So Fiona decided to keep her dreadful secret locked up inside. She was forced to release a few Elders, and make a few keep quiet. Samantha, the Elder who was so brutally convinced to be quiet, had been released by her own trembling hand. The gentle, kind girl trembled with nauseous dizziness every time she thought about it. Fiona just went to work every day after school, and watched Jonas carefully, as he changed more and more every day. Fiona wondered if she should report him to the Chief Elder for his strange behavior, but decided that it was probably just part of being Receiver.
One day, though, Jonas did not appear in school. Thinking he must be sick, Fiona went to Jonas' house to see if he was all right. Jonas' parents had no idea where their son had gone, but they knew that he would have the newchild, Gabriel – a child about to be released for bad sleeping habits – and his father's bicycle. To make it worse, Fiona thought, if Jonas ever came back, he would be released as a criminal, for kidnapping, stealing, and leaving his house at night. Fiona shrouded herself in misery for a good many days, and then she heard a plane again.
It had been almost two years since the jet had passed over the city, striking fear into the hearts of the citizens. Now, the same frightening scream of the powerful jet rockets was heard in the air. This time, however, there was a whole squadron of these rarely seen sleek jets, and there was no confusion. It was common knowledge that they were looking for Jonas.
However, the searching planes could only do so much, and, when a month of failed searching had passed, a great silence fell over the city. The noise of the jets, which had been heard day and night for a whole month, suddenly stopped, and everyone was inside. Everyone but Jonas, Fiona thought miserably. Then, however, there was no time for sadness, for the memories started coming.
Cold, powdery flakes were settling on Fiona's skin. They were small, and melted in her cupped hands. Laughing for the pure joy of it, Fiona lifted a small handful of the stuff from the covered ground. Instinctively, Fiona packed the stuff into a loosely formed ball, then threw it up into the air, giggling. Something else cold brushed past then, it rippled Fiona's long hair. Still smiling, Fiona looked at the horizon – and stopped. There were deformities in the land, powder-covered mounds rising out of the land…
Fiona woke up, then turned on her light, looking out of her window as, simultaneously; every other being in the city also woke and lighted their rooms. Walking out of her door, Fiona met her parents in the hall. Silently, the family headed to the table. Then, they all related the same dream.
"Jonas went before he was supposed to leave; he must have really loved that newchild. Anyways, he left his memories behind, and, as a community, we must accommodate them. There is no way for me to take the memories away, but I am hoping that Jonas left you the pleasurable memories, first." Jonas' mentor, who introduced himself as the Giver, was telling the community how they had all come to experience the same dream – of powdery snow, gusty wind, and mounds of land called hills. He told them about the memories that they would have to bear, then hopped into a vehicle and drove to somewhere he called "Reality Control Center".
As the memories poured in, Fiona adapted better than most. She enjoyed the memories of love, caring, family, and now shared these feelings openly with her family and friends. She also loved the memories because of the visual pleasures called colors. She was always a bit disappointed when she had to come back to her colorless, dull world, even after a horrible memory, like war, or broken bones, or hunger. Therefore, she thought that when she woke up one morning, she was in another memory.
She was in her own room, in her own house. The walls were pink instead of their customary gray. Her hair, as she caught a glimpse of it, was a fiery reddish-orange, and her bedspread was purple. All of the colors from the memories, in her own world. But this memory, if it was one, did not go away. In fact, she still experienced other memories, but came back to her now colorful world.
The Giver came back, and explained that the colors had been there all along, but he had gone to the staff at the Reality Control Center, and gotten them, by a wide-spread radio device, to deactivate the little sensors in people's eyes which had preventing them from seeing colors. Then he asked people to share knowledge about the community so that other things could be voted on, and then changed. Nobody stepped forward. Then Fiona strode boldly up to the Giver, and he had allowed her to speak to the community. From her vantage point, Fiona could see Mrs. Heather shaking her head violently. She looked away and began to speak.
"Fellow citizens, as many of you now know, there is a lot more that members of the community are blind to than colors. One of the more disturbing ones is the subject of release…" and so began the transformation of the society.
So that's it... Tell me what you think!