"I don’t believe it," whispered Paula as she looked first at Ness and then at the boy standing to the left of him. "Jeff really did it! He cloned Ness! That crazy invention of his really works!"
Poo rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, sure that he was imagining things. "How can this be?" he wondered aloud. "It’s too weird to be real!"
No one was more surprised than Jeff that the Twinning Ray actually worked. "I’ve done it!" he cried with delight, running across Ness’s yard to examine the clone he had just created. "I’ve cloned a person! Dr. Andonuts, er, my dad, will be so impressed!" Paula and Poo hurried over to join their two, make that three, friends.
Jeff, Paula, and Poo couldn’t believe their eyes. They looked at Ness and compared him to the clone. The two were absolutely identical! They had the same brown hair and eyes, the same friendly smile, and even wore their matching red baseball caps the same way!
"Hey Jeff, this is great!" exclaimed Ness as he examined his new twin. "I can’t believe it actually worked!"
"Who are you?" asked the clone suddenly, pointing at them in confusion.
"Oh, I’m Ness. You were cloned from me, so we look exactly alike!" Ness exclaimed happily. "And these are my friends. This is Paula," he said, pushing her forward. "She’s from Twoson, and she’s got awesome psychic powers!"
Paula nervously reached out to shake hands with the clone, and he complied, even though Paula was sure he didn’t know what a handshake was. "Nice to meet you," she said to him, her voice wavering at the thought of talking to a Ness clone.
"Nice to meet you," the clone repeated, obviously lacking conversational skills.
"And this is Poo," continued Ness, gesturing to his friend. "The crown prince of Dalaam."
"Nice to meet you," said the clone, grabbing Poo’s hand anxiously and giving it a shake.
"Uh, yeah, you too." Poo backed off from the clone quickly, and Ness shot him a dirty look.
Before Ness could introduce him to Jeff, the clone exclaimed, "Nice to meet you!" and reached for Jeff’s hand.
"Yeah, my name is Jeff. I’m a scientist. I’m the one who gave you life!" Jeff explained, holding up the Twinning Ray so the clone could see it. " I cloned you from my friend here." He pointed to Ness.
"Wow, this is so cool!" cried Ness excitedly. "What are we gonna call him? We can’t just refer to him as ‘The Clone,’ you know. He needs a name."
"Hmmm. You’re right," Jeff agreed. "Well, what do you think would make a good name for him?"
They paused a moment to think. "How about Aziz?" Poo suggested.
Paula rolled her eyes. "You’ve got to be kidding! What kind of a name is Aziz?" she cried, making a face.
"I have a cousin named Aziz," said Poo defensively. "It’s not a weird name. Besides, it’s not like you can think of something better."
"Oh, yes I can," said Paula. She eyed the clone for a few seconds, then said, "How about Roger or Raymond? Maybe Alexander?"
"No, no, no! You’re both wrong!" protested Jeff. "He is a miracle of science! How about Albert, after Einstein, or Isaac, after Newton?"
"David! David’s a good name," continued Paula. "Or Robert? How about Robert?"
"Hey!" Ness suddenly yelled. Poo, Paula, and Jeff stopped talking all at once and looked at their friend. "He’s my clone, so shouldn’t I get to name him?"
The other three exchanged glances for a second and decided that this was fair. "Okay, Ness," said Paula. "You can pick out his name."
Ness smiled. "Thanks," he said. "Now let me see...Richard? Thomas? Daniel? No, those don’t seem right. Hmmm..." The clone looked nervously at Ness, wondering if he would ever come to a decision. "Wait! I’ve got it! How about Michael? We could call him Mike! What do you guys think?"
Paula, Poo, and Jeff nodded their heads in agreement. "Mike sounds like a good name," said Paula.
"Mike it is, then!" Ness put his hand on the clone’s shoulder. "Hey, from now on, your name is Mike. You got that?"
Mike nodded. "My name is Mike. I like it!"
"Great! Now, what do you wanna do first?" Ness asked him.
"Ummm...I don’t know. What do you guys do for fun?"
"Oh no, not this again!" said Poo, recalling the discussion they’d had while trying to find things to do.
"It’s okay. I have an idea!" Ness said. "Let’s go to Summers! We haven’t been there for a while!"
"Great idea, Ness," Paula agreed. "Let’s teleport!" Mike looked a little confused, but he stayed close to the others and within seconds it became clear that they weren’t in Onett anymore. Instead of Ness’s yard, they suddenly found themselves on a long, beautiful beach. It was very crowded. Sunbathers were everywhere, and children were playing in the surf. A couple of kids were building a sand castle. The water was a brilliant shade of blue, and the golden sun shined brightly overhead.
Ness turned to his new friend. "Mike," he said, "welcome to Summers."
Mike’s eyes were opened wide as he took the place in fully. "Wow, this is like paradise!"
Paula grinned. "Yeah, it sure is. Summers is a full-time resort town. It never snows here. It’s always sunny!"
"Hey!" Poo suddenly exclaimed. "We better hurry if we wanna find a good place to set up our umbrellas and beach blankets!"
"What umbrellas and beach blankets?" said Jeff. "We forgot to bring our stuff!"
"Oh great," said Paula. "Now what are we gonna do? I need my sunscreen! I burn very easily!"
"I can get you some sunscreen, Miss." They were startled by a man who had suddenly appeared behind them with a small pushcart. "And umbrellas and beach blankets too!"
"You’re selling beach supplies?" Paula said.
"You are wrong to doubt me, Miss," the man said, shaking his head. "I have everything you need to enjoy your day at the beach...for a price, that is."
"Sure. So how much is this gonna cost us?" asked Jeff, dreading the answer.
"I bet it’s expensive," Poo added. Summers was infamous for its high prices.
"Well," said the man, "it’s 25 bucks for the sunscreen, 35 for the umbrellas, and 45 for the beach blankets. Each."
"Are you crazy?" exclaimed Ness. "Those prices are insane!"
The man appeared insulted. "Well then," he said, turning his pushcart around, "you can just do without your beach supplies. Have a nice day!"
When the man was out of earshot, Paula said, "Man! What a grouch that guy was!"
"Was he for real? Those prices were sky high!" Jeff cried. "No one would buy stuff from that guy!"
Suddenly, Paula noticed Ness looking around frantically. "Ness? What’s wrong?"
A look of panic spread across Ness’s face. "Did any of you guys see where Mike went? I don’t see him anywhere!" he blurted out anxiously.
"He was with us when we started talking to that guy," Poo said, trying hard to remember the last time he had seen Mike.
"He must have wandered off while we were obsessing over the high prices!" Jeff exclaimed.
"Maybe we should split up and go looking for him," suggested Paula.
"Good idea, Paula," Ness agreed. The foursome broke up in search of Mike. They met in the same spot about half an hour later.
"He wasn’t in the shop, and no one at the restaurant has seen him," Jeff reported.
"He wasn’t at the hospital or the hotel," Paula said. "I even phoned the Stoic Club! No luck."
"I searched all around the docks in Toto," said Poo. "No one has seen Mike anywhere!"
"And I searched the entire beach. Nothing." Ness sighed, feeling pretty depressed. He just couldn’t believe it. Mike had disappeared.