Harry and Clara were in the kitchen the next morning. She sat at the table, one hand on her chin, sucking a slice of grapefruit. Her eyes were locked on Harry, who smiled at her, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear as he cut into a new citrus. Clara noticed me eyeing them and gave me a sympathetic smile. She touched her foot to my leg beneath the table, but her eyes drifted back to Harry, his arms bulging beneath his undershirt.
“Has anyone seen Madison this goddamn morning?” I said.
They both looked at me, a bit taken aback.
“I saw her and Maddie walking toward the woods earlier,” Harry said. “But would you mind stopping by my study first?” He added as I started for the door.
“Yeah yeah yeah,” I said, and flashed Clara a curt grin on my way out.
The professor was making coffee with an old, jury-rigged espresso machine when I entered. I felt like I hadn’t seen him in ages, my old mentor, but he didn’t even say hello since he had just seen me downstairs.
“I just wanted to say job well done,” he said, carrying his cup to his desk. “I think it’s safe to assume, at this point, that our little project was a success.”
“Is that right?” I said.
He read over a collection of papers. “All of Clara’s vitals are in order. She hasn’t resisted the memory implants. Her personality is…” he glanced at me with a winking, boyish grin. “…well. For all intents and purposes she is Clara.” The professor clasped his hands together excitedly. “The end of death!”
“Why don’t I feel like we’ve changed the world?”
“We’ll there’s still a paper to write, to review. Data to pour over. But the hard part is done,” he said. “I think we can wrap things up here as soon as this weekend.”
He reached out to shake my hand, then thought better of it and walked around his desk. He embraced me and patted my back.
***
I found the girls on our hidden beach. One, in her bikini and sneakers, stood behind a beach chair, adjusting the back, while the other waded in the water, shrieking as she lowered herself and then dunked her head.
“Miss Lounds!” I shouted. They both looked at me as I stormed across the sand toward the beach chair. “Are you Madison?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Is she Madison?” I asked, pointing to the double emerging from the sound. She walked past me and took a seat in the chair.
“Yes,” she said.
“What exactly are you doing?”
One draped a towel across the double in the chair. “Well, right now I’m practicing my control of two bodies, which feels a little strange at first. Taking that dip in the water just now, feeling cold there while my body here was warm – very odd.” She picked up a comb from a beach blanket and ran it through her double’s hair. “And now I’m going to give myself a haircut.” She grabbed a pair of scissors from the blanket. “Because I’ve always wondered how it would look short.”
“Is this about him?” I pointed vaguely in the direction of the house.
Madison didn’t respond. She measured her double’s hair with her fingers and began to trim.
“He’s obsessed with her,” I said. “you think he’s going to give her up for a threesome?”
“Okay, but can you imagine what I could do with two mouths?”
She didn’t know Clara, I thought to myself.
“What about Maddie?”
“What about Maddie? I don’t know. What about Harry? What about any of these doubles?”
“We were…together,” I said.
“It’s my body!” Madison shouted. “My body you were fucking. In my room one time. In my clothes!”
I watched the strands of hair fall against the sand as they were cut.
“Whatever you’re going to do, you’d better do it,” I said. “I just talked to the professor and he’s through with our services.”
Madison looked at me and smiled. “We’ll see,” she said through the double.
***
With nothing left to occupy my time, I decided to fix the pool table. Not through any kind of carpentry—I wasn’t as handy as Harry. I simply stacked an inordinate amount of books beneath the broken side. I racked a game of eight ball. I went to break, but the jostling of the balls across the table made the table collapse immediately. I chose one of the books from the pile and took it to my room instead.
Glancing through the window I saw the professor’s boat sailing out onto the sound. Harry’s hair blew in the breeze by the tiller; Clara’s coverall wafted as she stood on the bow.
I sat to read in a wingback chair, though I doubted I’d be able to concentrate. I missed Maddie, I thought, though in truth I was bored and, therefore, horny. I considered stepping into the bathroom for a moment. Or simply unzipping my pants where I sat. But I forced myself to open the book, a collection of essays on the natural world, and skimmed the first page.
Madison had placed another sheet across her mirror. But as I read, she lifted and tucked it, such that the sheet draped from the edge like a curtain.
She sat at the vanity wrapped in a towel, her hair rolled in curlers atop her head. I heard the hum of a blow dryer through the wall. Madison rubbed a bit of blush against her cheeks. She rifled around a small bag for a tube of lipstick, a subtle red she began to apply. I saw her double pass across the room—her hair damp, her naked body still wet from a shower—and dig through a dresser drawer.
But Harry wasn’t here, I thought. He’d be on the water for untold hours. And of course then I realized what Madison planned to do.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/11ty1s8/forever_hung_part_19_scifi_slow_burn_all