On Procreation

The Scene: Two brothers, who don’t usually play together, who in fact usually avoid each other, are interacting and playing appropriately together in the family room. Their mother sits nearby at the kitchen table, writing her grocery list and sipping a glass of water. She is pleasantly surprised at this rare occasion of collaboration and, remembering the last time they worked together on something, decides to listen in. It sounds as if their action figures are living on new worlds in other solar systems, and the brothers are the leaders of their own worlds. They are discussing what their worlds are like, who inhabits them, and various other particulars. The younger preteen brother describes his world as being desolate, apocalyptic, and all-male. The older teen brother stops twirling his Lego spaceship around and faces his brother.

Older teen brother: You still need females to launch out the babies.

[The mother begins choking on her water and runs into the kitchen, coughing and spluttering.]

Younger preteen brother: No, I don’t. They’ll make clones.