Beggars in Spain

Sanctuary continues to breed more children like Miri—known as “Supersleepers” or “Supers”—including Tony, Miri's younger brother and closest friend. As the Supers grow into toddlers and adolescents, the uncontrollable twitching persists, as does stuttering and drooling. Like other Sleepless children, the Supers are a joyous bunch: “They all liked everything, because everything was so interesting” (246). Rather than think in strictly linear terms, the Supers' thought processes are made up of complex, interconnected “strings” that they visualize in their minds. Meanwhile, Miri begins to experiment on neurotransmitters in the hope that she can cure the Supers' uncontrollable twitching and stuttering.

Against all odds, a mother on sanctuary gives birth to a Sleeper baby, the result of “RNA regression to the mean” (257). Fearful that such an irregular birth record will attract greater scrutiny from the U.S. government, the council decides to euthanize the baby by a vote of eight to six. Jennifer in particular is driven by a desire to protect their community, not just from bureaucratic intervention but from the baby itself, calling him “a person who could never produce on the level of the rest of them, who would forever take more than he gave. A beggar” (257).

Over time, Jennifer becomes more paranoid about a potential attack from the U.S. military. Without the knowledge of most of the rest of the council, she begins to test sophisticated germ warfare weapons on mice.

On April 15, Tax Day, Sanctuary celebrates Remembrance Day. In a speech, Jennifer rails against what she considers to be the unfair taxation of Sanctuary, stating that a large percentage of their production goes to Livers.

During the speech, Miri sees her friend Joan—a Sleepless non-Super or

“Norm”—sobbing. Joan tells her that the Sanctuary council voted to abort her unborn baby brother after pre-natal genetic analysis showed the boy would be born a Sleeper. Confused and devastated by the council's decision, Miri hides in her lab for two days. When Jennifer finds her, she explains that a Sleeper child would always feel like an outsider in their community. Miri nods, and Jennifer says she is finally mature enough to watch newsgrids from Earth.

In the years since Drew's accident, he has flunked out of one school after another. By the time he is a young adult, Drew has returned to a Liver lifestyle. One night, he and four friends throw a Molotov cocktail at a Y-energy fence. They are arrested, and Eric comes to bail him out. Rather than deliver him home to Leisha, Eric blindfolds Drew and drives him across the border to Mexico, where Drew is forced to undergo an experimental and illegal neurological procedure designed to curb impulses and increase tranquility. Eric assures Drew, “This is not an electronic lobotomy” (284). In fact, Eric sincerely believes he's doing Drew a favor. He says, “I owed him...a last chance to be human” (288).

By the time Leisha tracks Eric and Drew down to Mexico, the procedure is underway, and interrupting it could cause permanent brain damage. When Drew wakes up from the procedure, he sees and thinks of the world in “shapes” rather than words. When Leisha asks him if he feels ok, “he smiled, because the question was so impossible to answer” (291). He tells Leisha she is beautiful before cryptically adding that he needs “a Staunton-Carey programmable hologram projector” (293) immediately.

Now 13 years old, Miri regularly watches newsgrids from Earth to figure out why Livers and Donkeys find them so interesting. Meanwhile, her neurotransmitter experiments have yielded little of value. Feeling dejected, she goes to see Tony but finds him having sex with Christina Demetrios, another Super. Mortified and jealous, Miri propositions two other Sanctuary teens for sex, both of whom reject her. From that point forward, she begins watching pornography newsgrids, masturbating twice a day.

Back on Earth, Drew invites Leisha to bear witness to the half-a-million dollar project he's been working on over the past seven months since the procedure in Mexico. He calls it, “A new art form” (302). It consists of him reading poetry while random shapes produced by holograms swirl around him. At first, Leisha finds it unbearably pretentious, but before long, Leisha sees an image of her father in the shapes. Suddenly, Leisha is a child again, “running through a forest filled with sunshine, green and golden slanting bars of light pouring through the trees” (304). Drew's invention is a form of hypnotism that induces lucid dream states, even in Sleepless like Leisha. For Leisha, it is a profound experience but also a disturbing one, “something that could swallow the tiny careful light of her reason” (305).

In his triumph, Drew kisses Leisha, but Leisha draws away quickly. She tells him, “I'm seventy-eight years old and you're twenty. I know it doesn't look that way to you, but to my mind—my mind, Drew—you're a child. And you always will be to me” (306). Leisha retires to her room. When she tries to find Drew later in the evening, she learns that he packed his things and left the compound.

At the age of 16, Miri joins the Sanctuary council, as is her birthright as a Sharifi. The first debate she participates in is over whether to euthanize Tabitha Selenski, who now has limited brain function after suffering an electrocution accident. “She will need constant care,” Jennifer says, “including such basic tasks as diaper changes, feeding, restraint. Moreover, she will never again be a productive member of the community” (309). After a five-hour argument, the council votes nine to six to have Tabitha euthanized. Miri, along with her father Ricky, vote with the minority. According to rumors, Tabitha administered the lethal injection herself, which would have meant she was far more able than Jennifer made her out to be.