“No,” he said. The question had referred to people, after all, so technically, Jeremiah reasoned, he wasn’t lying when he failed to mention Louie’s reaction. He felt justified in his answer. And in terms of Parker’s interaction with the clone, it was definitely the truth.

He’d been struck, in fact, by the way Parker hardly seemed to look at the clone when he talked to him. Parker acknowledged his father only as much as he needed to and nothing more. It hadn’t always been like that.

Jeremiah’s mind turned to a camping trip they’d taken together when Parker was about ten years old. Jeremiah had never been camping in his life and never had any desire to try, but at the first mention of the idea from his son, he’d rushed out and spent a small fortune on anything he thought they might need: a top-of-the-line tent, subzero sleeping bags, a book of campfire stories, several cans of bug spray and a portable stove. They ended up at a campground in central Maine, slightly off-season, with a persistent light rain that stayed with them the entire weekend. He wasn’t surprised they’d had the place almost exclusively to themselves.

The trip wasn’t the idyllic adventure Jeremiah had imagined it would be. It took him three tries to get the tent up and even then it ended up lopsided when one of the poles wouldn’t stay put. They couldn’t get a fire started until the owner of the place felt sorry for them and finally helped to put up tarps in the trees above their campsite. But Jeremiah had never felt closer to Parker than he did during those damp, chilly two days in the middle of the woods.

“It’s a good thing it’s just me and you, Dad,” Parker had said while they listened to the rhythm of the rain on the tent. “I don’t think Mom would be able to handle this like we can.”

“Yeah. She’s not much for roughing it,” he agreed. “She’d need her pillows and a place to plug in her coffeepot.”

“And her makeup,” Parker added, “and her TV.”

“And her shower,” Jeremiah said.

“And her clothes dryer!”

“And about six pairs of shoes!”

“And basically the whole house!”

They’d fallen asleep that night laughing, and as Jeremiah pulled the sleeping bag up under his chin against the cold, he couldn’t remember ever feeling more completely content and comfortable.

The tent and all that expensive gear never made its way out of the attic a second time.

After watching the strained exchange between his clone and his son, Jeremiah felt the full force of regret like a weight around his neck.

“No,” he said again to Brent. “Parker treated the clone just the way he should have.”

Chapter 5

Day 2

The next morning, Brent came to the lab early, only a few minutes before the day’s viewing was scheduled to begin. Groggy and still half-asleep, Jeremiah dragged himself to the living room couch and looked at the wall just as the clone was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen. The typical commotion and rush of his family’s weekday morning routine played out in front of Jeremiah and had an almost immediate effect. He could feel his own adrenaline kick in as he watched them hurrying to beat traffic and make the school bus. Diana, a blue sweater slung over one arm, was digging in her purse for Parker’s lunch money and Louie was leaning up against her knees in a futile attempt to get her attention.