Slowly I feel myself drift from the warm black void of sleep to a painful red headache of wakefulness. Feeling rather sick and unfortunate I keep my eyes closed and wish for the solaceful unconsciousness of sleep but unfortunately it doesn’t come. Being as I’m nestled under a soft warm blanket that does not feel hospital-issue and the air does not smell like the sterile filtered controlled air of the cloning facility, I’m clearly not in the same bed I’ve woken up in every other night of my life. I’m a bit hesitant to open my eyes and find out where exactly I am, and anyway I suspect light would make my headache worse. I try to bury my head in the pillow instead, making an involuntary groaning noise, and try to remember how I got here.
After my release from the facility yesterday I had wandered about more or less aimlessly for much of the day. I had no idea where to go or what to do. Gradually I became hungrier and hungrier but I had no food nor money to purchase food with. Determined not to be helpless I wracked my brain for ideas. Among the general ideas I had inherited was knowledge that people had not always depended on metaphysical concepts of wealth that they exchanged with each other for products and services (I watched, mystified, as someone swipe a plastic card at a shop and receive some bananas in exchange). I had an image in my head of a landscape with no houses, building, or roads. A landscape in which man found his food growing on plants or hunted giant woolly elephants with spears. For all I know this elephant creature, much less a woolly one, might entirely be a figment of my imagination. How am I to know what’s a latent memory from my original and what’s just me imagining things?
Nevertheless, I kept an eye out for fruits or berries on trees or shrubs. As I walked I wondered, what if I was, in fact, a cloned copy of one of these pre-modern humans?
I never did find any edible vegetable matter, and presently found myself in a public park and feeling ravenous. There were a number of large geese in the park – time to try that “hunting” thing. After casting about a bit, I saw a fallen branch from a nearby tree. I broke off the flimsy narrow end so I was left with a relatively straight and stout branch. Now how to sharpen it? I had nothing with which to sharpen it nor to affix a sharp rock (let alone sharpen a rock!!) like was done in my mental picture. Being a caveman was starting to seem a rather difficult!
After attempting to scrape it on the concrete for a bit with nearly nothing to show for it I started to imagine just clocking the giant bird in the side of the head with the stick. Yes, if I was going to eat tonight that was definitely going to be the ticket. In my mental picture the bird attacked me with a horrible hooked beak these geese clearly didn’t have, but it made me nervous nevertheless.
I very carefully stalked up a small hillside towards the poor devils, every muscle tense with concentration on stealthiness. As I poised to make my lunge, a goose waddled up right behind me and honked, startling me. Surprise quickly changed to anger and I swung at the saucy fellow’s head with all my strength. The bird saw it coming however and dodged, taking flight squawking cacophonously followed by the other geese, leaving only a shower of feathers around me.
“HEY!” I looked up to see a very angry looking police officer starting towards me. My own flight instinct kicked in and I slid down the hillside out of his view, ran a hundred yards or so to the right dove under a hedge.
Poking my head out a little later, I saw the coast was clear and crawled out. An older fellow sitting on the edge of a fountain with an amused expression was staring at me from across the path. He waved me over, laughing.
“That was some stunt you pulled, young man. What in the heck were you doing?”
I shrugged, “I was hungry.”
The old man laughed even harder, probably thinking my answer was not the serious, honest one.
“Well, you look like you could use a drink anyway. It’s on me. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time.” The old man got up and began walking away. I hesitated for only a moment, the possibility of food being too great for me to pass up.
Turns out his name was Henry. We followed the sidewalk out of the park and down the street. We stopped at a green storefront with a sign declaring it to be “Heinlein’s First and Last Chance”. Henry walked in and sat at a table like he knew the place well. The bartender walked over and greeted Henry by name.
“Don,” Henry told the bartender, “set me and my friend up with a few Tornado Imperial IPAs please.”
I had no clue what I was getting into. I was ravenously hungry and if liquid was all I was going to get it was better than nothing. Don the bartender brought some mugs filled with a dark liquid topped with foam. Henry picked his up and held it out to me expectantly, so I did the same with my own.
“Cheers,” he said, and took a large swallow. I raised an eyebrow at my mug and shrugged, doing the same. Well it was certainly a lot thicker than the water I drank at the Institute. Hungrily, I eagerly downed several rounds with Henry as he plied me with stories and questions. He didn’t ask anything too personal, as he seemed to sense I wasn’t too keen on sharing a whole lot. I was starting to feel strangely comfortable with my situation. At the end of the fourth drink, Henry put up his hand.
“I think that’s going to do me for one night. I noticed some girls on the far side of the room were checking you out, they might be better company for you, anyway,” he said with a sly wink. “Thanks for the entertainment.”
Henry offered me his hand and I shook it. He wandered over to settle the tab with Don before walking out, leaving me sitting at the table alone.
The world was slightly off-kilter, but it didn’t really concern me too much. I was feeling pretty good, despite the way the day went. I looked at my mostly empty glass and took the last swallow. This beer stuff was really growing on me. What had I been missing out on all this time? I didn’t even feel hungry any more.
The server brought me another beer and I drank it lost in thought. Suddenly I was broken out of my reverie when one of the girls, a tall blonde, stood next to my table smiling engagingly.
“Hey I saw you drinking alone over here, why don't you come join us?” she said motioning with her head towards the table.
“Oh, hi, yeah, thanks!” I stammered, quickly putting on the most nonchalant smile I could muster. Getting to my feet I was shocked to find myself more unsteady on my feet than I’d ever been in my life, the room seemed to be moving! I started after her when another girl stepped in.
"Oh, there you are! I was looking all over for you!" She slid her arm into the crook of my elbow and led me off toward the front door.
"Thanks!" she smiled and waved at the blonde girl, who gave her a dirty look. She and I walked out and a little ways down the street, where she let go of my arm and turned to look at me.
“Hi, I’m Dorothy,” she said, extending her hand.
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