Jerry Leppart

Chloe Jerry Leppart

I am 21 years of age and I have discovered that I am the first and only human clone. Questions: Who am I? What am I? Do I have a soul? Do I share a soul? Am I a real person or just a copy, a shadow of a donor? I visited with Dr. Ahmann who performed the cloning twenty-two years ago. He told me that there are no others to guide me, but I could probably have a normal life if I did not stress myself. There was no way I could stay here. I had to get away, away from everything familiar. I left Minnesota and took off for the mountains. In Montana, I picked up a hitchhiker, Billy Two Bears, who stayed with me for awhile. He told me of the Native American values and the true meaning of life. After a night of intimacy, he was gone. But he left me with words that I will never forget. I continued to the Canadian Rockies, to Banff, Lake Louise and Emerald Lake Lodge. I had been having some mini seizures, so it was time to head home. On my way back to the States, I picked up two female hitchhikers who taught me not to be afraid of the choices that I make. In Wyoming I stood before Devils Tower monument at dusk as fireflies twirled around me, illuminating the way as if they were spirits rising from the ground. At home I visited Dr. Ahmann again and I found that I am pregnant. My choices? I can have a full life, or I can have a baby, but I probably can't have both. So now I need to decide what I should do. Should I give life, and by doing so end life? Or should I end life and by doing so give life? And all I have left are Billy's words to show me the way.