Second Chance

         She sat on the floor, her hands trembling, as she held the phone and the piece of paper in her hand.

"I have to do this. I have to." She said to herself. Then she thought. She had other options, other ways to spend her life. Lie to herself about her parents, and get herself a nice house. No, she couldn't afford a house, maybe a nice apartment. She was old enough to do what she wanted, now she was eighteen.

Get a nice job, meet a guy, get married, have kids..... And lie to herself. No. She had to do this. If she missed this opportunity she would never get it again. This had to be done. She sighed. It was so much to learn about herself in one day.



         She was adopted. Her biological Mother had gotten rid of her when she was a few weeks old. She was then adopted my Harry and Amanda, a lovely modern couple who couldn't have kids of their own.

They looked after her like she was their own child, and she grew up believing them to be her biological parents. She held her face in her hands and groaned.

Should she keep her past a mystery, and continue her life pretending her adoptive parents are her own, or call her Mother and have the possibility of being rejected?

She laughed at herself, and shook her head. Rejected by her own Mother, what was she thinking? Her Mother probably had her young, couldn't

cope, and was left wondering who her child grew up to be. Did she even care to give her child a name, or was she named by her adoptive parents? She looked at the phone; she had to do this. She picked up the phone, and looked at the piece of paper in her hands. It had a name and a number written on it. She dialed the number. Her hand shook as she pressed the call button.



"Hello?"

"Um.... Hello?"

"Who is this?" The woman asked.

"It's..... It's..... Amy. It's me, Amy." The woman paused. Could she have remembered the name?

"I don't know any Amy. Sorry, you must have the wrong number."

"No no! I have the right number!" Amy quickly replied. "I know I do! Please..... Samantha."

"How do you know my name?" The woman asked. "Who are you? You're wasting my time!" Amy felt a pang of disappointment; she was wasting her time. This woman, who abandoned her, only a few weeks old, who left her child to be brought up by others; and she was being told she was wasting this womans time. "Who are you?" The woman asked again.

"I told you, I'm Amy!"

"I don't know any Amy!"

"Yes, you do!" Amy screamed down the phone. She quietened down. "Yes. You do."

"I'm not joking. I told you, I don't know any Amy. Please, leave me alone."

"I'm not joking, either. My name is Amy, and I'm..... I'm your daughter."

"What?" The woman laughed in disbelief. "I told you before; I'm not joking! I have no children, and I know of no one named Amy."

"How old are you?" Amy asked.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, how old are you?"

"Thirty six. Why?" Amy worked it out in her head.

"You were eighteen when you had me, the same age I am now. You left me when I was a few weeks old, and I've been brought up by two people for eighteen years. I am your daughter." She explained.

"Amy?" Samantha asked. Her tone had changed.

"Yes." Amy replied. Did she recognize her now? The woman spoke quickly.

"Do you have a pen and paper?" She asked.

"Yes, I do." Amy replied. "Why?"

"Take down this address." The woman named off an address, and Amy scribbled it down quickly.

"Eight o' clock." The woman said, and hung up.



At eight o' clock, Amy stood outside the house, her hair blowing in the strong wind. She held her jacket across her body, shivering in the cold. She pulled a hair off her lipgloss, where it had stuck to her. She had tried to look her best; to make an impression. A woman walked over to her, smiling and waving. Before she knew it, Amy was enveloped in a hug, then the woman pulled away, still holding onto her, and examined her.

"Oh, you look so beautiful." Samantha said.

"Wait," Amy pulled the womans arms off her. "Am I your daughter or not?" She asked with a frown. The woman smiled at her; a familiar smile. It looked like Amys. Samantha began to explain.





"I was still in school when I had you; I just couldn't cope with a baby at my age. When my boyfriend at the time - your Father - found out I was pregnant, he left me for another girl. He had his eye on her for some time, but needed an excuse to leave me for her. When I told him I was pregnant he jumped at the chance; and I hear recently that he was actually loyal to her and stayed with her. They got married last year. They had a child together before they actually got married, but he stayed with her through her pregnancy." She shook her head. "Sorry, I'm going off course a bit." She laughed. Was she serious? Amy was trying to find out about her past, and this woman was laughing? She made a face.

"Sorry. Anyway, once my parents threw me out, after they found out I was pregnant, of course, otherwise they wouldn't have thrown me out!" She laughed again. "Anyway, so then -"

"Wait a second!" Amy shouted. "Is what you're saying true? Or are you making it all up; because it makes no sense! I just want to know my past!" The womans expression hardened, and her lips became a thin, straight line. "Tell me the truth." The woman sighed, and looked at Amy, deliberating wether or not to tell her.

"Don't hide things from me!" Amy roared, pacing in anger.

"I'm so sorry." Samantha began.

"No. No! You tell me now! Who am I?" She screamed. Samantha was quiet.

"Who am I!?" Amy repeated.

Samanta shook her head silently, looking at the floor. She looked at Amy, into her eyes; the eyes that were identical to her own.

"You're..... You're me." Amy stared at Samantha, her anger showing on her face. Her expression made the smooth transition from anger to disbelief, and she started to laugh.

"Are you serious?" She laughed again. "Oh, that's great! I came here looking for my past, and I find I have a twin!" She turned, and started to walk away.

"No! Not twin!" Samantha shouted after her. She quietened her voice; others couldn't hear this. "After I became an orphan at an early age, I closed myself off from everyone. I lost my friends, I lost the chances of making new friends, and I felt so lonely. When I turned eighteen, I became involved in a scientific experiment, funded bythe government. It was called the 'Second Chance' programme, where people would be copied genetically to make exact replicas; so people could use copies of themselves to do simple little things. Cleaning, or going to the shop for something, for example. I was their first guinea pig; the first to test it. But it didn't turn out the way everyobe had hoped. There was a copy made of me, but was a newborn. Instead of creating an eighteen year old me, it gave birth to a baby. But that baby was still me. We named you 001, that's why I didn't recognize the name Amy." Samantha smiled. "But as soon as I saw you, I knew you were the person I was looking for..... 001."

"Don't call me that!" Amy screamed. "I can't believe this..... Why was I brought up by others then?" She demanded. Samanthas smile faded.

"Well, I was given the job of taking care of you, but it wasn't the same as looking at your baby and thinking 'This baby looks so much like me', I was looking at you and literally seeing me. It wasn't right." She explained.

"So I've never had parents? I'm just a thing? All my memories, thoughts, experiences, emotions, it's all fake?"

"No, it's all real, you're still real, but the only difference is you've been created." Amy started to cry. "See? That emotion? Sadness? Shock? That's real. You're real, exactly like everyone else, we're just..... Two of a kind."

"I can't believe this," Amy shook her head. "I'm not real."

"Yes, you are!" Samantha ran over to her and hugged her. "See those people, walking across the road?" She pointed towards a group of teenagers on the other side of the road, walking together. "If you were to walk past them, or talk to them, they wouldn't see anything different with you. You're as real as them." Amy noticed a boy, the same age as the others, with his hood up, following the crowd. He walked like one of the boys in the group. He looked like an identical copy.

"Look at him." Amy pointed to the boy, and Samantha sighed.

"That's..... That's the other thing I wanted to tell you. I wouldn't have told you unless we came in contact again, and when you called, I knew you'd be involved. Up until now, we were the only ones. But lately, we have been informed of a few cases of 'copies'."

"Theres more?"

"That's what we think. There is someone, unknown to us by name, helping to create copies of people. We need to stop him. 001, will you help us?" Within an instant, Amy had changed her mind about who she was, what she believed, what she was called.

"Call me One."