3

Li

[He]2s¹

Lithium

Excerpt from novella

Luke’s Lithium

Oh, crap. It’s shot day. Luke dreaded his appointment at Create Life’s medical facility. Sitting in the waiting room, he glanced at the magazines on the coffee table and wondered how they kept timely copies. He thumbed through Sports Illustrated knowing football would keep his mind off his upcoming shot. Chuckling, he envisioned his twin, Lilly, calling him a big baby over a little shot.

“Luke number one?” A nurse opened the door.

He stood and followed her through the medical facility’s corridor.

She took his weight and vitals, escorted him into a tiny examination room, and said, “The shot lady will be right in. Have fun.”

Continuing to immerse himself in sports, Luke didn’t even look up when the door opened. He just said, “You must be the shot lady. What a crappy job.”

Then he looked up and froze with shock. A thrill shot though him. Oh, thank you, God! It was her, his dream girl!

Gretchen stared at Luke with equal intensity. Her beautiful, round face glowed under a wild array of curly, golden hair. Her deep-blue eyes sparkled with happiness.

Think, Luke, think. Say something funny and clever to make her laugh. But his mind drew a blank.

She broke the ice first. “This job has its perks, though, like watching grown men cry like babies over a silly, little shot.”

Oh, shit! Don’t cry, dude. Be a man. Grow a pair.

“Why do I have to come here all the time to get this stupid shot?” He sat on the examination table complaining. The sterile, white paper crinkled with the slightest movement of his butt as he adjusted his position in a futile attempt to get comfortable.

“We must carefully monitor Luke’s lithium intake. Too much lithium can be lethal,” the nurse explained. She doused a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol, then rubbed it onto Luke’s shoulder to clean his skin for the injection.

“Luke’s lithium? That’s scary. Why do we get these shots anyway?” he asked, trying not to act like a big baby about getting pricked with a needle in front of the cute, voluptuous nurse.

Her ample bosom filled out her teal medical scrubs. Fantasizing about her big bouncing breasts kept his mind off the impeding stick of the needle. He discreetly adjusted his growing groin.

“It helps keep the crazy away,” she explained, making eye contact with Luke. With a shy smile, she blushed.

Luke’s chest tightened. This young woman had the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. And that was saying something considering what he’d been told about his own eyes. Her golden curls framed a perfect face with a flawless complexion and movie star smile.

“Luke’s lithium. Keeps the crazy away,” he slowly repeated. “That doesn’t sound very technical for a nurse.” He tried to keep his mind off the obvious attraction.

“Well, I’m not really a nurse. Create Life just trained me for this task. But I remember them explain that lithium acts as a mood stabilizer. It reduces risk of suicides in bipolar patients. It helps mania, major depression, and schizophrenia.” Gretchen held the syringe up to the light and flicked the side with her middle fingernail.

“Good to know I won’t go schizoid in the middle of the ocean.” He hoped humor would subdue the precariousness of his situation—imprisoned against his will on a cruise ship somewhere in the Caribbean with five-thousand clones. Unable to keep from staring at this beautiful nurse in training, he asked, “Are you one of us?”

“Yes, I’m an original, actually. My name is Gretchen. I’m Swedish, but I spent a lot of time in the States.” She held out her hand to shake his.

“I’m Luke. I’m an original, too. My twin sister, Lilly, and I were both cloned. But she’s not on this ship. Luckily, she escaped from Baby Cay.” Luke dropped his head. He missed his sister so much. It killed him to see her clones meandering about the ship, but none of them were his real twin.

“Nice to meet you, Luke. Now, relax your arm.” She squeezed his hand with a reassuring smile, signaling that this wouldn’t hurt. Grabbing the needle, she pricked him in the arm and depressed the lithium-filled syringe into his shoulder muscle.

“Ouch! Can’t Luke’s lithium be a pill instead?” he asked.

“You wish, big baby. Create Life administers different doses for all of the males based on body weight and other technical stuff.” Gretchen removed the needle and immediately applied a cotton ball with pressure. “Here, hold this tight on your arm.”

“Wait a minute. Only dudes get these shots? That’s sexist.” Luke stood and held the cotton ball on his arm. His hand brushed Gretchen’s. A longing flooded through him to touch more than just her hand.

“You know, you’re kinda cute. I should’ve administered this injection into that hot ass of yours,” she said. With a flirtatious swing of her hips, she sashayed to the counter and grabbed a Band Aid.

Surprised by her boldness, he blushed. Say something. Grow a pair. “I think… you’re cute, too.” He hoped his face didn’t appear as red as he feared.

Smiling, she applied the Band Aid to his arm. “Yes, only ‘dudes’ get lithium shots.” She used air quotes to obviously poke fun of Luke and his use of surfer lingo. “But us ‘dudettes’ get fertility and hormone injections all the freakin’ time. Create Life is afraid lithium will cross the placenta.”

“Uh, you lost me after ‘dudettes.’” Luke felt like an idiot because the only thing he knew about placentas, based on watching Animal Planet, was that mommy animals ate the placenta after giving birth to their young.

“That’s okay. Create Life hasn’t announced this to all the ‘passengers.’” Gretchen referred to the code name for the clones. “But I overheard Tom-Tom and Pauley talking to the Create Life scientists the other day. They’re going to pair us up and breed us. Supposedly, there are huge prizes for successful procreation.”

“Procreation, now that’s a big word I know, probably because it involves sex.”

“Create Life wants us clones to make babies with other clones.” Gretchen smiled, like she already envisioned how beautiful their babies would be.

“Babies?” Luke’s brain digested the notion, but his dirty mind already leapt to the process of making babies.

Gretchen nodded.

“You mean, I get to have sex? With someone besides myself?” Excitement bubbled inside him.

Giggling, she blushed. “You’re funny. I can’t imagine you lack for female companions.”

“I’m kinda shy. And in my experience, women think I’m conceited because I can’t just go up and talk to them. They have to come to me.”

“But you’re talking to me now.”

“You’re easy to talk to,” Luke confessed.

“Hopefully, I’ll see you around. Maybe at the ‘pairing?’” She batted her eyelashes.

“Pairing? Oh, now I get it. I wondered what that thing on the schedule was, duh.” He shook his head, incredulous he didn’t comprehend the purpose of tomorrow’s ‘pairing’ ceremony.

“Who knows, maybe we’ll get paired up together?” She winked.