Beggars in Spain: The Original Hugo & Nebula Winning Novella by Nancy Kress
Author:Nancy Kress
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Microsoft
Published: 2011-10-06T00:00:00+00:00
SIX
Sleepless Mutie Begs for Reversal of Gene Tampering,â screamed the headline in the Food Mart. ââPlease Let Me Sleep Like Real People!â Child Pleads.â
Leisha typed in her credit number and pressed the news kiosk for a printout, although ordinarily she ignored the electronic tabloids. The headline went on circling the kiosk. A Food Mart employee stopped stacking boxes on shelves and watched her. Bruce, Leishaâs bodyguard, watched the employee.
She was twenty-two, in her final year at Harvard Law, editor of the Law Review, clearly first in her graduating class. The closest three contenders were Jonathan Cocchiara, Len Carter, and Martha Wentz. All Sleepless.
In her apartment she skimmed the printout. Then she accessed the Groupnet run from Austin. The files had more news stories about the child, with comments from other Sleepless, but before she could call them up Kevin Baker came online himself, on voice.
âLeisha. Iâm glad you called. I was going to call you.â
âWhatâs the situation with this Stella Bevington, Kev? Has anybody checked it out?â
âRandy Davies. Heâs from Chicago but I donât think youâve met him; heâs still in high school. Heâs in Park Ridge, Stellaâs in Skokie. Her parents wouldnât talk to himâthey were pretty abusive, in factâbut he got to see Stella face-to-face anyway. It doesnât look like an abuse case, just the usual stupidity: parents wanted a genius child, scrimped and saved, and now they canât handle that she is one. They scream at her to sleep, get emotionally abusive when she contradicts them, but so far no violence.â
âIs the emotional abuse actionable?â
âI donât think we want to move on it yet. Two of us will keep in close touch with Stellaâshe does have a modem, and she hasnât told her parents about the netâand Randy will drive out weekly.â
Leisha bit her lip. âA tabloid shitpiece said sheâs seven years old.â
âYes.â
âMaybe she shouldnât be left there. Iâm an Illinois resident, I can file an abuse grievance from here if Candyâs got too much in her briefcase....â Seven years old.
âNo. Let it sit a while. Stella will probably be all right. You know that.â
She did. Nearly all of the Sleepless stayed all right, no matter how much opposition came from the stupid segment of society. And it was only the stupid segment, Leisha argued, a small if vocal minority. Most people could, and would, adjust to the growing presence of the Sleepless, when it became clear that that presence included not only growing power but growing benefits to the country as a whole.
Kevin Baker, now twenty-six, had made a fortune in microchips so revolutionary that Artificial Intelligence, once a debated dream, was yearly closer to reality. Carolyn Rizzolo had won the Pulitzer Prize in drama for her play Morning Light. She was twenty-four. Jeremy Robinson had done significant work in superconductivity applications while still a graduate student at Stanford. William Thaine, Law Review editor when Leisha first came to Harvard, was now in private practice. He had never lost a case. He was twenty-six, and the cases were becoming important.
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