Lily speeded down the street on her bike. She was thinking about The Change. That's what they called it now, how everything was different. Everyone seemed happier, there were no more releases, and apples were always, always red. She remembered the day The Change had started. It was a few days after the Ceremony. She had been riding her new, shiny bicycle when the grass around her changed. Just for an instant, it flashed, then changed again and stayed that way. All the grass around her was changing somehow! Lily was a sensible girl, and so she ran to ask the Giver for advice. When she got to the Annex building, she raced in. The attendant was not there. Pounding on the door in a matter of strange, new urgency, she yelled, "Mr. Giver! I need help!" He opened the door.
"Yes, Miss Lily?" he inquired politely. Lily took a deep breath and said,
"Things are changing. I don't know how or why, but they are. Does this have anything to do with becoming a nine?" The Giver smiled at her.
"Things are changing for everyone. You are Receiving."
That had been four years ago. Now, Lily understood. It was sad, though. She remembered Jonas. He was merely a shadow of the past. Her first real feeling after the change was sorrow, true, deep sorrow, that her brother was gone forever, lost in the swirling river.
Four years ago, when Jonas had come to the real world, he knew that he needed a place to live, food, and probably the strange substance called money, which the Giver had warned him about. First, he'd found a shed and fixed it up. A nearby family invited Gabe and Jonas over for Christmas dinner and let Jonas take home all the leftovers. He lived off those until he was able to buy food.
His job made him smile whenever he thought of it. He had become a Storyteller. Some stories were his own, and some were Lily's. Every Wednesday afternoon, people paid him five dollars for a story and ten dollars for a book. Jonas thought they were overpriced, but no one complained. He figured he was just a great storyteller. Sometimes Gabe helped him act out the stories, becoming a noisy airplane or a tall tree. Life was going well, but still Jonas missed his family.
