Summary
Chapter 16
That night at dinner, Luke can barely pay attention to his family. His head is swimming over his experiences with Jen, and they have set up a signal using porchlights that she can use to show him that it's safe to come over. She is surprised to learn that Luke has never used a computer - his parents have one, but his mother heard that the Government can use it to track people, and so his parents have never let him use it.
Luke also learns about Jen's life story. Her parents actually had her on purpose: Jen's mother had two sons from her first marriage, and but she wanted a daughter, so she and her husband paid a doctor to ensure that they had a female child. Jen also explains to Luke that he's the first person she's ever met who isn't a Baron, but that this will help her with the rally. She immediately backs away from this statement when Luke asks more.
She mentions that her father (who is technically her stepfather) is a governmental lawyer, and Luke is shocked to learn that a member of the Government is hiding a third child. Jen says that she Government leaders break all the laws, even more than average people.
On his way out, Luke notices that he bled a bit when he punched through the screen into the house. He immediately panics because someone will notice the blood and realize he snuck in, but Jen says that she'll just tell them it was her. She punches through the screen and cuts her hand in a similar way. Luke is even more shocked by the loyalty she shows him by doing this, even though they have just met.
Chapter 17
It is a few days before Luke gets to see Jen again, and he worries about her. When he finally does get the chance to see her, she explains that she went shopping with her mother in the meantime. Luke is shocked that Jen can actually move about in public, but Jen explains that her mother has obtained a shopping pass for her and hides her in a secret compartment in her car until they're reached a distant shopping area. Jen explains that shopping is extremely important to her mother.
Jen also mentions that she checked on her computer to see if Luke officially existed in any databases, and he did not. She did this by dusting for his fingerprints and submitting them to a Government database, but the fingerprints didn't turn up any matches. Luke is a little frightened that she did this, but he doesn't bring up his concerns.
This has made Jen decide that he is trustworthy, so she says that she can show him her secret chatrooms. She also offers him chips and soda, junk food that is technically illegal, but obtainable by Barons. She also mentions that some Shadow Children go hungry because their families do not have rations to spare for a hidden third child. Jen is surprised to hear that Luke's family is able to eat meat because of their status as farmers, since meat is a rare commodity that utilizes a lot of resources, and the Government has pushed the populace to become vegetarian to conserve resources. Luke says that his family just lets the grain rot in their fields since they can't feed it to their hogs anymore, a piece of information that Jen shares with on a Department of Agriculture bulletin board.
Jen tells Luke that the Population Law is all about food. The Government is afraid that they would run out of food if the population kept growing, so they passed laws to keep the population at replacement levels. Jen's father says that there is plenty of food, but it isn't distributed correctly. If they could fix this imbalance, perhaps the Government would repeal the Population Law.
Jen tells Luke about her plan for the rally: she is going to gather as many Shadow Children as she can and have them stage a protest on the President's lawn, refusing to leave until they have all the rights that other children have. Jen says that Luke can come too, but he is more afraid than excited.
Chapter 18
Luke is less than enthusiastic about Jen’s plan. He barely has the courage to dash across his backyard to visit her house, so he can’t even imagine appearing in public in front of a politician’s house. Jen admits that she’s a little scared too, but tells him that it will all be worth it – the Shadow Children will be able to live normal lives! Luke also watches as Jen joins an internet chatroom and talks to some of her other friends who are secret third children. The children – Carlos, Sean, and Yolanda - complain about mundane things, such as the heat and their inability to turn on the air conditioner. They tease Jen about her tendency to sleep late, and she teases them back about their spelling.
Luke is amazed that people can send lines of text to each other across the internet. Jen tells them that he’s here, which frightens Luke, but Jen reassures him that no members of the Government can get into the chatroom because they use a password. Luke says that maybe Jen’s parents can bribe the Population Police, but his can’t. Jen says that not even her parents could fend off the Population Police, who receive a reward for every illegal child that they find. It is for this reason that even Jen, with all her privilege, continues to hide. Luke asks Jen what the password for the chatroom is, and she tells him that it is “free.”
