Listen and read-along with this fun story by, Tina Tang.

Rachel wanted friends who were just like her.

Wouldn’t it be great?

They would like the same games, so she would always have someone to play with. They would wear the same clothes, so everyone would like the way Rachel looked. They would like the same jokes, so someone would always laugh when she told them again and again.

So, Rachel built a big machine with a red button on the front. When she pushed the button, a copy of Rachel walked out.

“Hello,” Rachel said.

“Hello,” Rachel-copy said.

“Let’s play a game,” Rachel said.

“This is my favorite game,” Rachel-copy said.

This was so fun, Rachel pushed the button again.

And again.

And again.

Soon the room was full of Rachel-copies.

But it started to not be so fun anymore.

There were too many Rachel-copies trying to play the game, so Rachel couldn’t play anymore. When she wanted to wear her favorite clothes, all the other Rachel-copies had already taken them. All the Rachel-copies told each other her favorite jokes. After a hundred times of hearing them, the jokes weren’t very funny anymore.

And they liked pushing the red button too, so more and more Rachel-copies kept coming out. 

Mommy came to tuck Rachel into bed. She stopped in surprise at the crowd of Rachels filling the entire bedroom.

“Which one is the real Rachel?” she gasped.

“I am the real Rachel,” Rachel said.

“I am the real Rachel,” all the other Rachel-copies said.

Mommy was so confused.

What if Mommy picked the wrong Rachel? What if Mommy tucked the wrong Rachel in bed?

Rachel started to cry. All the other Rachel-copies were also crying.

Rachel cried even more.

Mommy walked through all the Rachel-copies and picked Rachel up.

Rachel hugged Mommy. “How did you know it was me and not one of the Rachel-copies?”

“I would know you anywhere,” Mommy said. She looked at all the Rachel-copies. “What should we do with all these other Rachel-copies?”

I don’t want them here anymore,” Rachel said. “I don’t want friends who are exactly the same as me. I want friends who will play different games and wear different clothes and tell different jokes. I want to be the only Rachel. I want to send all the Rachel-copies back to where they came from.”

 “You’re right,” Mommy said. “We can use your machine to send them back to their own homes in the right universes. So they can be real-Rachels there and not Rachel-copies here.”

So Mommy and Rachel took the tools and fixed the machine together. It now had a green button on the front.

One by one, the Rachel-copies said goodbye and stepped into the machine. Rachel would press the green button and then, with a flash of light, the Rachel-copy disappeared.

Soon it was just Rachel and Mommy.

Rachel yawned as Mommy tucked her into bed. “Tomorrow, can we go out and make all sorts of different friends?”

Mommy smiled, “Sounds like a great idea.”

THE END

About the Author

When not out exploring the world, Tina Tang lives in Southern California with her family, including one human-daughter and two fur-children. Her work has appeared in Creating Iris, Brevity Magazine, and as a finalist in Nuff Said’s Speculative Writing Contest to Promote Diversity (SWCPD). Find out more at http://www.christinatangbernas.com. Follow Tina on Twitter at; https://twitter.com/ctbideas or @ctbideas.