The incredible story of Mr. Simon

                One cold day of December 2032, Georges Simon, a 32 years old British man was driving in a narrow and dark alley of London, the city where he lived with his wife and their son. Georges was a Biology teachers and really liked his job. In fact, he was very interested in Biology and especially Genetics since his childhood. When he was a child, Georges lived with his parents who never gave him any brother or sister. Thus, he was quite lonely during his childhood and the only hobby that could really prevent him from annoying was reading Sci-Fi stories often dealing with advanced scientific progress in Genetics that was changing  the society. That day, Georges was wearing his usual black suit, elegant and immaculate as always, that highlights his blond-haired, blue-eyed face. Georges' sorrowful appearance was even more noticeable than usual and his tall and thin body fitted nicely his personality. Indeed Georges was a taciturn but very clever person, even so, his suspicious mind was by far the most interesting thing about him. Trusting other persons was so hard for him that one day, he secretly put a small camera on his son's bag to control what she was doing during the day and check if she wasn't doing things she wasn't allowed to. That day, Georges had got a really bad feeling, something that he couldn't explain, he suspected something bad was going to happen.

Georges was going to visit his parents. Lisa Simon was a mother at home. She didn't work and was 54 years old. She had blue eyes and blond hair. She was a sociable and talkative person because she had a good education from her parents. She liked sports and also music. But what she really loved was Chemistry and Genetics. This was the reason  why she loved her husband, Jack Simon, and cared about him. He was a researcher in Genetics  and was pretty crazy. He was 56 years old, tall and smart. He had brown eyes and black hair and he was always wearing glasses. He was a nervous person, meaning he could easily change his mood for about nothing. All of a sudden, he saw the house of his parents and in front of it three police cars. Georges got afraid because he remembered the bad feeling he just had and understood that something happened to his parents.

Georges entered the house, and told the first policeman he saw that this was his parents' house, then he asked if him why the police was here, hopping the answer would relieve him. Unfortunately,  replied : “I am sorry, your father has just been murdered”. A very painful feeling passed through Georges whole body and two small tears appeared in each on his eyes. The police didn't let Georges understand clearly what happened and quickly asked him to follow them to the police station because they had to interrogate him. At the police station, Georges was asked many questions and the police took his DNA to compare it to the murderer one that was found on crime scene. Few time later, they got the results : both DNA perfectly matched ! Georges got very surprised of that and did not understand at all how his DNA could have been found on the crime scene. Indeed, he knew he wasn't the murderer. Pending other evidences, the police put him in custody. Georges started to think about all what happened in order to clarify the situation in his mind. Finally, he quickly remembered something very disturbing his mother told him about two years ago...

According to her, Jack, the father, decided to conduct an experiment that would help him in his research about Genetics : he attempted to create a second son who would the perfect clone of Georges, when the little boy was only 3 years old. In spite of Lisa Simon disagreement, he complete his experiment but the result wasn't as perfect as he expected. Indeed, Georges' clone, whose name became Robert, had two lightly green eyes instead of Georges' blue ones. Moreover, his nose was quite different from his brothers'. The father concluded the experiment was a failure and decided to put Robert up for adoption because he was only a bad copy of Georges. Lisa Simon who felt very concerned with Robert's life decided to secretly to keep in touch with him. Thus Robert Landonovan grew up with a strong detestation of this father that had abandoned him, and he was also jealous of his brother was supposed to be a perfect genetic mold for Robert.

Georges understood that Robert was probably the one who had killed his father and had put genetic evidences to accuse Georges of the murder, taking advantage of the DNA he shared with his brother to accomplish his revenge. But he didn't give up and decided to look for evidences that could prove to the police that Robert had killed Jack Simon. He decided to call his mother on phone and ask her to tell the whole story about Robert to the police. Besides, he also phoned his friend Marie and asked her to seduce the inspector in charge of the investigation so he would accept to consider Robert as a suspect and investigate on his case, especially carrying out DNA tests to confirm the story of the mother and to involve seriously Robert in the murder. Subsequently, the police found other evidences in the apartment that proved definitely Robert's culpability, but also the fact that Georges was in Manchester just before he went to his parents' house so he couldn't have committed the murder. After these findings, the police launched a wanted notice against the murderer and, after a chase, Robert died because of an accident with a truck. The truth finally broke and Georges was cleared and released.

