“Mom is calling you for the dinner, dad.” 7-year-old Jimmy enters the study room giving the message of his mother.
Smith is busy performing some tasks on the computer screen. “I have been trying to figure out the bug for the last two hours. I am not getting what’s wrong with it,” Smith thinks aloud.
Looking towards Jimmy he says, “Ask your mom to serve dinner to both of you. I need to finish my work. I will have the meal when I am done.”
“Shall I help you finish your work, dad?” little Jimmy comes closer to him. Smith smiles at the innocence of his son. “Yes, please,” he replies. Jimmy sits on a chair beside smith and scrolls the screen like an expert. After examining the whole screen he picks a pen and writes something on a paper pad. “Why don’t you try this algorithm, dad?” pointing towards the paper he says to Smith.
“How. Do. You. Know. This?” Smith asks in amazement.
Jimmy has given the right suggestion but it is astounding for Smith how he figured out a complex programming code.
Jimmy thinks for a while and replies “I don’t know, dad. It just came to my mind all of a sudden.”
“Have you learned it somewhere?”
“I don’t remember learning it anywhere. I might have. I don’t know.” Jimmy appears distressed.
Smith realizes his stress. He takes him in his arms and says to him, “Actually, you are a God-gifted child.” In a pleasant voice, he continues, “Now, you have solved my problem. We will go for ice cream after dinner. Let’s go…”
Smith takes him downstairs to the dining room.
It is not the first time when Jimmy has amazed him with his unusual behavior. As he is growing, his personality is becoming mysterious.
Jimmy was the only son of Diana’s childhood friend, Alice. Alice lived in another country for years. Five years ago, she visited Diana with her husband and son. They were out for their vacations. After staying a couple of days, they had left for another town when the family encountered a car accident. Alice and her husband died but jimmy remained safe. Smith and Diana had already worn out of trying for conception. They adopted two-year-old Jimmy. He added colours to their lives.
As he started growing, they realized Jimmy was quite different from other kids. He wasn’t as playful as normally kids are; instead, he was a quiet and serious child. Some of his actions were astounding while others were disturbing.
Once he was surfing the internet when Diana found him reading aloud a language he had never studied. Initially, Diana thought he was merely mumbling but when she observed him repeatedly, she realized he really understood and spoke that language. With time, Jimmy depicted the knowledge of two other languages that were novel to all of them. Besides, he also portrayed excellent martial arts skills. His knowledge about computer programming was also unbelievable.
With these outstanding qualities, there was something very disturbing. His memories. He did not know where his memories and knowledge were driving from. He was overwhelmed by his unconscious. His struggle to evocate the origin of his remembrances often tired him up. His memories had a very prominent character, Sally. She was someone whom he never met.
For everyone, he was an outstanding person. There were only three people who were aware of his distress and disturbances. They were Diana, Smith and Dr. Maria.
Dr. Maria had shifted to their neighborhood when Jimmy was 5-year-old. When Jimmy went to school, she was her teacher there. She gradually made her sound position in the family’s life. Smith and Diana trusted her. She helped Jimmy handling and living with his stress. Jimmy felt comfort in discussing all the mysteries with her. However, nobody could solve his mysteries until he turned 18.
After a week of his 18th birthday, Dr. Maria invited him for the dinner. He was habitual of having dinners with her. It was a usual meeting till she presented him with an old photograph.
“Is it the lady, Sally, who resides in your memory?” she asked him, pointing at the woman in the picture.
“Yes, she is.” He quickly takes the photo from her hand. “How do you know her? Who is she?” he asked anxiously.
“Let me tell you a story, Jimmy.” Dr. Maria sighs and moves towards the window. Jimmy is now facing her back. Looking outside the window she continues, “25 years ago, Sally was living a happy life with her husband, Jack. They worked in a research center for cloning. They didn’t know about the secret project the center was running behind the scenes. When Jack came to know about the unethical human trials, he started collecting evidence against them. The project could become a potential threat to the world, as the owner was likely to sell it to criminals for the sake of money. Sally didn’t know about anything until they were attacked at their home.” Dr. Maria pauses for a while and turns towards Jimmy. He quietly keeps looking at Dr. Maria with questionable eyes.