Chapter 19
Jen sends Luke home with some reading material about the Population Problem. One of the books is entitled The Population Disaster, and it is difficult and dense. For the next few days, Luke spends all of his time reading The Population Disaster. His father stops by his room and asks if he’d like to play cards. Luke plays halfheartedly, asking if his father has anything else to do. His father replies that it’s November and all of the crops are in. Luke suggests that he grow things in the basement using special lights and lots of water – a technique called hydroponics. Luke’s father leaves, seemingly feeling thoughtful about his suggestion.
Luke learned about hydroponics from his book, and he also learns that about twenty years ago, massive famines and droughts caused widespread starvation and death across the world, the Government began rationing food and took control of the food production processes. They also passed laws limited the population, so that there would be fewer people to feed. At dinner, Luke feels guilty that people somewhere are starving so that he gets to eat. When Luke reads the other two reading materials - computer printouts with titles like “The Problem of the Shadows” and “The Population Law: Our Country’s Biggest Mistake” – he begins to feel better. These sources emphasize the suffering of Shadow Children like Luke and suggest that the Population Law was unnecessary because the true cause of the famine was an incorrect distribution of food. Luke talks to Jen about these conflicting claims, asking her which are true. She replies that since the Government paid for The Population Disaster to be published, the writers are going to say what they think the Government wants them to say, even if it’s not true. But because the authors of the printed sources put their ideas forward only at great risk, they are probably correct. Jen explains that she gave him these sources so that he’d see how stupid the Government was, but Luke still feels uneasy.
Chapter 20
Luke is still able to visit Jen even in the winter. Normally, this would have been prevented by the fact that his father hung around the house after harvest, but his father had been going to the library to read books about hydroponics lately. After Luke tells her about this, Jen wonders if the Government will let Luke’s father do such a thing. Jen and her chatroom friends talk about getting fake IDs. The other Shadow Children are excited about the prospect, but Jen says that this is just another way of hiding – she won’t be satisfied until she is able to carry about an ID with her real name on it, because she shouldn’t have to hide. The other Shadow Children seem uneasy about her hard stance. Jen explains that many Shadow Children take on a new identity so that they can leave their homes and live normal lives, but this means that they need to hide who they truly are forever. This is why Jen wants to convince the other Shadow Children to join her rally. Luke tries to calm her by explaining that some people just react to things in different ways, but Jen just grumbles that she needs to get everyone on board for the rally in April.
Analysis
In this section, the theme of social status emerges. Jen comes from a Baron family, which means that her parents have a great deal more money and social power than Luke's do. This is clear in numerous small details, such as the luxurious housing and food present in Jen's house, as well as in their conversations. At one point, Jen says "I didn't think they paid for you" (pg. 71), which makes Luke feel less important and awkward. However, despite the many luxuries that the Baron's superior status affords them, Luke's family is able to access meat, which is usually unobtainable due to Government policies favoring vegetarianism.
After he appears in her house, Jen submits Luke's fingerprints to a Government database. This is extremely risky and dangerous, as it would theoretically give the Government information on a person whose fingerprints should theoretically not exist. It would make sense for this to be a major plot point in future chapters, but strangely it is never raised again.
In these chapters, the reader begins to know Jen, who is an Eve-like figure offering hidden knowledge and freedom at the expense of defying authority figures. Jen introduces Luke to a number of new things: junk food, the internet, friendship, and questioning authority, to name just a few. This makes her an Eve-like figure, a female who imparts forbidden and problematic knowledge that will force Luke out of his limited but comfortable circumstances. Jen is also determined to stage a rally that would force the Government to acknowledge the reality of Shadow Children, but would also put the Shadow Children themselves in great danger. Jen is a revolutionary determined to oppose the corrupt Government.
Jen forces Luke to take a new perspective on the Government. She insists that the Government is inept and bumbling, as evidenced by the fact that they have not noticed her existence. This is in contrast to Luke's parents, who have always told him that the Government is so far-reaching that it can even listen in on conversations through a computer. Luke is left trying to figure out who is correct - his new friend or his beloved parents. Eager to educate Luke, Jen gives him reading materials on the Population Law and food distribution, some written by the Government and some written by resistance forces, which are wildly contradictory and also leave him wondering who might be correct.
