Luke has never been more ashamed of his family’s poverty, but he still wants to see Jen again. She explains that as a Baron, she has to hide like Luke, but her parents can bribe people to keep her safer. The Government is inept, and all of what Mother and Dad believe about the Government being able to watch and identify shadow children through televisions, computers, and phones is just propaganda.
Luke is terrified the Population Police will get him, but to his surprise, Jen says he’s safe. She introduces herself as Jen.īefore talking too much to Luke, Jen calls Jen’s dad and tells him to disable the alarm system. She tackles him, but she’s thrilled to realize Luke is a “ shadow child,” like her. He has to break the neighbor’s screen door, but he enters into a lavish home and finds a girl typing on a computer. Soon after, Luke decides to sneak over to the neighbor’s house and meet the other third child. When Luke looks out the vents that afternoon, he’s shocked: he sees a child’s face in a window of the nearest house. Dad, though, discovers Luke midday and insists it’s too dangerous for Luke to leave his attic room. One day, when Mother and Dad forget to raise the shades in the kitchen, Luke decides to bake and do some housekeeping as a nice surprise for Mother. He watches the construction on the houses and watches wealthy Baron families move in. With Mother working outside the house, Luke is home alone all day. Over the next few weeks, things get progressively worse for Luke’s family: the Government forces Dad to sell all his pigs, the tax bill that’s three times the usual amount arrives, and Mother gets a job at a chicken factory. Watching out the vents becomes the best part of Luke’s day, especially since Dad decides that it’s too dangerous to allow Luke to eat meals at the table with the rest of the family (someone might see his shadow through the window shade and get suspicious).
From one he can watch Government workers tear down the woods. Over the next few weeks, Luke discovers that he can see out the roof vents at either end of the attic. Instead, he’s confined to his windowless attic bedroom to play with toys that suddenly seem juvenile and read the same books over and over again. But with the woods coming down so the Government can build houses, Luke can’t go outside anymore. Though Luke has never gone to school or met people aside from Mother, Dad, and his brothers Matthew and Mark, he’s been able to play and work outside on Dad’s farm a little bit, sheltered from sight by the woods. Luke is the third child in his family, and per the Population Law, his existence is illegal-families can only have two children. On the day that his dad sells his woods, 12-year-old Luke’s life changes.
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