Dr. Maria comes and sits on the chair in front of Jimmy. Looking in the air as if she isn’t there, she continues, “It was a terrible day that snatched everything from her. Four attackers invaded their house to kill both of them. Sally couldn’t understand what was happening but Jack did. He was skilled at martial arts. He killed them all but he couldn’t save himself from the bullet that stroke his chest.”
She stops and moans painfully.
Biting her lips with tears at the verge of her eyes, she looks at Jimmy’s face. He is still quiet. She continues, “Jack knew he won’t survive. Holding Sally’s hand he told her the reason for this attack. He directed her to leave the place at once. He understood that the core team wouldn’t let them live as they had become a threat to their project.” Dr. Maria paused and dropped her face in her hands.
“Doctor Maria!!!” Jimmy offers her a glass of water. He is astonished but doesn’t have any reaction to give.
After composing herself, Dr. Maria continues, “Jack told Sally about a device that was in his office. It had to unlock with his fingre prints. He asked her to take his finger for accessing the device. Sally was trying to make the sense of all the circumstances. Meanwhile, they realized the house was put on fire. She heard Jack saying ‘cut my finger, Sally; run for your life.’ ‘How can I leave you here,’ Sally said in desperation.
‘You have to, Sally. You…have… to….’… Ahhhhhh….! With screaming heart, she cut his finger and escaped from the house”
“She tried to reach jack’s office but she couldn’t as they were after her life. Sally had to disguise herself. She went through plastic surgery of her face and left the country with her only asset- Jack’s finger.” Dr. Maria sobs.
Anxious Jimmy stands up from his chair. Moving around, he asks her, “how do you know this all about Sally? What has she to do with me? Why is she in my unconscious?”
Dr.Maria looks towards Jimmy awaiting for her answer. She replies in a low voice, “I know this all….. because…. I am.... I am Sally.”
“What! How come…?” Jimmy’s shocked eyes are on Maria’s face.
Collecting the courage to speak further, Maria continues in quite a low voice, “After moving to another country, I joined an in vitro fertilization (IVF) center. I felt empty without Jack. I wanted him back to life at any cost. His love compelled me to do something unethical.”
Jimmy is looking at her nervously and suspiciously. Maria’s eyes are down to the floor. “Your mother, Alice, came to the IVF center for conception through the process. I replaced the nuclei of her germ cells with nuclei of Jack’s somatic cells that I obtained from his finger. As a result, the embryo that developed was not genetically your parent’s offspring, but a clone of Jack.”
Jimmy sits on the sofa almost lying. After a while, he speaks with a farrago of anger, amazement and anxiety, “Do you know how difficult it is to live with the memories of events you never lived!”
Dr. Maria says moaning, “ Please forgive me, Jimmy. Please….. I didn’t think about the consequences. I only thought about my love. My love for you…. Jack!”
Jimmy stands up and leaves the house. Maria is left alone crying terribly. Maria reminds her of the desperation she faced when she lost the tract of Alice.
After Alice had given birth to Jimmy, Maria kept an eye on her. When Alice encountered the accident in a country far from her home, Maria didn’t know where Jimmy had been. The birth of Jimmy had given her a new life. She felt like she was dead again. It took her three years to explore Jimmy’s location. First, she became his neighbor and then the school teacher.
Maria feels the same desperation thinking that Jimmy won’t come back again.
After one week, Maria’s doorbell rings. She gets excited and nervous to see Jimmy in front of her.
“Please, come in,” she says
He goes in. There is complete silence. Standing behind Jimmy, facing his back, Maria, crooks her fingers anxiously. At last, Jimmy breaks the ice.
“For this whole week, I kept on thinking about your and my past. Both of us have experienced pains. In fact, you have passed through much more than me.” Jimmy turns to her and looked into her eyes.
“I have realized, I can’t be angry with you.” He smiles, “After all, I am your Jack, Sally.”
He opens his arms. Maria pulls like a magnet into them.
The story is inspired by the story logline A couple that has grown weary of trying to overcome fertility problems, adopts a little boy named Jimmy… but there is something very odd about little Jimmy.
P.S. I am extremely sorry for not keeping the word limit of 1000. It was impossible for me to resolve the conflict within this limit ☺