"... a successor."
"Huh?" replied Jonnie. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Look, Jon... nie," said Sarah. "Here's the deal. This is my last year of high school. Next year is college, another place, another time. I want you to make a clone of myself from four years ago. I won't be here, but my new sister... I've always wanted one... will be here and will keep helping the cheerleading team."
"Hmm..." said Jonnie. "I'm impressed. You didn't say 'run' the cheerleading team."
"Because I want her to, but I know that's up to everyone else. My clone will have to work at it just like I did." In an aside, she said "By the way, have you considered getting long hair? It really would look good on you."
Jonnie ignored the hair question and glanced at the woman with Sarah. It was an older blonde, Sarah's mother Vanessa. "I take it you're here to tell us it's okay?" he asked.
"Yes, we've talked it over and I'd be delighted to have someone like Sarah still be here after she's gone."
"Okay, anything else?"
"Can you make sure we get along?" asked Sarah.
"It isn't magic," replied Jonnie. "Well, it is, but it's not that kind of magic. She'll be a normal person. Liking you isn't the same as liking spinach or liking boys. Liking you depends on how you treat her. She'll start out liking you, but if you mistreat her, it's the same as mistreating anyone who likes you--if you keep it up, sooner or later they won't. Unless I make her so submissive that being mistreated doesn't affect her."
"Do people really want that?" asked Sarah, surprised. "Submissive? Do you get a lot of requests for sex slaves? Normal person is good enough. Make her know she's a clone, and think of me as an older sister. She can pick her own name."
"All right. It seems fair enough. Pay up."
Sarah put down the money on the counter... along with a bag. "It's clothes," she explained.
And Jonnie gave the orders to the machine. "Make a clone of Sarah McMillan as of four years ago. She likes Sarah and thinks of her as an older sister. She knows she's a clone but doesn't mind."
"Current qualities of clone determined."
Jonnie pressed the button.
"Do you think that'll work?" asked Jon.
"I think so," said Jonnie. "She got her mother to approve, which is more than I can say for those two girls with boyfriends. She didn't ask for something ridiculous. And they thought enough to bring clothes."
"She's a bitch," said Karyn. "She and her clone will be at each other's throats in a week."
"I heard that," said Sarah. "Did it ever occur to you that someone other than you can be a human being? I can figure it out with my clone, but you can't figure it out with someone who's already in the same school. Get a clue." Then she pulled up a chair, ignored Karyn, and watched the clone grow.
Jonnie took the stone and whispered "I wish there was a changing area set up here." Two shower curtains arranged in a rectangle on poles suddenly sprung up, and nobody noticed. Except Jon, who concealed his expression of surprise. The cloning tank opened and the clone stepped out. She tried covering her private parts with one hand, her breasts with the other arm, as she looked around.
"Let me help you," said Sarah.
"Sarah?" she replied. "I'm Sarah. But I'm a clone. I know that..."
"Here, let me help you." Sarah held the curtains so the clone could go through, and then handed her the clothes.
As Sarah, her clone, and her mother left happily chatting, the next person stepped forward.
It was a woman with her son, who was eating a stick of cotton candy and was probably around 8 years old.
"I have a request," she said. "I need you to clone my son."
"Sure, we can do that," said Jonnie. "May I ask why?"
"It's, well... I'm in the middle of getting a divorce. There's going to be a custody battle. I want to stop it. You can clone Billy and I can stay with him while my ex-husband can have Billy's clone."
"Let me think about that," said Jonnie.
"Can you do it?" wondered the woman.
"Of course I can do it. That isn't the problem. Can you hold on?"
Jonnie turned the sign on her booth over to "Be Back Soon" and walked behind the shower curtain with the box of money. A bit later, Jon followed, then Karyn.
"Now what do we do?" wondered Jon.
"I don't know," said Jonnie. "Is this a 'parent loves their kid' or a 'parent thinks of their kid as property'? I mean, if she thinks she can take the best care of Billy, he and his clone should live with her, right?"
"Besides," said Jon, "is it fair to make a clone of her son just so she can have them live apart and not even know each other?"
"Yeah," said Jonnie, "remember clones are people too." She laughed a bit.
"Maybe it's in her son's best interests after all," suggested Karyn. "Maybe she thinks being with his dad is bad, but not having a messy custody fight is so good that it makes up for it, so they're both better off than if they stay with the same parent."
Jonnie put her hand on the stone in her picket and said "I wish us three had some idea of that woman's thoughts and feelings about her child and the divorce." Then she considered it. It was strange, like being inside someone's head for a few seconds, but she found that the woman was more concerned about the custody battle than she was about her son as a person. "It'll have to be no," she said.
Jon and Karyn nodded in agreement.
They came back around to the front and Jon turned the sign back to "Open." Jonnie explained, still touching the stone, "I won't do it, and I wish you'd just accept that. I'm sorry..."
"I see," she said. "I suppose it was too much to ask for."
As the woman walked away, Jonnie commented, "You know, when we first made this machine, we were thinking all about sex. And weird things. It worked, but we never thought about how other people might really want to use it. I'm sure we only scratched the surface."
The next person in line was Joseph.
"Hey, man," he said... "Woman, I mean. Your boyfriend said I could use the machine, back at school, if I got permission. I really don't have fifty bucks on me, so if I can...."
"Forget the money," said Jonnie. "We got a big inheritance, and Jon did say you can use it."
"He told you?"
"We share everything!" Seeing Joseph's leer, she continued, "Well, almost everything. He also told me he wanted a note from your parents. Do you have one of those?"
Joseph smiled and handed Jonnie a piece of paper. It said that Joseph had permission to make any kind of clone he wanted. "Here you go!"
"Let me see your handwriting," said Jonnie.
Joseph turned over the paper and wrote "I think I'm a clone now," on the back.
The writing didn't look very much like the writing on the paper. Jonnie reached into her pocket, touched the stone, and said "I wish I could tell whether that was really from your parents..." A pause, and she said, "I suppose it is. What did you say to them, that they let you do anything at all?"
"Never mind that, I just want my clone. Make me someone with Sarah's body, my memories and interests, and who's my submissive sex slave. Oh, and give her cat ears."
"Are you serious?" asked Jonnie.
"Of course I'm serious."
She looked at Jon. Joseph was a friend, and she didn't want to just say 'no', but they hadn't gotten a request like that yet. They had written down some rules which wouldn't allow it, but they didn't have to use those rules. It was possible to give Joseph what he wanted... but should they?
