Woman on the Edge of Time Chapter 14 Summary

  • Back to the future again; Jackrabbit's gone on defense.
  • Lots of chattering about this and that and the future. Connie says it's hard for her to see Luciente as a scientist because the scientists she knows experiment on people and are awful.
  • Her sister, Inez, went to get an abortion, but the doctor wanted to experiment on her, and lied to her about what he was doing, so Inez had the baby.
  • Luciente explains that in the future they use computers to test drugs. Also, sometimes people will volunteer.
  • Luciente explains that in the future everyone votes on the direction of scientific research.
  • She also says they decided not to prolong life because they can't overpopulate, and everyone wants a chance to have children.
  • Back to the past, where Connie lies in her bed and thinks about how ugly the world is.
  • Cheery, yes? But more fun is to come, as the doctors take Connie away to have her brain electroded and poked and messed with. Ick.
  • The doctors joke and talk about how stupid she is when she's on the table. Because they are awful.
  • Anyway, they finally finish with her, and she is sullen and withdrawn while she heals.
  • Skip is getting ready to go home. They're going to take the electrodes out of Alice and do something else to her brain. She's depressed now.
  • Skip finally gets to leave.
  • He says they burned something out in him.
  • And as soon as he's out, he kills himself by cutting his throat with an electric knife.
  • Sybil says she heard that Skip's dad was upset, as you'd think he would be.
  • Connie thinks that the doctors cured Skip of indecision; they fixed him so he could actually kill himself, rather than just attempting, as he had done before.