Buy The Silent Hustler
by Sean Meriwether
[Lethe Press, 10.2009]

Originally published in Excess Compasion [06.2004] and VelvetMafia.com [11.2004]. "Rumford's Fluid" was selected for the StorySouth's Million Writers Award for top online short stories of 2004.

Rumford's Fluid

Once the clone attained an adult form, Dr. Rumford, nearly blind with impatience and desire, arranged for a month-long sabbatical. He brought the boy to the house he barely inhabited himself and canceled the weekly maid service so as not to be interrupted. The doctor spent the first few days satisfying every physical urge and whim his body had, but he found the boy to be uninterested in reciprocating. Within a week the doctor began leaving the boy at home to have quick trysts with the local men who populated the gay bars downtown. Their aged and imperfect bodies were incapable of quenching the vicious need that burned in the pit of his stomach and he would return unsated to his creation and marvel at his developing beauty.

The doctor attempted communication with the man-sized infant, but the boy could not understand anything other than the most basic words and exaggerated gestures. The Blake-clone usually ignored his overt attempts at establishing a bond and sighed dramatically around his baby bottle. To make matters worse, the boy began to masturbate to the exclusion of all other activities. The doctor was forced to bind his hands, but the punishment was rescinded after the boy cried continuously for two days. Dr. Rumford moved the clone into the guest bedroom, but continued to monitor his development and occasionally sat for hours watching the boy fumble with his erection.

Finish "Rumford's Fluid" in The Silent Hustler