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He tried Without asking permission from The Giver, because he feared--or knew--that it would be denied, he tried to give his neareness to his friends

"Asher," Jonas said one , "look at those flowers very carefully" They were standing beside a bed of geraniums planted near the Hall of Open Records He put his hands on Asher's shoulders, and concentrated on the red of the petals, trying to hold it as long as he could, and trying at the same time to transmit the awareness of red to his friend

"What's the ?" He moved away from Jonas's hands It was extremely rude for one citizen to touch another outside of faht for aCre they needed hed, and turned away

One evening he cae The Giver had chosen a startling and disturbing memory that day Under the touch of his hands, Jonas had found himself suddenly in a place that was completely alien: hot and ept under a vast blue sky There were rufts of sparse grass, a few bushes and rocks, and nearby he could see an area of thicker vegetation: broad, low trees outlined against the sky He could hear noises: the sharp crack of weapons--he perceived the word guns--and then shouts, and an i branches fro to one another Peering from the place where he stood hidden behind some shrubbery, he was reminded of what The Giver had told him, that there had been a time when flesh had different colors Two of thesecloser, he watched theround and haul them away, spattered with blood He felt himself overwhelmed with a new perception of the color he knew as red

Then thetoward the horizon in a vehicle that spit pebbles fro hih Jonas ached now for it to end

Now he saw another elephant ee from the place where it had stood hidden in the trees Very slowly it walked to the mutilated body and looked down With its sinuous trunk it stroked the huge corpse; then it reached up, broke some leafy branches with a snap, and draped them over the mass of torn thick flesh

Finally it tilted its massive head, raised its trunk, and roared into the empty landscape Jonas had never heard such a sound It was a sound of rage and grief and it seemed never to end

He could still hear it when he opened his eyes and lay anguished on the bed where he received the memories It continued to roar into his consciousness as he pedaled slowly ho when his sister took her comfort object, the stuffed elephant, from the shelf, "did you know that once there really were elephants? Live ones?"

She glanced down at the ragged coht," she said, skeptically "Sure, Jonas"

Jonas went and sat beside them while his father untied Lily's hair ribbons and combed her hair He placed one hand on each of their shoulders With all of his being he tried to give each of them a piece of the memory: not of the tortured cry of the elephant, but of the being of the elephant, of the towering, immense creature and the meticulous touch hich it had tended its friend at the end

But his father had continued to coled under her brother's touch "Jonas," she said, "you're hurtingyou, Lily," Jonas muy," Lily responded indifferently, stroking the lifeless elephant

"Giver," Jonas asked once, as they prepared for the day's work, "don't you have a spouse? Aren't you allowed to apply for one?" Although he was exeainst rudeness, he are that this was a rude question But The Giver had encouraged all of his questions, not see to be embarrassed or offended by even the most personal

The Giver chuckled "No, there's no rule against it And I did have a spouse You're forgetting how old I am, Jonas My former spouse lives noith the Childless Adults"

"Oh, of course" Jonas had forgotten The Giver's obvious age When adults of the community becaer needed to create faroould go to live with the Childless Adults

"You'll be able to apply for a spouse, Jonas, if you want to I'll warn you, though, that it will be difficult Your living arrangements will have to be different from those of most family units, because the books are forbidden to citizens You and I are the only ones with access to the books"

Jonas glanced around at the astonishing array of volumes From time to tiether, his and The Giver's, consumed by conversation and by the transmission of memories, Jonas had not yet opened any of the books But he read the titles here and there, and knew that they contained all of the knowledge of centuries, and that one day they would belong to him

"So if I have a spouse, and maybe children, I will have to hide the books from them?"

The Giver nodded "I wasn't permitted to share the books with my spouse, that's correct And there are other difficulties, too You remember the rule that says the new Receiver can't talk about his training?"

Jonas nodded Of course he reme of the rules he was required to obey

"When you become the official Receiver, e're finished here, you'll be given a whole new set of rules Those are the rules that I obey And it won't surprise you that I am forbidden to talk about my work to anyone except the new Receiver That's you, of course

"So there will be a whole part of your life which you won't be able to share with a family It's hard, Jonas It was hard for me

"You do understand, don't you, that this is ain, but he was puzzled Didn't life consist of the things you did each day? There wasn't anything else, really "I've seen you taking walks," he said

The Giver sighed "I walk I eat at mealtime And when I am called by the Coive them counsel and advice"

"Do you advise theht that one day he would be the one to advise the ruling body