Chapters - 22 & 23.

Chapter – 22.

Gradually the landscape changes. The road becomes narrower, untended by the road crews. It gets increasingly difficult for Jonas to maintain his balance on such wobbly and bumpy roads. Once Jonas’ bike hits a rock and Jonas falls, badly bruising his knees in the process. While the bike overturns, Jonas instinctively reaches for Gabriel, trying to keep him from any harm.

Jonas then starts riding in the morning, with all fear of the searchers, who seem to have disappeared into thin air, gone. Now he is faced with new fears of the unknown perils. He realizes that the safety and survival of Gabriel depends entirely on him, his strength.

They encounter more streams now from which they drink water. They also see their first waterfall, wildlife (i.e. birds, deer and a reddish-brown creature). All this is new to him and he stops his bike time and again to look at wildflowers, or the way the wind rustles in the trees. He has never experienced such exquisite happiness in his life before.

Now the most nagging fear gnawing at his stomach is the fear of starvation. In order to satiate his hunger, Jonas tries to fish from a stream. He catches two silvery fish after many tries with a makeshift net. He hacks them into pieces and feeds on the raw flesh. He even tries catching a bird!

At night, as Gabriel sleeps, Jonas keeps awake, trying to recollect the memories, the memories of the roasted meats at banquets, birthday parties with frosted cakes, fresh fruits picked from sun-baked trees). But then when the memories are gone, he is left with a growing sense of hunger. Now he thinks about how each dwelling in their community is provided with food. When he had the chance, he made the wrong choice and now he has to starve. But staying back would not have helped as he would have lived a life devoid of feelings, colour and love. Besides, Gabe would have had no life at all! Then Jonas notices for the first time in reality what he always yearned to see – hills. They also get wet in the rain, so different from what he had seen in the memories.

Gabriel now starts crying due to hunger, cold and weakness. So does Jonas for similar reasons. But he suffers for one more reason – his inability to protect and save Gabriel.

Chapter – 23.

Jonas, despite all the discomforts, is now sure of the existence of Elsewhere, which cannot be far away. All his hopes of getting there are fast diminishing with the snow piling fast all around him.

The ever alert and curious Gabriel puts his head against his chest, feeble and shivering. Jonas takes off his vest and holding him (Gabriel) close to him, he envelops the dirty, torn blanket around them. A steep hill is ahead, which will be difficult to climb even under normal circumstances, but now the mounting snow has made the ride almost impossible. When the bicycle cannot move any further, he gets off and the bike falls sideways. He has an overwhelming desire to lie down beside it too, in the softness of the snow and the warmth of the oblivion of sleep.

Yet he moves on as he is a fighter, with the fear of the memories leaving him. He tries to transmit the memory of sunshine (warmth) to Gabe, the only person left to love, bringing temporary relief to both of them.

Jonas begins the upward climb. The warm memory is gone and they feel cold again. Fortunately, Jonas is back to being alert ; the transitory memory has restored his will to survive. He stumbles, unable to get up, he grasps at a wisp of memory of warmth and begins climbing and moving forward.

The top of the hill seems so far away, but he trudges on. As he approaches the summit, despite the physical hardships and all, he feels happy recalling the happy times (parents, Lily, Asher, Fiona and the giver). He arrives at the crest of the hill and can feel the ground becoming level.

Excited, he calls out, “I remember this place, Gab.” It is not a thin recollection but a different kind of memory, something for keeps, something of his own. Through the blinding storm, bitter-cold wind, he rubs Gabriel to keep him alive. He is confident of warmth and light ahead.

Jonas finally finds the sled, hugging Gabe tightly, he settles on it, least afraid of any likely pain this time in the real situation. His heart is filled with new hope. He wills himself to protecting Gabe and against losing consciousness. The runners speed through the snow with the wind whipping at his face, to the final destination, Elsewhere, beckoning to the promise of the future and holding the past at the same time.

He then finds the lights through the windows of the rooms – red, blue and yellow lights on the trees in houses where families celebrate Love and keep memories. He can hear music and people singing, positively waiting for them. Behind him, from the place he has left behind, there comes music too. But it is just the echo.

The End

Chapter - 21.

Chapter – 21.

The whole day the more Jonas thinks about the plan, the more assured he is of the success of the plan. But that evening at his dwelling something happens that makes the plan fall apart and he runs away.

During the evening meal, Father informs about the decision they took in the afternoon regarding the future of Gabriel, who made life hell for the night workers at the Nurturing Center, when in Jonas’ absence, he was sent there. Gabriel is to be released. Jonas acts normal, despite this shocking disclosure, and cleverly learns from his father that the release is to take place next morning as the people at the Center have to get ready for the Naming Ceremony in December.

Jonas leaves right after dusk with the community quite still. He cycles past the Central Plaza on his way to the river stealthily. He has no fear or regrets, but only sadness at the thought of leaving behind his best friend. He knows it in his bones that with his ability to hear beyond, the Giver can hear the final good- bye.

Jonas on reaching the other side of the bridge, stops to look back at the place of his childhood. A place where everything is orderly and where nothing unusual ever happens. He hurries on thinking about the rules he has already broken and the punishment awaiting him if he gets caught. Firstly, he has come out of the dwelling at night. Secondly, he has stolen the left-over food kept at the doorsteps for collection. Finally, he has stolen though reluctantly, his father’s bicycle with the attached child-seat, for he has also taken Gabriel!

