“Would you do that here?” the clone asked. “Are you equipped for that? As I understand it, there is a bit of training involved.”

“Not to worry. I’ve already taken ViMed’s course. I know how to use it. I think it would be useful to have it done before the transfer,” he said. “Besides, to be perfectly honest, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use Meld. It’s a fascinating medicine, really. I think it’s set to be a real breakthrough in dementia diagnosis and treatment. The first real break we’ve seen in the field.”

“It’s a miracle, all right,” the clone said. “I don’t see a problem if you think it could help.”

Jeremiah watched slack-mouthed while his double signed a consent form that would let them submit his own mother to Meld. He wanted to scream. He could feel Brent’s eyes on him, waiting to see if there was anything he ought to put in his report. Every muscle in Jeremiah’s neck strained with the effort to contain himself.

“Jeremiah,” Brent said, “am I correct in assuming you wouldn’t have signed that consent? Would you have refused the Meld? Would you have acted differently from the clone?”

Jeremiah didn’t answer right away. Eyes still glued to the monitor, watching the clone walk out of the office and stop with Nichelle in the hallway, he considered the fact that his double didn’t have all the facts about Meld. Of course the clone wouldn’t see the harm in it. In his mind, it was still the miracle drug Jeremiah had once honestly believed it to be. The clone didn’t know the real reason behind the drug’s creation. He didn’t know what it could actually do. And he didn’t know what it was like to take the drug. To him, it probably seemed like a good idea.

Jeremiah wished, for the hundredth time, that he could jump inside the image on the wall and shake his double by the shoulders.

“No,” he said finally, and with a sorry conviction. “No. I suppose I would have done exactly the same thing in his place.”

Chapter 10

Jeremiah and Brent were quiet as they watched the clone drive home from the nursing home in complete silence, the pamphlets sitting next to him on the passenger seat and the radio turned all the way down. Jeremiah wondered what he was thinking about. When he got home, the clone opened the front door to a dark house, threw the pamphlets and his keys on the hall table and bent down on one knee in a useless attempt to entice Louie over for a pat. The dog just stared at him and lay down under the coffee table, eyeing him like the intruder he was.

“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?”