Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 01:04:15 EST
From: ZLATAZOBO@aol.com
Subject: Then the Roof Comes Down, Part one (SF/F)

       Hello again! This is the first installment of '...then the Roof
Comes Down," a story of science fiction and fantasy. First, however, here
are the legal statements:
If you are not over the legal age to view such material where you live,
please leave now. Also, if it is illegal where you live to read adult
material, Please leave.
      If, by chance, you are offended by depiction's of homosexual acts,
Please leave now.
      The Author of "Then the Roof Comes Down," is Andrew van Ryan.
Copyright 2001. The author reserves all rights.
This story is fictional and only the two characters, Andy and Terry are
based on real people. Everyone else in this story are figments of my
nightmares.

******************************************************************************

********************


			...Then the Roof Comes Down
			 by Andrew Simon van Ryan
		   Copyright 2001.  All Rights Reserved

	Andy sat silently rereading the letter the attorney had just read
aloud to him.  His tall, thin body hunched over as his head hung down, eyes
riveted on the single page his Father had written slightly more than
nineteen years ago.  It was the attorney who finally broke Andrews
dumbfounded silence.
	"I know this is a shock, but it's nothing you should become upset
about.  You are your own person.  Your life is unique only to you.  He
lived a completely different life than yours, one I'm sorry to say, in
which fate wasn't very kind on a personal level.  Certainly, he was a
success in business, but his personal life was a tragedy.  He felt he'd
made poor personal choices, you see and those choices caused him great
emotional suffering throughout his entire adult life.  Your Father never
had a lasting relationship with any of his wives.  He wanted you to know
the mistakes he made so that you wouldn't follow in his footsteps, wouldn't
needlessly struggle with your internal desires and conflicts, only to make
those same mistakes in the end.  Now of course, any decisions are yours on
your own and you may decide any way you see fit.  He's not telling you what
to do with your life.  Your father wrote this to serve as an 'Owners
Manual,' if you will, to help guide you through your life.  These are
suggestions, based on his life's experience, which may in fact help with
the choices you will have to make in your life.  However, always remember
that the final choices are yours alone to make and you should follow your
heart accordingly."
	With that said, the trust attorney swiveled his chair to the right,
reached out and grasped a large package.  Tied with string and wrapped in
plain brown paper that crackled as he picked it up.  The paper apparently
had become dry and brittle from the eighteen years it spent in a storage
room.  Turning again to face Andy, he held it out.  Andrew felt numb and
didn't respond, save for his eyes.  They focused on the paper wrapping the
book his father had written for him so long ago.  The book his father wrote
just before he died and before Andrew had been born.
	"Go on, it's yours."  The attorney said, snapping Andrew from his
dazed state.  Andy reached out mechanically and took it from him.  The
weight of it was greater than he expected and he nearly dropped it onto the
desk between them.
	"So, Mr. van Ryan," the attorney spoke "If you have no further
questions, we're done for today!  The secretary will make an appointment
three weeks from now so we can finalize the transfer and sign the
documents.  It's good to have met you!"
	He stood up and offered his hand to Andrew, who glanced nervously
between the attorney and the book wrapped in brown paper lying in his lap.
Grasping the book with one hand he started slowly rising from the leather
chair that held him, reaching out with his other to shake the mans hand.
	"Thanks..."  was all Andy could manage to say before turning and
starting for the office doorway.  His body felt as if suspended by a spring
and he was attempting to walk through cotton candy.  Each movement felt
oddly slow and strained, his mind uncharacteristically blank.  Upon
reaching the door, he turned to gaze at the attorney.  The man seemed to be
expecting this and smiled at him.
	"Don't be worried, Andrew."  He reassured.  "It's as I said.  You
are your own person with your own thoughts and feelings.  Those are unique
unto you and are not copies of his.  You may be physically identical to
your father, but what's inside your head is yours and yours alone."
	Riding down in the elevator, Andy stared blankly at the heavy paper
wrapped around the book he was holding.  Upon reaching the lobby the door
opened, but Andrew didn't notice.  Standing perfectly still he remained
transfixed, staring at the 'Owners Manual' for the body he inhabited.  Andy
was momentarily oblivious to the world that surrounded him.
	"Is this elevator going up?"  A middle-aged woman dressed in a
garish pink wool suit asked, her voice rough from too many cigarettes and
too much alcohol over the years.  Andrews's head snapped upright and his
