Messenger by Lois Lowry Page A

now.”
    â€œThere are only three weeks left, Matty. After the border closes it will be too late. She won’t be allowed to come. You must bring her here before that happens.
    â€œIf you don’t, Matty, I will never see her again.”
    â€œIt always seems strange to me when you say ‘see.’”
    The blind man smiled. “I see in my heart, Matty.”
    Matty nodded. “I know you do. I’ll bring her to you. I’ll leave here tomorrow.”
    Together they rose. Evening was coming. Matty opened the door and Frolic leaped into his arms.

Eleven
    "Tuck it inside your shirt, Matty, so it won’t get rumpled. You have a long journey ahead.”
    Matty took the packet of folded messages in the thick envelope, and placed it where Leader indicated, inside his shirt next to his chest. He didn’t say so to Leader, but he thought that later, when he gathered his traveling things, he would probably find a different place for the envelope. He would put it with his food supplies and blanket. It was true that here, inside his shirt, was the safest and cleanest place. But he had planned to carry Frolic there, against his chest.
    There was not time, in three weeks, to make journeys to all the other places and communities. Some of them were many days away, and a few places could be reached only by riverboat. Matty was not qualified to go by river; the man called Boater was always the one who took messages and trading goods by that route.
    But it had been decided that the message would be posted on every path throughout Forest, so that any new ones coming would see it and turn back. Matty was the only one who knew all the paths, who was not afraid to enter Forest and travel in that dangerous place. He would post the messages there. And he would go on to his own old place as well. There had been ongoing communication between that place and Village for years; now they must be told of the new ruling.
    Leader was standing now at the window, as he so often did, looking down at Village and the people below. Matty waited. He was in a hurry to be off, to begin his long journey, but he had a feeling there was something that Leader wanted to tell him, something still unsaid.
    Finally Leader turned to Matty, standing beside him. “He’s told you that I see beyond, hasn’t he?”
    â€œYes. He says you have a special gift. His daughter does, too.”
    â€œHis daughter. That would be the girl called Kira, the one who helped you leave your old place. He never talks about her.”
    â€œIt makes him too sad. But he thinks about her all the time.”
    â€œAnd you say she has a gift, too?”
    â€œYes. But hers is different. Each gift is different, Seer said.”
    Do you know about mine?
Matty thought. But he did not need to ask.
    As if he had read Matty’s mind, Leader told him, “I know of yours.”
    Matty shuddered. The gift still frightened him so. “I kept it secret,” he said apologetically. “I haven’t even told Seer. I didn’t want to be secretive. But I’m still trying to understand it. I try to put it out of my mind. I try to forget that it’s there inside me. But then it just appears. I can feel it coming. I don’t know how to stop it.”
    â€œDon’t try. If it comes without your summoning it, it is because of need. Because someone needs your gift.”
    â€œA
frog?
It was a frog first!”
    â€œIt was to show you. It always starts with a small thing. For me? The very first time I saw beyond? It was an apple.”
    Despite the solemnity of the conversation, Matty chuckled. A frog and an apple.
And a puppy,
he realized.
    â€œWait for the true need, Matty. Don’t spend the gift.”
    â€œBut how will I know?”
    Leader smiled. He rubbed Matty’s shoulder affectionately. “You’ll know,” he said.
    Matty looked around for Frolic and saw that he was curled in the corner, asleep. “I