And the Two Shall Meet by Marilyn Kaye

Author:Marilyn Kaye [Kaye, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8041-4985-3
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Impossible, impossible, impossible. The word reverberated in her head. And yet, there was no mistaking what she had seen.

Amy lifted off her T-shirt, exposing the top of her two-piece bathing suit and something else, too. She slipped off the rock and started toward the stream. Her legs seemed to be walking on their own, without any effort, but she wasn’t sure whether she was moving in fast forward or slow motion.

In the stream, she waded up to her waist. Andy stopped splashing around and stood there, waiting for her. When she reached him, she didn’t speak. She just turned around so that he could see the mark on her back.

She expected to hear a gasp—some exclamation of surprise or shock. When Andy said nothing, she turned back to face him. “Andy?”

“I know,” he said simply “I could see it when we were rafting. You don’t hide it, do you?”

“No,” Amy said. “People think it’s a birthmark, or a tattoo.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Same here.” After a moment he added, “But it’s not a birthmark. Or a tattoo.”

“No,” Amy said again.

As if by unspoken agreement, they both moved out of the stream, onto the bank, and back to the rock where they’d been sitting. There was so much she wanted to ask, to say—but her tongue was tied. She couldn’t organize the jumble of questions and thoughts that cluttered her mind, and she didn’t know where to begin.

She didn’t have to. Andy spoke first. “I wondered, you know. When we met. The way you walked, what you could see and hear …”

Amy blanched. “Wow. I really try not to draw attention to myself. Was it that obvious?”

“Only to another clone.”

There it was—that word. Now there were no secrets, and there was no turning back. “So—you’re like me.”

“Yes.” He gave her a crooked grin. “No, actually, you’re like me. I’m almost four years older than you. I came first.”

“But I thought Project Crescent only involved girls.”

“Apparently not,” he said. “The project must have had several phases.”

Amy frowned. “But my mother … she didn’t tell me that.”

“Your mother?”

“She was a member of the project. She told me it was the first attempt to clone human lives.”

“Maybe that’s what she was told,” Andy remarked. “I don’t think those scientists really knew what was going on.” He gazed at her with new interest. “So your mother was a scientist on the project, huh? I guess you know a lot more about it than I do.”

“What do you know?” she asked him. “And how did you find out?”

He didn’t answer right away. She had a feeling this was the first time he’d ever talked about this to anyone, so it couldn’t be easy. She remained quiet and let him take his time.

Finally he said, “I think I always knew I was different. I mean, that there was something different about me. Even as a little kid I could do things other kids couldn’t do. Is that how it was for you?”

“Not really,” she said. “I never got sick when I was little, but that’s the only thing that was different about me.

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