Fibonacci's Child - Plot Summary (Part One)
Adopted twins Karen and Elizabeth Kauffman are happy despite being dumped by their birth mother in favour of Paris. The twins have a horrific argument after Elizabeth sleeps with Karen's partner, George.
Following Elizabeth's death in World Trade Centre attack, Dr Karen Kaufmann uses her company's facilities to recreate her deceased twin. Karen believes her and Elizabeth are natural clones. As they originated from the same egg, she can recreate her sister using her own cells. Her greatest fear is the embryo may divide, creating two clones. The doctor takes experimental drugs to prevent this.
NB: The story is told in 3rd person up until the World Trade Centre attack. From that point on the story is told by the dead twin (Liz) – Liz retains some telepathic ability with her sister and clones.
After a systems audit, Dr Kaufmann fleas to Chicago. Resettled, her six year-old clone in tow, she's reunited with her college sweetheart, George Planter. One night the child (Elizabeth) wakes, crying, claiming she's wet the bed. George removes her wet nightclothes and brings her to bed with him and her mother. In the morning Karen rushes off late for work, leaving her child and lover asleep in bed. A car-pool mother arrives to collect the child and calls the police. George allegedly commits suicide whilst in police custody, he dies labelled child molester. Karen's persecuted by doubts as to what really happened. The child is fostered into a unsavoury environment run by the evil, unscrupulous Norman & Thelma Morrison.
As a teenager Elizabeth II (Reggie) falls pregnant, despite her and Norman Morrison protesting their innocence, Thelma's convinced of foul play. She arranges an illegal adoption. Global Adoptions provide the children with Polish paperwork, they are subsequently sold to American Families. Reggie gives birth to perfect Caucasian twin girls. Mrs Morrison is delighted to receive $50,000 for each.
The deceased original Elizabeth is experiencing increasing feelings of well being and decides she's a ghost, but cannot work out why she's hanging around.
Reggie runs away to the city, where she meets Anton, a young African-American. The relationship develops rapidly. immediately she falls pregnant. She gives birth to twins, white girls. Anton throws her out for her alleged infidelity. Reggie leaves the children (Jessica & Joanna) and returns to the Morrisons. A year later she gives birth to another pair of perfect girls. After a fight with Thelma, Reggie suffers brain damage. Mrs Morrison exploits Reggie, keeping her imprisoned and sedated whilst charging men to have sex with her, Reggie conceives regulary. Global Adoptions are now paying $100,000 each for the babies. The Morrisons believe Reggie is a godsent cash-cow, an over fertile woman, guaranteed to produce two offspring regularly. The babies are being shipped worldwide.
Old and riddled with cancer (and guilt), the now wealthy Mr Morrison wants to make peace with his maker. Ubeknown to his domineering wife, he substitutes Elizabeth's sedatives. Elizabeth becomes aware of her environment, her life plays through her mind. From George's death, (which she now understands her part in,) to the present. She sets fire to the house and occupants. All lives are lost, including her own.
END OF PART ONE
Fibonacci's Child - Plot Summary (Part Two)
Anton Morgan's adopted daughters Joanna and Jessica have their lives turned into turmoil. Aged 14, Jessica's raped, murdered, and the body burned. During the autopsy several anomalies are discovered. Joanna undergoes extensive tests. Doctors conclude she has both male and female organs, it's not that unusual and despite her having inactive male genitalia, she's a healthy girl.
A year later, Joanna's pregnant. During the ensuing argument Joanna denies having any sexual activity. The family elect to have a termination. When Joanna immediately falls pregnant again, she is taken to specialists where it is discovered Joanna is an active hermaphrodite. If left to her own devices she will self-fertilise every 12-15 months. A hysterectomy appears to be the only solution.
The original Elizabeth begins to suspect she's not dead. And she's supposed to accomplish something.
Ten years later, Joanna becomes haunted by her dead twin, seeing Jessica everywhere. From the bus she sees her sister pushing twins in a push-chair, two blocks later she sees her sister again with the push-chair. Joanna finds the girl she believes to be her sister. During an in-depth conversation, she hears a familiar tale of twins. Internet research leads Joanna to find many tales of 'twins of immaculate conception'. Research leads her to the small town where the Morrisons lived, she learns of the 30 to 40 'girl twins' Elizabeth popped out. More research leads her to the an aged Dr Kauffman.
Karen explains to Joanna that she's an Elizabeth, they're all Elizabeths, clones, self-replicating in pairs. Joanna's hysterectomy is not a solution, they all need to be found. Kauffman calls Joanna a dormant virus, implying her or any one of her siblings could restart the process. In a grandmother granddaughter bonding moment, Karen tells Joanna of the mystery surrounding her great love George. Joanna reveals, pouring water in the bed to facilitate getting in bed with mummy and daddy was a trick she played herself, she thought all kids did it.
'Elizabeths' are systematically tracked down. After a generation, medication is discovered to eliminate the threat. Eventually, the world witnesses the birth of a single boy from a naturally fertilised 'Elizabeth' mother. Nobody knows, this boy, and all subsequent boys in the line carry a new gene. They will father more 'Elizabeths'.The self-replicating hermaphrodites will return, only now, they won't all look identical.
Joanna believes she's been insulted when she translates a comment at a gyro stand, as 'Your face could a ship.' Elizabeth's Greek is better than Joanna's. She translates the line correctly as 'the face that launched 1000 ships'. All the clones are the all the image of Elizabeth's mother, Helen of Troy, daughter of Zeus. Paris was not the city, it was the person.
Elizabeth is the goddess Androgenes, events to date have been no accident. She is here to repopulate the planet with the third species. It was her error to use the body of a twin. Man's interference using science compounds Androgenes error, causing the third species to become dominant. Eventually man and woman become extinct
Some years into the future, a teacher is talking to her class of children (all twins, all girls). The children represent every race and continent. They are sitting in an Eden like garden setting. The teacher reads from a book, The prophecy of Aristophanes. In the beginning we all had four arms and four legs, and were happy. People's happiness had angered the gods, Zeus in particular. Zeus split us apart into separate creatures, man and woman. Ten thousand years later, Androgenes returned to undo her grandfather's evil. Androgenes rejoined man and woman into one being but the other sexes all died out. The children are told to research 'The Legend of the living boy,' over the holidays.
Job done, Androgenes returns to Mount Olympus. On the mountain in her own environment, her body clock will start again. To her horror, she discovers she conceived when she slept with George, and she will give birth to the only human boy. Not wanting his great grandson to live his life a lonely freak, Zeus has one real, tried and tested option - To split all the hermaphrodites apart