Smell this,” he said, holding out the light green shoot he was chopping. I hear at least seven women,” said the blind man, not realizing that Matty was joking.
Three
Of course it doesn't matter to you,' he added, 'but some of us would really appreciate it...'. I can't help it,' he had argued darkly to the blind man, early in their life together, when he had been caught in a minor offense.
Four
When Leader called, "Up here, Matty," he bounded up the stairs to the second floor into the spacious room where Leader lived and worked. But the message—I could have read it to you again if you hadn't burned it—says that the group that wants to close the border is led by Mentor.
Five
It's best for you." He turned the frog over on his back and touched the torn leg, meaning to arrange it in a way that would make the amputation simple and quick. Did you go to the last Trade Mart?" he had heard one person ask another.
Seven
Late that night, the blind man listened with a worried face as Matty described the Trade Mart. Her friends were teasing her and I heard her say, 'She needs to do some business first.'" I should like to see this book,' said the blind man, and then, laughing to himself, he added, 'or you should see it and read it to me.
Tell me the second thing again in three words," said the blind man after taking a sip. Change what?'” He tried to make his voice high and important, like the Trademaster's had been. Time to go to bed.” He rose from his chair and placed his stringed instrument on the shelf where he kept it.
Eight
I saw it," Matty told her, "but I didn't understand." He put his arm around the sobbing girl. I need time to think," Matty said, quieting the puppy with a rhythmic scratch under his chin. It doesn't sound as the right thing.” Matty picked up the puppy and scratched its belly as it lay on his lap.
You know," he continued, "in the place where I was a child, there were no dogs. The puppy blinked - he was sleeping in the jacket - and Matty put him down on the floor. He already knows his real name!” Matty knelt next to the puppy and stroked the little head.
Nine
When we learned this in school - remember Matty, literature studies? – it was all so familiar to me, because of the way he taught me when I didn't even know he was teaching.'Out, I say!'” He tried to repeat the lines in the ominous yet regal voice Mentor used. Matty could see the woman he had met on the way standing next to the tall, blond boy who had to be Vladik.
Some of those who had been among the most industrious, kindest and most persistent inhabitants of the village now took to the platform and shouted their desire for the border to be closed, so that "we" (Matty . cringed at the use of "we") there would be no need to share resources anymore. The blind man spoke eloquently of the day he was brought here half-dead and cared for. Matty liked the sound of the term "my boy" which the blind man had never heard used before.
Eleven
Yes?" He now stood at the top of the stairs, holding Frolic, who still couldn't climb the stairs on his own. He understood that Leader meant Kira, but the blind man's daughter was older than him. She is very sweet." But his voice was now hard to hear, and in a second he was asleep.
I brought you some bread, - she said and took the wrapped bread from the basket she was carrying. He could see that the blind man's face had taken on a worried look, too, at the news. It's okay." He indicated with his eyes that she should not speak out loud about the strange change in the tapestry.
Twelve
Normally at the end of summer, like now, some leaves would fall, and by the time snow fell later, many trees were bare. In the middle of winter he had to find water in places where the rivers flowed quickly and did not freeze; many of the still pools he knew well would be covered in ice. In the spring he would have to wipe annoying insects from his face, but then there would also be fresh, sweet berries.
When Matty camped in a clearing he knew well from previous trips, he sat on a log he often used as a seat while cooking a meal. Suddenly it collapsed beneath him and he had to pick himself up and remove the rotten bark and slimy, smelly material from his clothes. He remembered his earliest days when he called himself the Baddest of the Bad, and his friendship at the time with a girl named Kira, who was the blind man's daughter.
Thirteen
Turn here." Matty took the blind man's arm and led him to the right side of a bend in the path. Watch the roots there." He noticed a root lift up and lightly poke the man's sandaled foot. He would have to lead Kira through, to the safety of her future with her father.
