In the Image of Grace (17 page)

“Yeah,” Jeremy said. “I bet he wants to get your face
out there before he totally shocks everybody. Maybe like easing
into it cuz in some of the news stories The Clonation Foundation
was mentioned and that’s prolly what they want. It’s going to
happen real soon.”

“Should I just runaway now?”

“Don’t say that,” Jeremy said making a pouty face.
“It would make me too sad.”

“Do you think I’m weird because I’m a clone?”

“Of course not,” he said running his hand over my
hair.

“People are going to think I’m a total freak.”

“Well, if they do I’ll beat them up.”

“Really, thanks.”

The bell rang and I sighed. “Can we just stay here
the rest of the day?”

Jeremy stood up. “C’mon, I’ll take you to lunch,” he
said reaching his hand out to me.

We went to a regular old fast food chain restaurant
that served hamburgers that were way to thin. I noticed there were
more stares when the two of us were together. We stood in line
behind a bunch of other teenagers who were stealing glances.

“They want to know if it’s really true. If I really
forced you to go with me and since I have such power over you if I
forced you to go to lunch with me today,” Jeremy said wrapping his
arms around me as we waited.

“What they don’t know is the extent of our passion
and that we were really running away together and my sisters got in
the way, so we abducted them. It was a team effort you know. You
keep getting all the credit for being the kidnapper,” I said.

“Hey, it’s you guys,” somebody that we didn’t know
said from behind us. I turned and looked and it was a
proportionally large teenager wearing black plastic glasses. He was
pointing up to the TV above the food counter.

And sure enough up on the screen were two side by
side shots of us and underneath in big letters it said, “Elaborate
hoax?”

“They’re on to us,” Jeremy conceded out loud putting
his hands up into the air.

“Really,” said the proportionally large teenager.
“You guys staged it?”

“Of course not,” Jeremy said. “It was just a parental
over reaction.”

“That’s an understatement,” I whispered.

We got to the front and ordered our food. Jeremy took
the tray and we found one of the last tables and sat.

“I wonder what else the news reporters will dig up,”
Jeremy said raising his eyebrows and eating a French fry.

“Or what is leaked to them,” I said. “I have a
feeling my father tipped them off about the kidnapping thing.” I
didn’t have much of an appetite. I just poked at my food.

After school I met up with Clarissa and Isabelle as
usual. There was actually a crowd around them and it seemed
Clarissa was giving a detailed dramatic account of what happened.
She was eating up the attention. The crowd seemed to be mostly male
and it appeared as if they were swooning with their heads tipped
and mouths turned in smiles as she flailed her hands in her
recreation. As I was watching Clarissa’s show I heard a, “Hey,”
from behind me. I turned to see Jeremy standing there with his
backpack slung over one shoulder ready to go home for the day.

“Hey yourself,” I said back.

“Going home?”

“I kind of feel like I have to, I don’t want you to
get arrested for anything again. Would you like to come with
us?”

“I don’t think I’d be welcome. Your father did accuse
me of abducting you and your sisters.”

“He shouldn’t even be home. The worst thing is Ms.
Dunderfeltz will tell him that you were there.”

“All right, supposedly I’m never supposed to leave
the apartment again, but my mom and Brett are both working tonight.
I have my laptop in my bag. We could see what we’re supposedly up
to now in the news.”

I told Clarissa and Isabelle that I was going ahead
with Jeremy. I don’t know if they even heard me. Clarissa was still
telling the story, occasionally giving Isabelle a prompt to say
something.

“Let’s go,” I told Jeremy and we were off.

……………………………………………..

When we got to the house the only person there was
Ms. Dunderfeltz who buzzed me in because my key had yet to be
returned to me. She didn’t say anything when I brought Jeremy
inside with me. I grabbed his hand leading him up the stairs. We
peeled off our coats and bags, tossed them down and sat on the
floor. We both sat crossed legged. Jeremy leaned back on his hands
and looked around my room.

“Nice,” he said.

“My own personal prison,” I replied also looking
around my large room which I had spent so much of my life in.

“You’re gaining your freedom.”

