Sablan serves as one of this city's two full-time doctors and its only mayor. She practices a brand of medicinal politics that lets her knit together this community's private and public moments. Moments that catch people at their most vulnerable, frustrated, appreciative, petty, confused. Times when they're most human. Sablan feels her own toes tingle with excitement, but then fear knots her stomach.
Triplets can lead to medical complications.
Happily, mom and babies do just fine. Sablan sits through a City Council hearing where an irate and dramatic citizen says she'll seek relief from a proposed water rate increase by relieving herself in a jar at home. That way she won't have to flush her toilet. Questionable logic, Sablan thinks, but she doesn't argue. Sometimes, people in politics just need to listen, she says later.