Today, Georges still lives with his wife, his mother and his son in London. The father and Robert were buried but this extraordinary murder case stays in everybody's mind forever.

By Mehdi Cherradi, Abdellah Goultine (1ère 02 S) et Younes Matrougi, Anas Neba (1ère 01 S)

REFLECTION

REFLECTION

Have you ever wondered who is behind your mirror?

Narrator:

Everything is dark around Mathew. Something is moving in the shadow. He approaches, inevitably attracted. Now he can see it…it's him, him in a     mirror, always the same mirror. His reflection looks amazingly strong, powerful. Suddenly the one in the mirror bursts out laughing and reaches out towards Mathew. At this very moment, Mathew realizes how weak, fragile he is. He screams and…wakes up in his bed, feverish and sweaty.

Mathew:
Always the same dream since the accident when I lost my memory ten years ago. I don't have any memory of my childhood anymore. The frightening way I woke up almost made me forget the life I'm leading, an animal life, forced to hide all day long and to make my way in the shadow.

Narrator:
Let me explain you everything. He has to bear the entire world's injustice like a burden. Two years ago, he was unfairly accused of the murder of James Connor, a doctor. One day he was working, he received a call from his mother; she was yelling and crying:

Mother:

Run away! The police is looking for you! You are accused of the murder of a doctor, I know you are dazed and scared, but now just go, I will answer all your questions later.

Mathew:
Since that very moment, I'm on the run, thinking all the time about what could have caused my situation. Still don't know why…I’ve been unable to join my mum for two years to get to know the truth. And now at last after all this time she calls me and I will understand…

Mother:
My son, it's you? Oh! You cannot imagine how I missed you! Where are you? How are you doing? What will you do? 

Mathew:
Mum, you have to answer my questions first of all! I need to understand what is happening to me.

Mother:

 I will tell you everything you want to know but trust me, I had no choice, we were poor and he was the unique solution to save our family…

Mathew:
He? Who is he? Who are you talking about?

Mother:
Your brother…he is the real murderer…and he is…you.

Mathew:
What? Me! What do you mean? Is it a joke?

Mother:

He is not you, he is the PERECT you. Your clone, your half, the other part of you, he is behind the mirror.

 Narrator:

 The mirror which has appeared every night in his dreams for 10 years. The mirror…!

Matthew:
Tell me everything.

Mother:
You were one year old, you were weak and sick and we were poor. There was no hope for us to fight against misery with a son like you. We needed him, trust me. He was supposed to be your perfect side. You without any defect or weakness, the only one that could rise our family up…your clone. You were really close, the two parts of one soul, even if he was considered like a robot. But one day…he was just gone.

Mathew:
You lied to me. I don't have any memory of my childhood because of this accident which stole a part of my life.

Mother:
I didn't tell you anything because I thought it would be your chance to start a new life, to offer a better future to our family. But when I heard about this murder, I knew it couldn't be you, I knew it was him.

Mathew:
What can I do?

Mother:
You have to find him to prove your innocence. Don't trust anyone. 

Narrator:
He focused on his brother's life, trying to solve this question without answers, to find the reason why his clone had committed this murder. It became more the research of his past than the research of his innocence, a research of the truth. Every second, he was trying to catch a part of his past, in order to have a clue about his brother. But one night every piece of the puzzle took its right place in his mind: At the beginning, it was almost the same dream. But when he arrived in front of the mirror, there wasn't his brother, he saw two children playing together…perfectly similar. The children climbed up a tree, and entered a little hut. Suddenly he felt something beside him: his brother, now he could remember his name: Mike.

Mathew:

The last piece of the puzzle.  I remember now: it was our hiding, where we used to spend all our free time without anything that could disturb us.
I have to go there. The police is tracking me, I don’t have much time left. But I am sure now that this is where I spent the main part of my childhood. I don’t know why, but I am sure that if I go there, I will find him.

Narrator:

And there he was.

Mike:
I was waiting for you, you're late, as usual. I knew you would come. This is the only place where I ever felt like a normal child, a human.

