The Savage (John) is in the sixty-story tower called the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying to visit his mother Linda. The nurse is embarrassed and startled to hear the word "mother." She takes him to see Linda. Linda is watching television, and she hardly even recognizes him, so far gone is she on her soma-holiday. He remembers sentimentally how she sang him lullabies and taught him how to read and told him stories of The Other Place.
A large group of Bokanovskivfied twins passes by and he is horrified. He hears them, the low-caste workers, and several children, there at the hospital for their Death Conditioning, talking badly about his mother. John has a violent reaction. He looks at Linda and feels waves of shame for abandoning her. Suddenly, Linda wakes, mistakes The Savage (John) for her lover at The Savage Reservation (AKA Malpais), Popé, finally recognizes him, and, remembering the reality of her situation, dies. The Savage (John) is beside himself with grief and shoves a twin to the floor in his rush to escape the building.