Jonas gave Gab a very soothing memory of a swinging hammock under palm trees on an island with the sound of languid water lapping against the beach. Gab slept soundly after Jonas had taken him from the crib and strapped him into the attached seat.

He knows that he has the remaining hours of the night before people of his community become aware of his escape. He has to rely on his own courage. He stills himself not to tire as the distance between the communities grows. His legs start aching and become numb. At the break of dawn, he finds himself at a strange place with trees dotting the fields here and there on either side of the road. As Gab stirs, Jonas unstraps him and feeds them both with the food and with water from the stream across the bumpy meadow. Then in order to restrengthen his weary limbs, in a place hidden in the trees, he goes to sleep after cuddling Gab tightly and letting him fall asleep with the memory of exhaustion. The fugitives sleep through their first dangerous night together.

Their flight becomes rountined in the course of the next few days: sleep in the day and the endless ride at night. But what frightens them the most are the searching planes. Sometime they fly so low overhead that looking through the trees and underbushes, Jonas can see the face of the pilot. In order to avoid getting caught by the heat detection devices of those planes due to their body warmth and heat, like he has learnt from his science and technology studies, Jonas transmits the memory of snow to Gab. Both of them will shiver after the planes are gone and go back to sleep.

Jonas wishes that he had received the memories of courage and strength from the Giver before fleeing. Gab will sometime during the night warn him about an approaching plane when they come unannounced. At such times Jonas will rush to the nearest trees and make themselves cold with the memories. As the signs of human habitation lessen, Jonas will be constantly on the watch, readying themselves for any oncoming plane. But the frequency of the planes becomes few and far between until the day when there is not even a single plane.

To be continued .....

Chapter - 20.

Chapter – 20.

Jonas is so devastated that he does not want to get back home. He is exasperated at the utter lack of feelings in their community. The Giver then informs his family through the Speaker that he will stay with him that night for additional training.

Jonas is particularly angry with his father for lying to him. He asks the Giver if he lies to him as well. The Giver tries to comfort Jonas by telling him that people do what they do in their community due to their ignorance and as per the instructions. He goes on to tell Jonas then that after the meal, they will sit together and make a plan.

Jonas is not impressed as he feels that there is nothing they can do to change. The Giver tells him there was a time long back when people did have emotions like pride, love, sorrow and pain. He also tells Jonas that the worst part of keeping the memories is the feeling of loneliness one gets without sharing them with anyone. Memories, he tells Jonas, need to be shared and having Jonas in his room in the last one year or so has helped the Giver to figure out a way to change things in their community.

The Giver and Jonas spend the rest of the night hatching the plan in great detail. If it fails, Jonas will be killed (but to Jonas, it matters little). He requests the Giver to accompany him in his escapade. The Giver has to stay back for if both of them are gone; the people in their community will suffer from the protection of the memories. When Rosemary, who was trained for only five weeks and had mostly pleasurable memories, was lost, the memories came back to torture the people of the community and they panicked. Even Jonas had a tough time at the start of his training. So the Giver will have to stay back to help the people cope with the loss of Jonas.

Jonas wonders if they will find a new Receiver, once he is gone. But that will take years as there is only one girl aged six, Katharine, with the qualities of a Receiver. He asks the Giver to come along with him without bothering about the rest of the community people. But then Jonas feels guilty as he realizes that it is important for the Giver to stay back. The Giver informs him that now Jonas has the colors and courage, he will give him strength through music, due to his ability of hearing-beyond, something he has kept hidden from everyone else secretly..

Back in his dwelling, Jonas lies to his parents like they do to him. At school, he goes over the plan in his mind. For the next two weeks, the Giver will give him memories of strength and courage to prepare him for his journey to Elsewhere. The night before the December Ceremony, he will slip away, in defiance of an important rule for the citizens not to leave their dwellings at night.  Making sure to avoid getting caught by anyone including the Food Collectors and the Path-Maintenance Crews, he will go to the riverbank and leave his bicycle and clothing in bushes. Then he will proceed to the Giver’s annex for the last time.

Next morning the Giver will ask for a vehicle and a driver. On their arrival, he will send the driver on an errand and help Jonas hide in the dickey (storage area) of the car along with some food. Next, they will be on their way to the bridge. It is nothing unusual, considering the fact that the Giver’s responsibility includes meeting the elders of the other communities.

Jonas’s parents, in the meantime, will be irritated with the note he has left on bed. They will still wait for him with increasing anger and finally leave for the Ceremony without him. They cannot share anything about Jonas with anyone in the hall as it will reflect badly on their parenting. But as the day progresses, people will be concerned and eventually Searchers will be sent out.

The Giver will be back by then. Finding the people in confusion and chaos, he  will go to the auditorium and inform them that Jonas has been lost in the river. He himself will then preside over the Ceremony of Loss, chanting Jonas’ name loudly at first, and then doing it slower and slower till the memory of Jonas is removed from their minds.

That night (the night they made the plan) at the annex, the Giver finally informed Jonas of his intention of changing the people and making them whole once again. Once his job was done, he would like to reunite with his daughter. To Jonas’ utter surprise, the Giver then informed him (Jonas) that his daughter was none other than Rosemary.

To be continued …….