Mathew:
I wanted to know…

Mike:
…The truth? Don't blame me, just try to understand me before…You were the only one who considered me as a human being. For the others, for the parents, I was just a machine made up to be perfectly perfect. I was not allowed to any defect, any mistake. It was too much pressure for me…
I totally flipped out. Everyone has a dark side and for me, they tried to deny it. At last, it exploded, all the darkness that had been kept into me for years and years took over my willing, and that’s why they are here.

Mathew:

They?

Narrator:
At the same moment, they heard the police cars around them. Mike walked toward the door.

Mike:

I've never wanted to hurt you. I was just waiting for you and now, I will assume the consequences of my acts.

Narrator:
He was already forgiven for Mathew. He didn’t only find out the truth, he also recovered a part of him.

                              Sarah BENJELLOUN TOUIMI, Ana ISABELLA & Chayanne LAGDIR

WANTED

« Amanda Clark, twenty-eight years old, American Citizen and famous writer, died of an overdose on January 11th 2012 in her house in South Kensington, London. »

Six months ago:

-Fluffy, I'm leaving, I'll be back soon!

On that day, Amanda Clark met Todd Bowser. He was charming, she was beautiful. He was a surgeon, she was a famous writer. She felt in love with him, he just wanted to take advantage of her. Three months later, they were living together, they were engaged then married. One day, in the bathroom he stole a hair from her brush and took some saliva from her tooth brush. Then, he put these samples in small plastic bag while the cat was watching. At this exact moment, in the living room, Amanda Clark had an idea for her latest novel. She instantly started to write the beginning of her new story. Then she read it out loud to her husband. He loved it. So did the cat.

Three months later, her new novel “WANTED” was published. The résumé was short but not that easy to understand: « They came ». All around the world, people were waiting outside bookstores for the book’s release at midnight. The event was even more spectacular than the release of the last chapter of Harry Potter or Twilight. TV channels like BBC, CNN and many others were asking the same question: « Who came? ». Amanda Clark was watching the count-down on her gigantic plasma TV with her cat. 10, 9, 8. Somebody has been kidnapped. 7, 6. People were knocking violently on the bookstores’ doors. 5, 4. Someone in the crowd heard a gunshot. 3, 2, 1. Bookstores were opening their doors.

The next morning, all of London's streets were silent. The city turned into the first giant library ever. Everybody was reading WANTED. Everybody, except Todd. He was too busy trying to manufacture a clone of Amanda with her DNA stolen in their bathroom. Todd was very intelligent and curious. He always loved genetics and he dream about being the first man to clone a human being. That's why he married Amanda:  she matched all of his criteria. She was tall, young, fit, generous, talented and very intelligent.

Few days after the book’s release, police came to Amanda Clark's house and accused her of murder. A man called Jack Braverman was killed the night before and they found her DNA on the crime scene. They arrested her. Chocked and puzzled, she was thinking about what happened to her, lying on her jail's bed.

A couple of hours later, she escaped thanks to her cat Fluffy who fooled the guard and brought her the keys. Then, in the middle of the night, she ran away to Paris. Relieved, she had a good night sleep in a Ritz hotel room.

The following morning:

-Officier Olivier, un meurtre a été commis au 11 Boulevard Flandrin.

Charles Carmichael was shot in the head the night before, near midnight. On the crime scene, Officer Olivier found a long hair in the corpse's hand. After the DNA research results, Amanda Clark was WANTED.

At the same time, in her luxurious hotel room, the woman was crying and asking herself why Todd didn't look for her or show up.

In London the situation was more complicated. The police found in Victoria Station's database her train ticket to Paris. Immediately, English police called French Police to tell them that Amanda Clark was on their territory. Then English police was advertised that she had already committed a murder in Paris.

Todd wasn't answering to any of her many phone calls. So, assuming the consequences of her acts, she got back home. Once in her flat, she found it empty. It took her more than five seconds to realize that Todd was gone. She started to cry and to scream. She went to the bathroom and took every pill she could see. She walked slowly to her bedroom; she lied on her bed and decided to let herself go to an endless sleep.

But one week later, another person was killed. Rome, Berlin, Luxembourg, Vienna and in every European capital, a murder happened. The weirdness in this whole story is that murders were all perpetrated the same day at midnight. Police of each country found Amanda Clark’s DNA on the crime scenes. 

By :

Yassine ABDENNADHER, Alya ANNABI, Théo ARNONE, Maryam ALAOUI SOLAIMANI