Follow her to meet family

“That all sounds like so much –“ you begin to say.

But Boti has to stop you. Her watch starts to go off. She has one of those fancy smartwatches that is connected to her cellphone! That’s so cool! you think to yourself. You’re in Japan, if anyone has something cool like this it has to be them. That was now a goal: find some cool tech that only Japan had and bring it home. They probably have cellphone butt plugs that use your spinal column as a speaker or something.

“Oh! I almost forgot. I have to go pick up my ‘daughter.’” There was something odd about how she said that last word. “She’s already at the hotel, she came here earlier. I think you two would get along great, she’s your age.” Yes, because every single fucking girl your age has everything in common with you. The look you give back to Boti explains that to her with absolute clarity. “Good point. Well you both are in Japan for the first time.” OK that is something that you could get behind: you and someone else who had no idea about Japan running around the country and seeing new things.

But the car ride to the hotel wasn’t anything special. Boti spent most of her time on her cellphone texting and call various people. And that’s where you learned that she didn’t know just Japanese and English, she knew a ton of different languages. You don’t recognize them, but start making up stories about her talking to the Czar of Russian and Queen of Thailand and President of Portugal and the Pope. And you were not sitting across from one of the most important people in the world.

It was just a fantasy though. Boti was probably drumming up tourism to her native country. You guessed that a character such as her would probably be working until she died.

And then you were at the hotel. It would have been easy to miss, not because it blended in with every other building on the block, but because each and every building was unique. They all had their own character. It was hard to miss these signs: the lights and the written characters drew you in and tried to convince you to see what was inside. Normally a building title was more of a commercial, but these felt like TV shows. You didn’t want to miss anything.

The hotel had a variety of flags waving over it, each representing someone staying at the hotel. They were in the process of putting up the Botswana flag.

And inside it was like the whole population of the world was wandering through. Woman [and a few men] from every corner of the globe moved through, some coming, some going, some even cumming. Kara was trying to keep up with Boti, who walked through the crowds like she had a map of the place. She just knew where everyone was going and where everyone was headed. Kara meanwhile walked around the lobby like she spoke Japanese.

“Mom!” A young girl exclaimed. A person came running up from through the crowds and appeared in front of Boti and Kara. She was a bit taller then Kara, almost as tall as Boti, with the same graceful slim build, the same dark skinned color, the same... actually she looked like an 18-year-old version of Boti. Right down to her hair style and choice of being in the buff…

“Kara, I would like you to meet my daughter, Boti the third.” Wait… the third?

“Well, semantics,” the younger Boti said. “Technically I’m her clone. But for simplicity, I’m her daughter. And you are?”

“A little confused…” you said as you put your hand out. The two Boti’s laughed it off as if this was something they found common place. You had heard that this was becoming a more common thing but had never actually seen it. After all it made sense: with a decline in one sex that jeopardizes the whole species existence, so why not develop the ability to clone humans? Apparently, it exists, and it has been around for… wait a minute!

“If she’s the third…” you say, pointing at the younger Boti, “then you’re… the second? Which means…” the two just very politely waited for you to catch up. “Which means… you’re also a clone?”

“Yes,” the older Boti said, “grandmother is upstairs. She retired to Japan years ago. Getting my appointment wasn’t hard since the Prime Minister requested that I stay on.”

“Job security” the younger Boti said.

“OK, if I’m going to be spending more time with you I need a way to tell you apart.”

That was a good point, and so you found out their nicknames (because growing up they had the same problem). The eldest Boti, who you have not yet met, often went by Boitumelo. Officially, all the Boti’s are Boitumelo, but the eldest Boti in a room receives that name. Boti the second got the shortened version of Boti, and somehow the t and the i became switched, possibly because some speakers had trouble saying Boit without something following it. So, Boti the second was Boti. Boti the third often went by Lechwe, a nickname she got after being a star runner at school. Actually Boitumelo got that when she was 18 many, many years ago, and it was now passed down to her… third clone/granddaughter.

Cloning was weird.

But as you basked in the oddities of navigating how a family arrangement would be with cloning, Boti took a call, probably from some other high powered world leader that you would fantasize about.

“Do you know what she’s saying?”

Lechwe nodded. “I’d tell you, but it’s boring. Mostly it’s about funding for ads in this country. I should pay attention, but I’m on vacation. That won’t bother me until I am older. Let’s go see a sumo match!” Her eyes lit up like the sun with that thought.

That was something you had come to do, see the culture. There were other things though, and a sporting event seemed to be rather… bland. Maybe she could be convinced to see something else, like a monastery or the red light district?