Chapter 24
By: Taylor BarrettDate: Friday, May 15th, 2009
Teacher: Mrs. Ford
Jonas opened his eyes. He could no longer feel the tiredness, hunger or pain he felt before. It was a bright place, almost as if it was in the sky. Turning to his right, Jonas saw Gabe looking around in awe and wonder. Not too far away from them was a door.
It was nothing special, just a door made of wood with a metal handle. Jonas and Gabe looked at it and were trying to decide whether to go in. The singing was still able to be heard and he wanted to see what was behind it. But Jonas was afraid of the door at the same time. What if it was like the old community? He decided that he and Gabriel would go in, even if it was just to see what the music was.
When Jonas opened the door, he was greeted with a sea of different colours. There were children with different skin colours sitting at desks with multicoloured name tags singing songs and wearing funny red triangular shaped hats with a white trim at the base and a white puff at the end with a woman he assumed to be their instructor. She had short blonde hair, fair skin, and was fairly tall. The room they were in had posters all over with encouraging messages and some had an addition symbol that was slightly long at the end. Jonas vaguely recalled a memory in a church that told him the symbol was a cross.
As soon as both Jonas and Gabriel entered the room, the singing stopped and the children looked at them. The two of them stared right back at the class, trying to take in all of the sights and sounds.
"Can I help you?" the instructor who had a name tag that said D. Ford asked Jonas.
"Uh, my name is Jonas and this is, uh, my baby brother Gabriel," he replied.
"WHOA!" a boy with light brown hair that turned up at the ends sitting at a desk with Chris at the front exclaimed, "We're reading this book called 'The Giver' with characters named Jonas and Gabriel."
"And Jonas was about your age and Gabe is probably about the baby's age," a girl with brown skin and black hair sitting at a desk with Neena at the front added.
"Gabe looks so cute!" a girl with light brown skin and brown hair named Cheyenne squealed, "Can I hold him?"
"Um, okay," Jonas responded nervously, "I apologize for possibly being rude, but what year is this?"
"2009," a boy with black hair and tan skin named Mark said.
"Actually, it's almost 2009," a boy with golden curly hair named Ryan corrected, "Today's the last day before Christmas break."
"Christmas?" Jonas said, confused, "In my community, we don't have Christmas or colours or those funny hats."
"You really are from 'The Giver'," a girl with dark skin, short black hair and glasses named Shaniece realized.
Soon, the entire class was busy filling in Jonas on what life is like in the year 2008 soon to be 2009. They told him about music, art, movies, books, religion, and television. Most importantly, they told him about their society. Just as they finished their explanation, a man with a flushed looking face and glasses with a name tag that read W. Perry came in.
"Are you Jonas from The Community?" he asked.
"Yes," he answered, surprised.
"I hate to tell you this, but your friend Giver has died."
At the police station on Brock Road, Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green were finishing their lunch when the call came in. It's hard to imagine these two being partners. Briscoe is a Caucasian man who's jaded and sarcastic, and Green is an energetic African-American.
"Yo Lennie," Green said as he hung up the phone, "We have a murder over at St. Wilfrid Catholic School on Southcott."
"Geez," Briscoe replied, "I hope it was peaceful."
They arrived at the front foyer of the school shortly after the call. The Giver's body was sprawled out in an unusual pattern on the floor. Yellow police tape surrounded the scene. Briscoe turned towards the principal, Mr. Perry, and began to ask him questions.
"You know who this is?"
"I only know him as the Giver," Mr. Perry replied.
"Any witnesses?" Green interjected.
"Mrs. Ford's class down the hall, room 107, is doing a novel study on 'The Giver'," Mr. Perry answered, "Maybe you should ask them."
When Briscoe and Green walked into the room, a group of students were clustered around Jonas with their copies of "The Giver" in their hands.
"Excuse me, can anyone tell us where Jonas is?" Briscoe asked the group.
"That's me," Jonas responded, "I mean, here I am. I apologize for non precise language."
Green looked at him for a minute before saying, "Dude, you don't have to apologize for that. Do you know any next of kin we can contact?"
"No. His daughter Rosemary was released ten years ago."
"Released to where?" Briscoe asked the obvious.
"He means killed," a blonde girl named Shannon explained.
"I knew I shouldn't have just read the Cliff's Notes version. We're gonna need to take a few of your students in for questioning, Mrs. Ford," Green told her.
"That's fine," she replied.
"The cause of death was obvious; gunshot wound to the heart," the redheaded Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers said in Autopsy, "But he has these weird markings under the wounds."
"That's the number 23," Jonas offered.
"How did you know that?" Briscoe said, confused.
"Back in my old community, we had a thick book of rules and 23 was his least favourite."
"Maybe we'll get more information from the students," Green mused.
"I don't know much about him," a boy with curly hair and glasses named Ryan told the detectives, "He seemed tired, though."
"Because of what?" Briscoe asked.
"The Giver was the Reciever of Memory before he had to train Jonas. He carried the memories of other people."
"Sounds like a big job," Green concurred."
"It was," a boy with dark skin named Duan added, "That position had the most honour in the community."
"Honour as in power?" Briscoe questioned.
"No. 'Honour' and'power' don't mean the same thing."
"He's right," a girl with shoulder length brown hair and pink glasses named Taylor agreed, "The Chief Elder has the most power."
"Who's that?" Green asked.
"The head of the community. The Giver used to give advice to the Committee. Come to think of it, only the Chief Elder would have known about his least favourite rule."
"Well, I guess we know where we have to go," Briscoe stated.
Soon after that, Briscoe, Green, Gabriel, and Jonas had traveled through the door that led back to the community that Jonas never wanted to go back to again. He wondered how the rest of the community would react to his return. Jonas figured that the Ceremony of Loss had been performed for both him and Gabriel. Will they all shun him? And how would the Chief Elder react to being accused of murder?
The Giver was right; the community was a mess. Jonas could see rules being broken left and right, mostly the rudeness and precision of language. The people didn't bother to hide their dislike for Jonas. His own parents and sister pretended like they didn't know who he or Gabe was, even though it had only been a week since they had last seen each other. He and Gabe quickly moved towards the detectives.
"Jonas?" the Chief Elder said almost in a whisper, "I thought we would never see you again."
"Why? Because you thought your little secret would be revealed?" Green accused.
"What do you mean?" the Chief Elder asked, her eyes nervous.
"You killed him, didn't you?" Briscoe asked.
The Chief Elder didn't bother to hide anything, "He destroyed the community! He was supposed to keep memories so this wouldn't happen! I didn't know what else to do."
"Chief Elder, you are under arrest for the murder of Giver," the detectives recited the Miranda rights.
"Jonas," a soft voice called out to him.
"Fiona!" he said excitedly.
"I've missed you so much."
"I thought everyone had shunned me."
"I never will, Jonas. Never."
A/N: So whaddaya think? Not bad for a school project we only had a week to work on, if I do say so myself. WRITE A REVIEW!