AVOCADO

AVOCADO

The objects stood stoical. The olive carpet. The pistachio walls. The lime curtains. The jade sofa.

Croc couldn’t peel his eyes off the instructions that lay on his emerald desk.

1. Take care to wrap the ENTIRE body with WET towels.
2. Place the cadaver in the fridge. (NOT THE FREEZER)
3. You have exactly 5 days to successfully extract and secure live cells.

He had scanned these words every day for the past 255 days. His thoughts ran back to when Juniper was dying.

At first, the thought creeped him. But the idea of seeing his companion again had motivated him. He contacted the best cloning firm in the world – The Soonata Biotech Foundation of Korea. Their pluripotent stem cell and transgenic technology were unique and the cells from the tissue could be cryopreserved.

Now he smoothed his hands over her photograph. The firm had promised a perfect copy. He waited patiently but he wondered.

Would she dig into cucumber pickles?
Had she missed him?

Tring Tring! The doorbell.

Croc dashed to the open door.

The expert from the Foundation placed the tiny animal in his hands. He examined her closely. She was a tinge less green than Juniper.

“It’s because of the DNA of the surrogate mother,” explained the veterinarian.

She licked his cheeks just the way Juniper did. But she was different. Different in a positive way. He stroked her soft fur. It felt buttery.

“What will you call her?” asked the veterinarian.

“Avocado!” He said.

It sounded perfect.

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