- Cloning -
( Science Fiction )

He woke up in a panic since nightmares had disturbed his sweet sleep. To have such a horrible night was beyond his imagination. As sleep denied him totally in the last part of the night, he lied down on the bed in the small room overlooking the only park in the distant sector of Berlin, the city he loved. In the second room was the younger form of him, or actually his clone, sleeping. It was the last night of the winter of 2037. That night was too harsh for Hani indeed. The spasm in his chest was so severe that he could not breathe easily. He took several puffs from his inhaler and looked to the other room, and condemned himself for his bad luck. He remembered his old good days in his youth, how simple and enjoyable life was, especially in his native country, where myth mixed with reality became the essence of life. When he came for the first time to Berlin and tried to establish himself there, no body helped him except his friend Beshir, the exchanged student, who introduced him to some institutions. He succeeded in getting a job for three years, during which he met his wife Helga, a Berliner nurse, who was ambitious to tour the world, especially the lands she read about in history. After he failed to survive in Berlin, Hani returned back with Helga to his country. He treated Helga differently, so much so that she wanted to desert him and return back to Berlin. But for some reasons she preferred to stay. They got a son and a daughter, and Helga was very busy with them and had to accept the status quo. They spent many years there. He promised her the best but never committed to his words. After she lost the hope, her anger subsided. To be without hope is better than to live with false hope, so she was telling herself.
Suddenly, the once clear skies of Hani’s world became hazy and smoggy, the water dried up and Eden paradise disappeared. Hani and Helga decided to leave the country and return to Berlin. They came back to Berlin with a lot of money and Hani wheeled and dealt at the expense of the poor for whom he had no mercy. Their daughter got married and left with her husband to Australia. The son had got a degree in medicine and had practiced several years in this profession. After he attended a medical conference in California, he was so impressed by its pleasant weather and beautiful nature that he decided to stay there. Hani and Helga were alone. They rented a two-bedroom flat in the suburban of Berlin, since it was cheaper than a similar one in the city centre. Hani was very stingy and never gave anyone anything. He was so mean that he enjoyed watching the poor suffer; he always felt better than them and avoided contact with rich people lest he felt inferior to them. Helga was dreaming to visit Rome, the ancient remnant of the Roman Empire, to see the Vatican and to enjoy meeting the Pope. He was promising for 30 years to fulfill her wish and make her dreams reality. When he didn’t abide by his promise, she deserted him by moving to Alberta to live with her aunt there. She sent him a Christmas and New Year card every year and told him that he would receive an annual card from her as long as she lived. She told him too that she did not regret living with him during the elapsed years, but to continue her life with him was pointless.
No wonder then Hani was living alone in his flat after all. He was spending time walking in the park and streets during daytime, and was sleeping early. This habit didn’t prevent him, however, from meeting his countrymen in the sole bar in that District and spending several hours chatting. His acquaintances didn’t like him, since he was not only mean but very selfish, jealous, and imposing his opinions on them, and was boring as well. In that district, was the clinic of his friend Dr. Beshir, who helped him during his hardship, but Hani denied the favour. Despite this fact, Dr. Beshir
was sympathetic. When biotechnology advanced in the beginning of the millennium and scientists discovered the enzyme that protects the telomeres in the cell, which are essential in cell division and growth, the cell did not age quickly and has a long life span, Hani was one from the first people, who used it after he spent a lot of his money.
Years were passing and he was not aging. Dr. Beshir was in charge all the time. Helga was sending him cards every year, and one time no card arrived, he wept and considered her not anymore alive. At that time, and after 10 years after the sheep Dolly was cloned, people started cloning themselves. Hani noticed that these clones were exact copies of the originals, and were beautiful. Why not clone himself then? He was alone and aging. He wanted to return back to his youth, strong and wise enough to avoid all mistakes he did before and to grab lost opportunities! He rejoiced at this idea. He went to Dr. Beshir and revealed what he had in mind. The latter welcomed this idea and took a cell from Hani’s nose telling him that he will have a clever boy within nine months, and assured him every thing will be okay, since he had 10 year- experience in cloning humans!
Hani was in euphoria, but unaware of what Dr. Beshir had in mind. Actually, Dr. Beshir had suffered from Hani’s stinginess, jealousy, hatred and obduracy. Since all genes had been isolated and known at that time, it was obvious that there were genes for selfishness, hatred, greed and jealousy, and all these genes were present in Hani’s cell. Dr. Beshir decided to eliminate these bad genes and replaced them with the genes for sacrifice, altruism, generosity and forgiveness. The clone will be Hani in feature but have opposite characters. He was dancing at this idea because he liked revenge, and this would be sweet revenge by correcting errors. After Dr. Beshir had made the improved embryo, he implanted in a womb of a woman he had hired. After nine months the clone, Zeki, was born. Hani was happier with this birth than with the birth of his son and daughter. When Zeki was several years old, he was an exact copy of Hani who wanted to register him in a private school, but the boy preferred the public one. He was so joyful that his smile never departed from his lips! He was playing with children offering them anything he had in his hands. Hani was watching this behaviour reluctantly, since in his childhood, he was the one grabbing the toys and sweets from children without giving attention to their crying.
Zeki grew up in this way. Surprisingly, Hani couldn’t say or do anything. He
was feeling pain in his chest and his cells started to age and his health deteriorated.
Zeki happiness was misery to Hani. When Zeki reached 20 years of age, he got a degree in engineering, his friends were around and his generosity was without limit that he exhausted all Hani’s savings. Hani went to Dr. Beshir complaining.
Dr. Beshir had calmed him down, gave him some tranquilizers and confessed what he had done with his genes or, in other words, the correction of the errors. Hani was outraged and condemned Dr. Beshir for what he had done. Then he went home, when opened the door, he heard music and noise. He saw Zeki with a bunch of friends sitting around a table loaded with food and drinks and they were talking, singing and laughing with joy and happiness covering them from head to toe. His heart was fast beating and he felt sharp pain in his chest. He took several inhalations and some pills.
After the friends left, he looked at Zeki with anger and reproached him. Zeki told him that he loved his friends very much and ready to sacrifice anything to make them happy. The money, said Zeki, meant nothing to him – it was like a river, to which everyone should have access. Should it be blocked , he would sink in and the others would die from thirst. It is like the air free for all people and nobody should be denied breathing. Zeki would do everything to make people happy, as far as he could afford. Hani was listening contemplating and saying nothing. He went to his room and was so tired that he found himself lying on the bed. That was the night so horrible that he could not sleep properly. He opened the window and ejected his bald head outside looking for the sunrise. Immediately, he pulled his head when he felt the cold wind flirting with the last hairs on his head. His heart was beating faster and faster with strong pain in his arms and chest. He felt sweaty, dizzy, and found it difficult to breathe. Shortly thereafter, he fell down on the floor.
Zeki woke up as he heard the bang and walked softly into Hani’s room to see what had happened. He saw Hani lying down on the floor without movement. He ran to his room, jumped to the telephone and started talking. After he had finished, returned back to Hani’s room but saw nobody. He was astonished, sat on the chair and thought deeply, but he couldn’t solve the mystery and he didn’t know what to do. That was the first day of spring 2037.
After the sunset he heard the door’s bell ringing. He went to the door, opened it and saw a beautiful girl in twenties smiling. He looked at her carefully. He saw a strong resemblance between her and the picture hanged on the wall of Hani’s room. They looked at each other. When their eyes met, they found themselves suddenly embracing in deep silence.
 

Written and Translated by:  Bahjat Abbas Ali