“Yes, Thomas, I understand,” she replied patiently, “I put half of it in your glass so that each of us would be seventeen years younger. I don’t really need to be twenty-two again. Thirty-nine was a good age for me, I don’t mine sharing my youth with you Thomas.”

 

“Momma, you don’t understand!”, Thomas said in exasperation, “Half the medication won’t make us half as young! It will make us thirty-nine years younger for half as long! You’ll still be twenty two, only now you’ll be twenty-two for ten years, not twenty. Do you realize what you’ve done? The plasmid is tailored to each individual’s mitochondria DNA. Because you’re my mother, I carry your DNA in my mitochondria!