Perfect People

88

At midday on Tuesday morning, Dr Sheila Michaelides sat at her pine desk in her consulting room. She looked distinctly frosty.

Through the window behind the psychologist, Naomi watched rain falling on the lush green walled garden. She could see a thrush on the grass, digging with its beak, tugging out a reluctant worm.

‘Why didn’t either of you tell me the truth about your children?’ the psychologist said.

‘I’m sorry,’ Naomi said. ‘I’m not with you.’

‘Aren’t you? Dr Dettore? I think that name means something to you, doesn’t it?’ Her expression hardened to ice.

John and Naomi looked at each other, increasingly uncomfortable.

‘Yes, we went to him,’ John said.

‘But not for the reasons you might think,’ Naomi added.

‘What reasons might I think, Mrs Klaesson?’

Naomi twisted her hands together in silence. ‘That – that we – wanted-’ Her voice tailed.

‘Designer babies?’ the psychologist said.

‘No,’ Naomi said. ‘Not that at all.’

‘Oh?’

Naomi pointed at the photographs of the two small, laughing boys on her desk. ‘Are those your sons?’

‘Yes, they are.’

‘And they’re healthy, normal little boys?’

‘Not so little. Louis is twenty and Philip is twenty-two.’

‘But they are healthy, normal?’ Naomi said.

‘Let’s concentrate on your children, Mrs Klaesson, if you don’t mind, that’s what you’ve come to me about.’

‘Actually, I do mind,’ said Naomi angrily.

‘Hon,’ John said, cautioning.

‘Don’t hon me,’ she snapped. Then, turning her focus back on the psychologist, she said, ‘We went to Dr Dettore because he offered us hope, he was the only doctor in the world at the time capable of offering us hope, OK?’

‘What kind of hope did he offer you?’

‘A normal child. One that would be free of the bloody awful gene that John and I were both carrying. That’s all we went to him for. So that he could give us a child free of this gene.’

‘He talked you into having twins?’

‘No,’ John said. ‘We wanted a son, that was all. We never asked for twins.’

There was a long silence, then the psychologist said, ‘Are you aware of any of the other children who have been born to parents who went to see him?’

‘Some,’ John said.

‘Three sets of twins, all born to parents who went to him, have been murdered in the past couple of years,’ Naomi told her. ‘There’s a link to some freaky religious group – a bunch of fanatics.’

‘That’s why we don’t talk about it,’ John added. ‘We’ve been advised to keep quiet.’

‘A little hard when it’s out on the internet,’ Sheila Michaelides said.

‘That’s why we keep a low profile,’ John said.

‘What difference does it make to you?’ Naomi demanded. ‘Are Luke and Phoebe second-class citizens because they were conceived in a different way? Is that what you are telling us?’

‘Not at all. But if you remember, I asked you both if there was anything you could tell me that might have some bearing on your children’s behaviour; you never mentioned that you had designed their genetic make-up – I think that might have been helpful for me to know from the start. Don’t you?’

‘No, I-’ Naomi stopped in mid-sentence as John raised a calming hand.

‘Hon, she’s right. We should have told her.’

Naomi stared down at the carpet, wretchedly. She felt like she was back at school, being scolded by a teacher. ‘Dr Michaelides,’ she said. ‘This is not how it might seem to you at the moment. We just wanted Dr Dettore to make sure those bad genes were taken out.’

‘That was all?’

‘More or less,’ Naomi said.

‘More or less?’ the psychologist echoed.

There was an awkward silence. Finally John said, ‘We agreed to make a few positive changes – just to help enhance our baby’s abilities in some areas.’

Dr Michaelides looked at him sceptically. ‘What areas, exactly?’

John suddenly felt very defensive, as if he, too, were being carpeted by a schoolteacher. ‘Resistance to illness – we boosted their immune system.’

Naomi butted in. ‘When we say their – that – that’s not strictly true. We actually went to Dr Dettore wanting to have one child-’

‘A boy,’ John said. ‘Another son.’

‘And yet he persuaded you to have twins?’

‘He said nothing about us having twins,’ John repeated. ‘It wasn’t until Naomi was advanced in pregnancy that we discovered she was carrying twins. All the modifications we selected were of a very minor nature. We wanted to ensure our son would be reasonably tall. That he would have good eyesight, good hearing. We accepted an option that would enable him to get by on less sleep when he was older. Another that would give him more energy from less nutrition.’

‘And we agreed also to allow some enhancement to his learning abilities,’ Naomi said.

‘Less sleep,’ the psychologist said. ‘Enhancements to the children’s learning abilities. And now you are concerned because they seem to be up during the night, trying to learn more? What did you expect was going to happen?’

‘Not this,’ Naomi said. ‘We just wanted to give them a good start in life. We never intended turning them into-’

The psychologist waited patiently as Naomi bit her tongue.

‘Freaks,’ John said. ‘I think that’s the word my wife doesn’t want to say.’

‘That’s how you are beginning to view your children, Dr Klaesson? As freaks?’

‘Not freaks in – I guess – in a circus sense of the word. I mean in the sense that they are different to other kids. Almost – like – wired differently.’

‘I think they are wired differently,’ the psychologist said.

There was a long silence, then the psychologist continued. ‘If I’m going to be able to help you, you are going to have to be totally honest with me from this point on.’ She fixed her eyes on each of them in turn. ‘I want you to tell me – when you went to Dr Dettore – was he offering you some kind of a standard package?’

‘In what sense?’ Naomi replied.

‘In the sense that he had some kind of a deal that he offered to his patients – clients?’ She raised her hand and ticked her fingers in turn. ‘A certain IQ, a guaranteed height, specific sporting skills – did you get the feeling there were certain things that he could do that all went together?’

‘No,’ John said. ‘We had a huge amount of choice.’

‘Too much choice,’ Naomi added. ‘It was overwhelming.’

They took it in turns to go through as much of the list of options as they could remember. When they had finished, the psychologist turned to her computer screen for some moments. Then she leaned back in her chair and looked thoughtfully at John and Naomi.

‘I’ve been doing some research. Since I saw you at the end of last week, I’ve heard by phone or email from twenty-six child psychologists – all of whom are seeing children who were conceived at Dr Dettore’s offshore clinic.’

‘I thought this information is confidential,’ Naomi said.

‘It is,’ the psychiatrist replied. ‘And that’s why the people I contacted spoke to the parents about sharing the information and allowing me to make contact with them.’

She glanced back at the screen, then, putting her hands on her desk, leaned forward. ‘All the children are twins, and in each case this was a surprise to the parents. All have identical advanced intelligence, advanced looks for their age, and identical behavioural problems to Luke and Phoebe.’