The woman explains and Thomas agrees , but Sarah doesn ’ t hear . She has knelt again at the pansy and her hand cups the whole flower now . She listens to the faint , faint whisper of a heartbeat , and to Sarah it sounds as if this child is crying .
Sarah had sisters in the earth . Seedlings grown from the same set of DNA . Like a mass market batch of identical twins , sets and sets of them . How many sisters had slept beside her , never to wake ? Sarah feels them even now , connected deep in her own root system . They are still buried somewhere beneath the earth , nourishing the next set of children . Is that a kind of motherhood , she wonders ? Spending their lives , their bodies so that others could grow ? Her own body is not capable of such sacrifice . Reproductive organs had long ago been written out of human DNA . She has no ova to flower . No womb to swell and stretch with its precious cargo . Only an entrance for pleasure ’ s sake . What was the use when lab-grown eggs and sperm work just as well — better even ?
The harder challenge was writing the instinct out of the DNA . Sarah could feel it still in the code of her body . The overwhelming desire to care for something . She cares for Thomas , loves him even . Though it is difficult to love someone who is not capable of loving in return . ( This particular flaw was not outlined in Thomas ’ card . It was not predestined , but learned as a consequence of his own superiority , his materialism . An unfortunate side-effect which may have been prevented if his parents had raised him without indulging his other flaws .) But Sarah needs something to nurture , to mother . And this sleeping child so desperately needs a mother . Needs Sarah ; No one else would dare take a chance on a faulty baby .
Thomas and the woman are still talking . Thomas has picked out a musically inclined , superior intelligence and physicality , sweet pea baby . He intends to sign the necessary paperwork , and pay the harvest fees , but couldn ’ t the overall price be discounted ? He ’ s willing to pay cash . They are caught up in percentages and hidden costs . Neither of them notices when Sarah begins to dig .