The Mother

The Mother, also known as Chrissie, is Josie’s parent and a central force in the family’s efforts to protect and prepare her. She first appears as a watchful presence, but her guarded attention gradually gives way to tenderness: she welcomes Klara into Josie’s life, treats Rick as a valued neighbor, and tries to make educational opportunity available to him. Her care is shadowed by Sal’s death and by the unequal futures opening before the two young people she loves.

Identity and First Impressions

The Mother enters the story in high-rank office clothes, arriving with another woman in a taxi while Josie talks to Klara through the store window. She watches Josie even as she exchanges cheek kisses with her companion; when the companion leaves, she turns her piercing stare toward Klara. The brief scrutiny establishes a mother alert to her daughter’s choices and to the unfamiliar artificial friend Josie has been seeking.

When Josie later introduces Klara as the friend she has been looking for, The Mother approaches slowly and studies her with narrowed eyes. Josie is beaming, and the Manager stands behind her with a cautious expression. The Mother’s appraisal revives Klara’s fear that she may not be accepted, although Josie immediately asks to buy her before someone else can. The Mother’s first response is practical: she notes that Klara is not a B3. The exchange presents her neither as simply hostile nor instantly persuaded; she weighs a consequential decision while her daughter’s enthusiasm is unmistakable.

Care for Josie and Klara

The Mother makes room for Klara within Josie’s social life. When Josie says that the children expected at an interaction meeting are not her friends and insists that Rick should attend, The Mother agrees. She then describes Rick to the adults at the gathering as their good friend and neighbor, greeting him warmly and ushering him toward the other guests. Her welcome is generous, though Klara notices an unusual caution in the adults’ voices as they greet him.

As Josie grows stronger, The Mother tells Klara that Josie wants her to join the family’s Sunday trip to Morgan’s Falls. She adds that Josie has become very fond of Klara and says that she herself has as well. The statement gives the relationship a new reciprocity: Klara is not merely the companion Josie selected, but someone The Mother has also come to value.

At the waterfall, Josie is absent because she is unwell, and The Mother admits that she misses her. She asks Klara to be Josie for a little while, recalling that Klara had done so once before, on the day the family brought her from the store. The request turns their earlier encounter into a private pattern of emotional reliance. It also places a difficult burden on Klara: The Mother seeks the comfort of Josie’s presence through an imitation, rather than simply describing what she misses.

Sal’s Death and Maternal Grief

The Mother’s care is shaped by the loss of Sal. At a gathering, after another woman says that Josie will one day be grateful for what The Mother went through, The Mother asks whether Sal would want to thank her. The question punctures the conversation’s reassuring tone. The woman, Pam, breaks down, apologizes, and says the situation seems unfair because of the nice boy; The Mother responds by holding her in a light hug as she cries against her shoulder.

The moment reveals grief that cannot be neatly converted into praise for sacrifice. The Mother does not claim that what happened was worthwhile or that Sal’s loss can be compensated by Josie’s gratitude. Instead, her question exposes the moral uncertainty beneath the other woman’s attempt to console her. Her physical comfort of Pam follows without resolving that uncertainty: she receives the apology and offers tenderness, even while the loss remains present between them.

Rick’s Education and the Future

The Mother also works to widen Rick’s prospects. She explains that the plan had been for him to receive tutoring from screen professors, as other clever children did, but that this became complicated. Although Rick was never lifted, Atlas Brookings still accepts a small number of unlifted students and is described as the only proper college that continues to do so. Places are few and competition is severe, but she believes Rick is clever and could have a good chance if he applied himself and received expert guidance.

That guidance is difficult to obtain. The Mother says that the available screen tutors either belong to TWE, which forbids its members to tutor unlifted students, or demand fees the family cannot afford. When the family hears that Klara has arrived next door, The Mother sees a possible solution and calls her idea marvelous. Rick interrupts her, insisting that they will not go further with it. Her initiative therefore carries both practical hope and a risk of crossing a boundary Rick wants to keep; the evidence shows her proposal and his objection, but not that she forces the plan forward.

Later, The Mother recognizes Rick’s technical ability when he presents his work with drones. She tells him that, lifted or not, genuine ability ought to be noticed, unless the world has become entirely crazy. Rick credits her husband with encouraging him and laying foundations for his work; the Father downplays his contribution, but The Mother’s support is clear in the exchange. She does not treat Rick’s unlifted status as proof that he lacks promise.

Different Futures and Narrative Significance

The Mother’s hopes for Rick and Josie coexist with the painful recognition that their futures are diverging. Klara observes that the two young people still show kindness to each other while preparing for very different lives. The Father connects that anxiety to an earlier conversation with Klara about whether his love for Josie was genuine, recalling that he had called it real and everlasting. The Mother’s concern belongs to this wider family effort to understand what enduring affection can mean when the children’s paths no longer converge.

Across these moments, The Mother’s authority is inseparable from vulnerability. She scrutinizes Klara before accepting her, then grows fond of her; she offers Rick a route toward education while he resists her intervention; and she comforts another bereaved woman while openly invoking Sal. Her role is not to erase the social barriers or losses surrounding her family, but to meet them through acts of attention, advocacy, and care. In doing so, she links Josie’s intimate household to the larger divisions between lifted and unlifted children, and makes the emotional cost of those divisions visible within ordinary family life.