Heart's Desire

For a few seconds, it seemed like every other morning. I awoke slowly, turning over once, then stretching beneath the covers. But they felt different, more coarse than the silken sheets on my bed. I opened my eyes, still more asleep than awake. What I saw shed every vestige of slumber, and I sat bolt upright in sudden panic.

The room I was in was small, downright tiny compared to the ones I'd known all my life. Why, it couldn't sleep more than one person! Indeed, only a single narrow bed, the one I lay on, occupied it. Beside the bed was... I don't even know what it was. It looked like a large cabinet, except that it didn't seem to have any openings, and it was metal. Colored lights flashed on its surface, in individual groupings of stark, straight horizontal and vertical lines. Looking further, I saw plastic strings running from the cabinet to a clip grasping the tip of my index finger. Beside it was a pole, from which hung a clear bag half-full of what looked like water. Horrified, I saw that the long plastic tubing leading from it was attached to a needle inserted into the back of my hand and taped in place.

The walls of the room were light blue. No arches existed to lead to other rooms. Nobody else was in the room. That's when I realized that I didn't hear the comforting sounds of my sisters around me, their breathing, their snoring, their murmurs. I had been surrounded by them all my life. Sometimes a very young one would join us, and we would rejoice and welcome her. Sometimes one would be gone when we awoke in the morning, always one of the eldest of us. Even the nannies didn't know where they had gone. I suddenly realized that that's what must have happened to me. I screamed in fear.

I heard a loud click, then a round metal protuberance on one of the walls rotated. A crack in the wall widened, and a portion of the wall around the metal piece pushed into the room. I couldn't see past it, but a woman stepped into the room, clucking her tongue. She was dressed all in white, even her shoes, which stepped soundlessly.

"We didn't expect you to wake up so early! Now just lie down and relax, dearie," she chided, approaching me. Her hands were gentle when she pushed on my shoulders. She resembled sweet Nanny Three so much that I automatically did as I was told. Still, I had to ask. My voice trembled.

"Where am I? Who are you? Where are my sisters?" I felt tears springing to my eyes and spilling onto my cheeks, the eyes and cheeks so like my sisters'. Were they even now waking up and discovering I was gone, and mourning in bewilderment just like we always had when one of us disappeared?

The woman hesitated- I think- then she said briskly, "I'm here to take care of you, Annie. And you need to rest. You shouldn't get so excited. I promise, everything is going to be fine."

"But-"

"No buts," she said firmly. She looked over the clip, and the needle, then she smiled at me. "Everything's fine. Are you hungry? You can have something to eat if you like. Anything you want, in fact."

Well, yes, I was hungry. It was time for breakfast. At least, I thought it was. It was hard to tell. But I needed to know if she was telling the truth. So I tested her, asking for the most outrageous things I could think of for breakfast.

"Yes, ma'am. Could I get some filet mignon, and Waldorf salad? With a glass of chocolate milk?"

She smiled cheerfully and patted my shoulder. "Coming right up." She left then, leaving me still bewildered. I heard another click after the moving portion of the wall closed again.

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The nurse put in the order for Annie's meal, then turned to her coworker with a sigh. "I wish Miss Aubrey would stick to the Clone Laws. Grow 'em in stasis or isolation. Hers get attached, develop feelings. They're almost like real people."

Her friend snorted. "Anne Aubrey is rich enough to do whatever she wants with 'em. A CL violation fine isn't going to hurt her bank account any." The second nurse went back to her paperwork, asking absently, "What's she using this one for?"

"Heart transplant."