“What about my family, though? I don’t really like the idea of them being watched like this. I had no idea it would be so...intrusive.”

“The cameras are only activated by the clone, Jeremiah. It’s all done by facial recognition. State-of-the-art. No one’s going to be watching your family, except for when they’re interacting with the clone. That’s all we care about here.”

Jeremiah turned his attention back to the wall where the clone was just picking up the remote control and switching on the TV. For the next few hours, they just watched as he sat there, propped up against the pillows on the bed, and channel surfed the unfamiliar landscape of afternoon television. The image on the wall was close up and six feet tall and, in the lull of any activity, Jeremiah found himself scrutinizing his own familiar face in all its uncomfortable detail. It was both fascinating and a bit unnerving. He could see every pore in his own cheeks, every unruly gray hair at the temples, every crease around his eyes, every pockmark. He noted with some dismay that his shoulders looked small and slightly hunched over. Do I look like that? He put a hand under his own chin and made a mental note to look up a suitable exercise for a saggy neck. He never realized he’d gotten so soft. At one point the clone fell asleep and Jeremiah was shocked to see his own slack-mouthed expression and hear the sound of his own snoring, which nearly drowned out the TV. How the hell did Diana ever get any sleep? Jesus!

After a while the kitchen door opened, and the clone got up when he heard Louie’s tags jangling again in a jubilant ruckus down the stairs.

“Parker?” he called. “Is that you?”

“Dad? What are you doing home?”

The clone walked down the stairs to meet the boy in the kitchen, cameras following so that Brent and Jeremiah could track his progress without interruption. Jeremiah braced himself. Would his son react the same way that Louie had? Would he know the clone wasn’t really him? This entire thing, he thought, could be all over before it even began. He might be home for dinner, after all.

“I had a little car accident this morning. I’m fine,” the clone told Parker. “But the doctors at the hospital told me to take the day off, so I did. I’ll be back to work tomorrow, though.”

“Whoa! You were in the hospital?”

“Just as a precaution, it’s nothing serious. They checked me out. I’m okay.”

“Did you total the car, Dad?”

“Not sure yet, but I think so. Probably. Shouldn’t your mother be home by now?”

“Nah,” Parker said, opening the refrigerator and turning his attention to the pressing matter of what he would eat. “She’s working late.”

That was news to Jeremiah.

“I thought you had something at school tonight,” the clone said, echoing Jeremiah’s own thoughts right down to the word.

“It got canceled. I texted her and she said she might as well stay late tonight.”