He wouldn't even have time to say goodbye to the stranger who had become his brother. I'm sorry." He popped the last piece of bread into his mouth and looked at her apologetically. He shook his head and walked over to the sofa to lie down on the knitted blanket she had thrown over him.
Fourteen
That's true." She glanced at her own hands, which lay there on the table, still holding the damp cloth. The stitches were small and intricate, and each section had a subtle variation in color, gradually blending into the deep green. in a slightly lighter shade, and then lighter again, until it was pale yellow at the edges. Look further," she said, and held out her finger to point to a section at the upper right, where Forest opened up and there were small houses around curving paths formed.
He thought he could almost make out the house he shared with the blind man, though it was infinitely small in fabric. He could still see the colored stitches, but it was a plain landscape again—extremely beautiful, but simple. He was a nice surprise." The dog woke up and looked up at the sound of his name.
Fifteen
I yes." It was true, but even as he said it, Matt felt a sense of unease, though he hid it from Kira. He could tell it was the same road—the turns were the same; as he steered it round the other, the clearing behind them was no longer visible—but the things that had seemed easy and familiar were no longer visible. He had stood for a long moment, determined, focused, while the blind man waited beside him.
The leader went to the window and looked down at the place where they were preparing to build the wall. I suppose it's too early to see any further.' The blind man was still standing at the window. But after Ziener left, Leader stood by the window for a while and listened to the wall builders talk about their preparations.
Sixteen
Ready, Frolic?” she called and the cub came bounding towards her from the bushes where he was gnawing on a rodent hole. He pushed back some bushes with his hand, stared for a moment at the ground he had revealed, then took a knife from his pocket and trimmed the branches back. See?” She raised her staff and used it to force a thick vine that stretched from one tree to another on the other side of the path, forming a barrier at the height of their shoulders.
Be careful it doesn't drip on you,” he called to Kira, motioning for her to come forward. He had to hold his breath and bite his tongue to keep from crying out as he applied the salve. He watched her rub and tug at the salve, and he winced in sympathy.
Seventeen
Then he used the knife and cut the vine that had held them together in the swamp. We will find a place to sleep, and then in the morning we will start the last part. It reminded him of the village days of yesteryear, when a person who had difficulty walking was cheerfully helped by someone stronger.
The sounds he heard were the rasping croak of a frog, the stealthy movement of a rodent in the bushes, and frothy bubbles bubbling from some slippery malevolent creature in the dark water of the pond. It's dangerous here." She hadn't seen the deadly thing that had grabbed Matty, but he knew there would be more; he watched the bushes for them. He remembered that in the art books he browsed at Leader's, many paintings depicted death.
Eighteen
Nineteen
He had begun to perceive the stench on the morning of the second day, and it served to quicken his steps. To his surprise, Leader followed the frog, pushed his way through thick bushes, and found that it had led him to where the path resumed. Now he saw that it was not random thorny branches and his own clumsiness in walking into them, but rather an assault from the Forest itself.
Indeed the path turned and led to drier ground, but here a sharp rock darted up and split the skin of his knee; then another cut his hand so badly that he had to wrap the cut tightly in a cloth for fear that the loss of blood would weaken him beyond repair. He had felt sure of it at the time, but now he couldn't even think what he had meant. He faced what he knew was the center of the Forest, the place where Matty and Kira were trapped, and he wanted to look beyond himself.
Twenty
With his arms outstretched, his hands touching the ground, he lay there waiting for death.
Twenty-one
Well, it's not exactly a mask," corrected the young woman sitting on her left, biting into the crunchy salad again. The girl and her companion then obediently fell silent as they realized they had been heard through the microphones built into the walls of the dining room. But when she was chosen to be her birth mother at the age of twelve, the course of her life changed.
At her brother's choice, when she was only six, they were all very proud. Is that all?” she asked in surprise, getting up from the table when the technician signaled that she should. She wished they had explained everything more clearly in the instruction manual they gave her when she was selected.
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