immortal | wimon sainimnuan

165 present and past cabinets. There were also dozens of clones of opposition politicians. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

‘Do they know there are clones of them here?’

The professor laughed. ‘What do you think? Actually, not everybody does. In some cases, we took the cells and grew them without their owners knowing. We intend to make them presents, when the time comes.’

‘I can’t believe this,’ Orrachun exclaimed.

The professor laughed heartily. ‘You don’t believe it! If you saw the other floors that are even more special than this, you’d be shocked to death.’

Orrachun turned and stared at him, unable to speak.

‘The world they oppose is the outside world. It’s the world of others. So they play up for all they’ve got, in the name of ideals. What do they do that for? For them to have meaning in this world, to be somebody, not nobodies as in their inner world. When they have meaning in this world, they wish to live on and on. And the result is what you see. Their clones are here. I sympathize with them for having to live in a world of such contradictions, but this is the real world to us.’

This explanation made a lot of sense, but Orrachun was unable to say anything any more. He felt forlorn, as if he was alone in a deserted world. Maybe it was a good thing he’d leave this world soon. It wasn’t that he was fed up, indignant, angry or resentful, but it was because this wasn’t a place where man should stay. This world IMMORTAL | WIMON SAINIMNUAN