SleepFree Inc.

Showing Jane the secret laboratory only wets her appetite for more. Whatever John does in his free time, Jane wants to know...and she wants to be included.

You can only date someone so long before they will question what is behind the locked door in your two bedroom apartment. Jane is not afraid to challenge John and push him to reveal his secrets in this latest episode. And John must come clean with his parents on the existence of a new girlfriend. His efforts to find the Cumulus drug are wearing him out as he trials various nightmare-inspired drug concoctions, but his efforts will pay off. Project Cumulus advances!

Most of THE SLEEPERS is from John's perspective. He may be a sleeper, caught in the system of giving away 7 hours a day to another, but he is not the norm. He does not exactly represent the typical sleeper. Jane's students provide a real insight into true sleepers. Their parents survive by selling sleep. Their families have weathered downturns, pandemics, and crises, finding peace in steady sleep jobs. In Chapter 32, Jane is confronted with the reality of the American Dream vs. the ideal. Will she break like the sleeper class? Or will this drive her passion and bring her closer to John.

After not dating anyone since Samantha, John meets Jane, a teacher of sleeper children. It is the night of the annual company gala. Something about her attitude to life will tempt him beyond his commitment to finding the Cumulus Drug. I enjoyed picturing how someone as well off as John, but still a recluse by choice given his clandestine research, would date anyone. Kind of like imagining Obi Wan Kenobi inviting a woman to his desert habitation. These interactions will be fantastic and unique.

This is the start of Part 4, titled Jane. We've had parts about Karl, Lucius and Samantha, Ray, and now you meet Jane. For potentially obvious reasons, I particularly like this character! Jane is a school teacher for sleeper children. She provides an important perspective and balance to the sometimes skewed reality of Ray and John. She's passionate about the value of life and inspiring sleepers to stretch beyond the sleeper expectation. And for those liking a break from my voices, Jane is read by Jane Greaves.

As a chemical engineer, I spent a lot of time in school thinking about what are conserved quantities. We have an entire class called "Mass and Energy Balances", where you rely on conservation of mass and energy to solve problems (some may find this very boring, I know). A friend and I used to consider what else in life might be conserved, meaning its quantity is finite. When I got to writing a chapter about a turning point in John's life, I remembered our line of thinking and decided, "What if Luck is a conserved quantity? What if Ray & John are in some cosmic play where only one can succeed? Perhaps if one fails miserably, it will open the door for the other, and vice-versa." And thus was born this chapter. Plus, I loved thinking about how Ray, someone with 23.5 hours a day awake, would handle adversity.

Big surprise for this episode. Hope you enjoy the change for a week. This episode is from the perspective of Ray and Senator Lucy Esperanza. We really see the role of the Senate Sleep Committee (SSC) in preserving Pax SleepFree. Politicians would not dare upset a powerful voter bloc like the sleeper class. FYI I had a whole series of chapters dedicated to Senator Blair but I cut those out for this podcast. I plan on sharing some as deleted chapters after finishing the main story.

With John and Ray now employed by SleepFree Inc, Chapter 25 explores the scientific pursuits of this sleeper-client pair. Chapter 26 is a look back at John's childhood when he trials attending an all-sleeper school, realizing just what it's like to be a real sleeper. In my graduate research, I set up many experiments and learned mostly by doing. I like to imagine what John must be like to build his own lab in a back room, complete with rats for testing Project Cumulus. Takes a very dedicated individual for such a crusade. Would you go to such lengths?

In these chapters, Ray and John transition from university life to work at SleepFree Inc. I love the imagery of a person with an umbrella in the rain and tried to tie that parable together in this story about rain. How do you react to the rain? My kids want to run and jump on the trampoline as soon as a storm starts. They face the world with glee. Perhaps we all need some more time smiling in our storms.

This is one of my truly focused political science chapters. The book used to be filled with these sidebars, but I removed most to improve pace. However, this chapter is so important, I could not pull it out. I hope you enjoy the metaphor and can learn something about our world as you ponder what happens in the world of sleep.