“I guess, but does it really count as freedom when
your father has your boyfriend arrested when you leave the house
with him.”

“Just think what kind of stories you can tell when
you’re all old and gray,” Jeremy said smiling, unzipping his bag
and pulling out his laptop.

We went onto a few different news sites and a couple
for the local newspapers. It seemed people were starting to suspect
that our kidnapping was some kind of hoax as we saw earlier on the
TV during lunch. A few said it was some sort of teenage prank and
then others were starting to incorporate info about my supposed
father. One actually mentioned The Clonation Foundation and how it
might be some sort of stunt on their part. Then there was a debate
if we should pay the bill for the use of all the extra law
enforcement because it would be wrong to have the tax payers foot
the bill for something that was all a hoax.

“Get out your check book,” I told Jeremy.

Jeremy laughed. “It would just bounce. Then I’d owe
Indiana and my bank.”

I laid my head on Jeremy’s shoulder.

He kissed the top of it. I turned and looked at him.
I looked into brown eyes and at his lips that were always turned up
in that smile of his. Jeremy reached up and touched my face. I put
my hand on his neck and we kissed and kept kissing. I couldn’t stop
kissing him. I pushed him backwards, sat on top of him, leant
forward and we continued to kiss. I don’t know if I could say kiss
because it was more passionate than that. We were wholeheartedly
making out and I was enjoying every second. That is until I heard
Clarissa in the doorway.

“Uh, sorry, but Ms. Dunderfeltz wants to know if
Jeremy is staying for dinner.”

I looked down at him. He was still lying on the floor
and I was still sitting on top of him.

“Do you want me too?” He asked.

“Of course,” I said smiling at him, but wondering why
Ms. Dunderfeltz wasn’t doing anything about Jeremy being there. It
was strange, but I went with it. “Tell her yes.” I rolled off of
him and we gazed at my ceiling together. I reached over grabbing
his hand. It was nice just lying there holding hands in silence. It
was very comforting. I felt like I was about to doze off, but I
didn’t want to have one of my dreams with him in the room. I didn’t
want to wake up in a frantic anxiety ridden state.

“Hey,” I said feeling comfortable enough to tell him
about my dreams and Elizabeth.

“Yes,” he answered squeezing my hand.

“I have Elizabeth’s dreams.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every night since the night we started school I’ve
been having the same kind of dreams Elizabeth had, with the woman
screaming and she wants my help or wants me to do something. I do
believe it’s my mother. I can’t be for certain, but I feel a
connection to the screaming and there’s this darkness and its damp,
like a basement or cave maybe, and somebody is down there with me.
It’s because of my dreams we started looking for our mother. I
heard Elizabeth when I was sleeping right after the first time I
had the dream and she told me to find our mother. It felt like she
was in the room with me.”

Jeremy reached up and brushed my hair out of my face.
“She could have been.”

“That’s why I need answers. I need to do it for
Elizabeth and Isabelle and Clarissa.”

“You’re doing a good job. You’ll get the answers you
need.”

“You think so?”

“I know so,” Jeremy declared with confidence.

“Let’s go eat,” I said sitting up. I held out my
hand. Jeremy grabbed it and stood up. I led him downstairs to where
Clarissa was setting the table. Isabelle was in the kitchen getting
some last instructions from Ms. Dunderfeltz. I think Ms.
Dunderfeltz was trying to teach Isabelle and Clarissa how to cook
since our main cook was no longer with us. I took a seat at the
table. Jeremy sat down next to me.

“I’ll be going now girls,” Ms. Dunderfeltz said as
she was walking out of the kitchen.

I gave her a little wave. “We dine alone, we’ve never
had the company of an adult while eating,” I explained to
Jeremy.

“You’re actually the first dinner guest we’ve ever
had,” Clarissa stated placing a glass next to the white porcelain
plate that sat on the table in front of him.

“Well, I feel special,” Jeremy said giving Clarissa a
head bob.

Isabelle brought out the food. We were having lemon
chicken with asparagus and wild rice. It was quiet good.

Clarissa and Isabelle sat across the table from us as
we ate

“Delicious,” Jeremy said holding up his fork with a
piece of chicken on it.

