “There are places. I’ve been looking at them. I don’t like them. They’re expensive.”
“I’ll bet,” she said. “But if that’s what she needs, then that’s what she needs. You just have to pick one and make it happen. She still has money in her savings, doesn’t she? And this is a medical thing. There’s help for that, you know.”
“I was thinking,” the clone said tentatively, “that maybe it would be better to have her live here with us. Just for a while.”
Diana stopped what she was doing and turned around to look the clone straight in the eyes.
“Here? Jeremiah, she can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” he said. “We have the room and I just think it might be easier for her if she could make the transition slowly. I don’t want her to think we’re tearing her away from her friends, from her home. She’s happy there.”
“We can’t take care of her, Jeremiah.” Diana put his dinner into the microwave, turned it on and leaned back against the kitchen counter to face him again. “She needs someone with her and you and I both work during the day. And having her here would disrupt Parker’s whole routine. No, she can’t stay here.”
Jeremiah knew Diana was right. It was entirely unfair to just spring this on her without any warning. It wasn’t even something they’d ever seriously discussed. From the look on his face, he could see the clone knew it, too, so he was surprised to see him keep talking about it.
“You’re home for part of the day,” he said. “We could bring someone in to fill in the gaps. We could make it work. We could at least talk about it. She’s my mother, for God’s sake.”
Jeremiah cringed at the look on Diana’s face.
“And I’m your wife,” she said coolly. “And we are talking about it. What do you expect me to say? I had no idea where you even were tonight because you can’t be bothered to call me, then you waltz in here and drop this kind of a bomb on me out of nowhere? You know perfectly well this can’t work, Jeremiah. It just isn’t feasible.”
“Well,”