eyes went wide.  He stared into the woman's eyes like a deer staring into
an approaching car's headlights.
	"Yeah."  He managed to squeak before scurrying past her towards the
buildings exit.  He hurried to the little British racing green sports car
and climbed inside.  Sitting in his car alone, Andy's eyes once again fixed
upon the packaged text.  He swallowed once before tearing away a corner of
the old paper.  The wrapping slowly loosened as he gently tore at it.  He
carefully worked to expose the leather bound book.  After releasing it from
the paper prison that had held it in confinement the last eighteen years,
he lifted the book up for a close inspection.  Finding no title, he
gingerly lifted the cover and opened it up.  His father evidently thought
it very important, going to great expense in printing the book.  Andy
opened to the table of contents, and then quickly skipped over to the
preface.  He focused on it and began to read,
		My Dearest Andrew - When I realized my health was in
decline, I visited my regular Doctor.  He took a few tests and sent me home
with the reassurance it was only my gall bladder acting up.  His
receptionist called before noon the very next morning and said I needed to
come in right away.  I drove to his office, arriving within an hour.  I was
led into an examination room and had blood taken again, the Doctor came in
to give me the news.  I had cancer, most likely pancreatic, which at the
time was still without a cure.  This form of cancer had eluded researchers
attempts at a cure, even though most other forms of cancer were by then a
thing of the past.  I felt once again that I'd been unlucky in life.  I
couldn't help thinking that, had I made better, more informed choices as a
young man, I wouldn't have suffered such deep emotional pain though out my
adult life.  I wished for a way to make my life different, to somehow
receive a second chance and perhaps find a way of becoming young again,
only still knowing what I do now at fifty-eight.  Knowing all of it,
especially starting my very first of day of high school onward, so I
wouldn't make those same mistakes.  It was that very evening on the nightly
news, I saw the report on asexual human reproduction.  I knew I wanted to
do it right then and that is how I became your Father and you became my
son.  I knew I wouldn't get to see you grow up because of the cancer.  I
knew you would not be 'me,' either, yet you are genetically the same
person.  This way, I could at least give my genetic twin a second chance to
enjoy life in ways I never did.  To help you along, because we share the
same genetic traits, I decided to write this as a guide so you can
hopefully accept yourself for what you and I are at an age where it will
mean something.  At a time in life when you have a future, unlike myself,
who is writing this as the clock is running out.  Love yourself Andrew, for
I love you in ways you'll never know.  The trust fund I have left will
enable you to pursue your dreams and desires in life within reason, and not
have to seek employment to support yourself.  You may, of course, choose to
further your education and find employment if you wish.  These choices are
entirely yours.  It is my desire that you lead a fulfilling life, and that
you live without the emotional turmoil I suffered.  May yours be a happy,
love filled life, Andrew.  Enjoy our body, son.  I Love You, Father.
	 Andy leaned back in the car seat and began to cry.  He didn't
really know why, he just did.  Then a thought gripped him with fear.  What
if people found out?
	"Why, Dad?  Why me?"  He whimpered.  "I don't wanna be like this!
Why'd you do it?"
	His tears flowed freely now, as his crying became deep sobs.
	"Everyone's gonna think I'm a freak!  I'm fucked."  He howled.
Andy continued to cry for nearly half an hour.  His eyes became swollen and
red rimmed, his nose ran and his body shook.  His body and his fathers'
body.  The thought ran over and over again in his head.  His and Mine, me
and him, us.  Although he understood what he was, Andy had little knowledge
of what that might mean for him in the long run.  Right now, his only
reaction was one of fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of what Terry might
say about him.
	"Oh, God!  How am I going to tell Terry?"  He wept.  "What will he
say?  He's not gonna want some fuckin' freak hangin around!"
	Eventually, his tears subsided.  He began to wonder if he should go
home, but then Terry would be there and he'd know Andy had been crying.
He'd also ask about the meeting with the attorney, what was said and why.
Andy was afraid to tell him.  What if he thought Andy was a freak?  Andrew
finally decided he had to go home, had to face Terry and he had to tell
him.
	He started the little Triumph sports car he had restored so
lovingly over the last year and a half.  It roared to life and he wheeled
out of the parking structure.  Turning onto the street, he almost began to
cry again, thinking of what he had just learned.
	"Some fucking birthday present."  He sniffled.  "Welcome to
adulthood.  Oh and by the way, you're a motherless freak."