“Thanks,” Isabelle said with a slight smile. “Ms.
Dunderfeltz did most of it though. I can’t take all the
credit.”

“None the less, it is delicious. I never have real
food at home, so I’m enjoying this.”

Clarissa then turned her head to the side and looked
at Jeremy. “Hey, take off your glasses for me.”

Jeremy raised his eyebrows at her.

“I just want to see what you look like without
them.”

“Clarissa,” I chided. I thought she was being kind of
rude.

“No, don’t worry. I think almost every day somebody
asks me that,” Jeremy said pulling his glasses off.

“You ever consider contacts?” Clarissa asked.

I gave her a mean scowl.

“Another question I get asked a lot. I tried. The
whole putting my finger in my eyeball thing didn’t work out that
great n it took too much effort for me. I’m part lazy.”

“Push your hair out of your face,” Clarissa demanded
of him.

He did as he was told by my fourteen year old
sister.

She stuck a finger out at him. “You’re a secret
stud.”

Jeremy scrunched up his nose and drew his head back
as if in saying, what the heck are you talking about.

“Beneath all that hair and glasses and facial stubble
and your slightly odd manner of dressing there’s an attractive
person there,” Clarissa said biting her lip as she observed him.
She made it sound like everything in the world was aesthetically
wrong about him.

Jeremy glanced over at me and then back at Clarissa.
“Uh, thanks, I think,” he replied unsure if he should take what she
said as an insult or compliment. He put his glasses back on and
looked down at his plate.

“Don’t mind Clarissa,” I said in case his feelings
were hurt. “We’re discovering she has trouble controlling her
mouth.”

Jeremy looked over at me and shrugged with one
shoulder. Maybe he liked being called a secret stud. After dinner
Jeremy had to go. He said he had to go and practice because they
had a show the next week. I kissed him goodbye. We opened the front
door not realizing that Ms. Dunderfeltz had set the alarm. I
figured it was her way of letting our father know we had what she
considered to be an unwelcome guest. Jeremy looked at me like oh
crap what did I do? I told him to go on, that it would be okay.
After a couple minutes of convincing him he left. With the alarm
still screeching, the phone then rang. It was kind of surprising
because our house phone never rang. It was our so called
father.

“I got a call from the alarm company saying the alarm
was set off.” He spoke quite sternly.

“It was,” I said trying to be very evasive. I was
still kind of surprised. I had never talked to our father on the
phone before. He never called to check on us or anything. It was
weird hearing his voice on the other end of the line.

“Enter 1672 and then hit the off button. I’ll call
back the alarm company and tell them it was a false alarm. After
that I am coming straight home, so your friend better be gone.”
Then he hung up. I didn’t have a chance to have any kind of
reaction or response.

I went and shut off the alarm and then went to the
back of the house to tell my sisters that our father was coming
home. A look of shock and amazement was on both of their faces.
Each day our lives kept getting weirder and weirder.

We all went off to our rooms to do homework, but I
couldn’t concentrate. I was too tired and too busy thinking of
other things. I threw down the book I was reading for lit class and
lay back on my bed letting my mind drift to Jeremy. I was so happy
to have him in my life at that moment. He seemed to have helped
keep me grounded. Who knows what kind of nut case I would have
turned into without the support and understanding of somebody else.
I mean I had my sisters, don’t get me wrong there, but it was nice
having somebody else, somebody who would just listen and always had
a smile to make me feel a little better. I was thinking of Jeremy’s
smile when I heard our father come in. You couldn’t miss when
somebody came in the house because even though the actual alarm was
off the door chime stayed on. The chime was downstairs saying,
“Front door open, front door open.”

Then I heard him scream for us. “Girls,” he shouted
in a booming voice.

I rolled over and stuck my head under my pillow.

“Girls,” he shouted again with much impatience.

I got up and slowly meandered down the hall towards
the stairs. Isabelle and Clarissa also emerged from their rooms. We
all walked downstairs with our heads hanging low. Our supposed
father was waiting for us in the front room standing there with his
arms crossed over an argyle sweater.