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Jonas had been completelyseee to you? About the apple?"

"Yes," Asher called back, laughing "It juround!" Asher had just dropped it once again

So Jonas laughed too, and with his laughter tried to ignore his uneasy conviction that soainst the recreation area rules That evening, before his parents and Lily arrived at the dwelling, he had held it in his hands and looked at it carefully It was slightly bruised now, because Asher had dropped it several ti at all unusual about the apple

He had held a lass to it He had tossed it several ti, and then rolled it around and around on his desktop, waiting for the thing to happen again

But it hadn't The only thing that happened was the announce over the speaker, the announce his nafully at his desk where the apple still lay

Now, sitting at his desk, staring at his schoolwork as his family hovered over the newchild in its basket, he shook his head, trying to forget the odd incident He forced hie his papers and try to study a little before the evening meal The newchild, Gabriel, stirred and whi the feeding procedure as he opened the container that held the for proceeded as all evenings did in the fa, in the community: quiet, reflective, a time for renewal and preparation for the day to come It was different only in the addition to it of the newchild with his pale, sole eyes

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Jonas rode at a leisurely pace, glancing at the bikeports beside the buildings to see if he could spot Asher's He didn't often do his volunteer hours with his friend because Asher frequently fooled around and made serious work a little difficult But noith Twelve co, it didn't seem to matter

The freedom to choose where to spend those hours had always seemed a wonderful luxury to Jonas; other hours of the day were so carefully regulated

He reht, as Lily would do shortly, and had been faced with that freedohts always set out on their first volunteer hour a little nervously, giggling and staying in groups of friends They almost invariably did their hours on Recreation Duty first, helping with the younger ones in a place where they still felt couidance, as they developed self-confidence andtoward those that would suit their own interests and skills

A male Eleven named Benjamin had done his entire nearly-Four years in the Rehabilitation Center, working with citizens who had been injured It was rumored that he was as skilled now as the Rehabilitation Directors themselves, and that he had even developed some machines and methods to hasten rehabilitation There was no doubt that Benjanment to that field and would probably be per

Jonas was is Benjamin had achieved He knew hiroupmates, but they had never talked about the boy's accomplishments because such a conversation would have been aard for Benjamin There was never any comfortable way tothe rule against bragging, even if one didn't mean to It was a entle chastiseoverned by a rule which would be so easy to break

The area of dwellings behind hi to spot Asher's bicycle parked beside one of the ss He passed the Childcare Center where Lily stayed after school, and the play areas surrounding it He rode through the Central Plaza and the large Auditorius were held

Jonas slowed and looked at the na Center Then he checked those outside Food Distribution; it was always fun to help with the deliveries, and he hoped he would find his friend there so that they could go together on the daily rounds, carrying the cartons of supplies into the dwellings of the co, as usual, instead of upright in its port, as it should have been--at the House of the Old

There was only one other child's bicycle there, that of a feood student, quiet and polite, but she had a sense of fun as well, and it didn't surprise hi with Asher today He parked his bicycle neatly in the port beside theirs and entered the building

"Hello, Jonas," the attendant at the front desk said She handed hin-up sheet and stanature All of his volunteer hours would be carefully tabulated at the Hall of Open Records Once, long ago, it hispered a the children, an Eleven had arrived at the Ceremony of Twelve only to hear a public announcement that he had not completed the required nuiven his Assignment He had been permitted an additional nrace that had clouded his entire future

"It's good to have some volunteers here today," the attendant told hi, and that always throws the schedule off a little, so things get backed up" She looked at a printed sheet "Let's see Asher and Fiona are helping in the bathing room Why don't you join them there? You knohere it is, don't you?"

Jonas nodded, thanked her, and walked down the long hallway He glanced into the roo and talking with one another, others doing handwork and simple crafts A feere asleep Each room was co It was a serene and slow-paced place, unlike the busy centers of manufacture and distribution where the daily work of the colad that he had, over the years, chosen to do his hours in a variety of places so that he could experience the differences He realized, though, that not focusing on one area uess--of what his Assign about the Cereain, Jonas? he teased himself But he suspected that with the date so near, probably all of his friends were, too