	He drove on mindless of the traffic, too caught up in his fears and
worries.  A thought came to mind.
	"Maybe I should change my name from Andrew van Ryan the Fourth to
Andrew van Ryan the Third, second time around.  Make more sense."  He
huffed.
	Arriving home, he pulled into the garage and pushed the remote.  He
shut off the car and hesitated while the door swung shut behind him with a
loud thump.  He stayed frozen in his thoughts until the door leading into
the house swung open.
	"I thought that was you." Tj said gazing at him with a cheerful
welcome home smile that quickly changed to a frown as he read Andrews face.
	"Andy?  What's wrong?  What is it?"  He questioned.  Andrews face
twisted up in a crying fit.
	"I'm a freak!" He bawled as tears suddenly poured forth.  Terry ran
to the car and pulled the door open.
	"C'mon.  Let's get you inside."
	He helped Andy out of the car, leading him into the house.  They
crossed into the living room where Terry deposited him on the large
cream-colored sofa.  Andrew was sobbing as Tj slipped onto the sofa beside
him.
	"Andy, what happen?  What's wrong?"
	"I'm a freak.  I'm a motherless freak!"  he sobbed.
	"What are you talking about?"
	"Here." He said and pulled the letter from his coat pocket, then
thrust it at Terry.  "Read it."
	Looking puzzled, he took it from Andrew and slowly opened it.  He
read it carefully, pausing when it came to the phrase "conceived by asexual
means."
	"Asexual means?  What's that supposed to mean?"
	"Genetic cloning."  Andy whimpered.  "I'm not really me, I'm my
dad."
	Terry stared for a moment as it sank in.  Andy was a copy, a
genetic carbon copy of his father.  Reproduced entirely from his fathers
DNA with none of his mothers genetic code involved.  Terry realized that
Andy was shaking with fear.  He had to do something to calm Andy and fast.
	"So?  It's not that common, but other people have been cloned."  He
offered.
	"Don't say that!  Don't ever call me that!"  Andy howled.
	"Hey!  Calm down!  What I'm saying is its no big deal.  You are
you, Andy.  The fact is that no matter how you were conceived, you are
still you and no one else.  You are not your father.  You're the same
person you were when you got up this morning.  If no one had told you this,
how would you feel?"
	"I don't know."  He sniffled.  "Normal, I guess."
	"That's 'cause you are normal."
	"You really think that?  You really, really believe it?"
	"Yes, Andy.  Look, I know far more about this process than you do.
I read every book and magazine article in the school library on Human
Biology, remember?"
	"Yeah, I guess so" He replied in a calmer tone of voice.
	"Right, and I know that no matter what, you are an individual.  The
only difference this makes is that you share identical genes with him and
therefore have the same genetic predisposition as him.  Did the attorney
say anything to you about that?"
	"He didn't, but my dad did."
	Terry stared waiting for Andrew to explain, but he remained silent.
	"OK, what did your dad do?  Leave you another letter, a tape or a
video?"
	"A book.  He left me a book.  It's in the car."  He sniffled.
Terry frowned.
	"Is that all?"
	"No.  He left me a bunch of money.  It's in a trust fund."  Andy
said softly.
	"I see."  Terry replied.  "OK, I'm going to go get this book from
your car.  Stay right here, Promise?"  Andy nodded.
	Tj entered the garage and looked in the car.  He found the leather
bound volume lying on the passenger side floor.  He retrieved it and
returned inside the house.  He was nearly to the sofa when he heard Andrew
speaking.
	"I'm a freak." He moaned.
	"Andrew!" Terry shouted.  "Look at me!"
	Andy whirled around in his seat eyes open wide.
	"Was your father a freak?"
	He stared at Tj, seemingly frozen in time.
	"Well, was he?"
	Andy began to slowly shake his head.
	"No."
	"He was a very successful businessman, am I right?"
	Andy nodded this time.
	"So, if he wasn't a freak, you can't be a freak.  You got it?
'Cause if I hear you say it again I'm going to slap the living shit out of
you, understand?"
	Andy stared at him and slowly began to nod his head.
	"Good!" Terry huffed, falling onto the sofa beside him.  Gazing
into his boyfriends' red-rimmed eyes, he realized Andrew was terribly
confused.
	"Come here." He said with a soft sigh.  "Let me kiss you."
	He kissed Andy a long reassuring kiss, then looked into his eyes.
	"Let see what this book is all about then, OK?
	"OK." Andy softly replied.  Tj smiled at him and gave him a hug.
Taking the book from his lap, Terry opened it.
	"I already read the preface." Andy said quietly.
	"OK, then lets start at page one." Terry replied and turned to
where the first chapter began.  In a strong voice, Tj read aloud.
	"We are descended from two very different family lines, you and I "
He began.  "Our Paternal side is directly from European Royalty, the
maternal side from Welsh, with some English Nobility.  Yes, Paternal and
Maternal, our Father and Mother.  You will have known our parents as your
Grandparents.  The process of asexual reproduction has, in effect, made us
identical twins born fifty-nine years apart.  I shall begin by detailing
your genealogy to you."