"My past?" Marie whispered, leaning closer in spite of herself. "You mean my mother?"
"Your mother," The Giver confirmed with a nod, "is Arianna."
"Arianna," Marie mused thoughtfully. She was but one of the ageing Old in the Community; a peaceful person who had long since ceased to work and joined the ranks of the Childless Adults. Years ago, it was rumoured that she had applied for release; Marie had disbelieved every word of it. As a child, Arianna had been, for Marie, like a second mother: kind, loving, caring; just plain wonderful…
And now she knew why.
It explained everything, when you thought about it. Arianna, who had neither applied for a spouse nor children, had been a Childless Adult about five years after Marie had been given the job of Birthmother. It was hard to determine age in the Community; owing to the fact that, as The Giver had told her, everyone had pretty much the same basic flesh tones. Though, by reasoning it out, Marie realised Arianna really was her true mother.
"Thank you, Giver," Marie whispered, twenty minutes later as she, perched comfortably on the seat of her silver bicycle, sped smoothly over to the group of dwellings and buildings that made the Community. She wasn't looking at the trees this time, nor the plant life; she had to confront Arianna and then continue raising her army.
"Whoops!"
"It's all right," Marie replied, not worried, as the bicycle went careening into the river and her knees gave way from under her. The figure seemed to be genially sorry – she figured it really had been an accident.
"I'm so sorry!" the woman exclaimed as she helped Marie on her feet. "I was just hurrying and–" She stopped in midsentence as she realised who she was talking to. "Oh!"
"What – Oh, Kara!"
And then the two women were wrapped in an embrace of love and remembrance. Kara was her childhood friend – along with Isabel and herself, they made the Troublesome Trio, a group of three female Fives who always wound themselves up in a web of mischief. Though those days had long since gone - Kara had been given the job of Engineer, she informed Marie has their tales unravelled. Looking back on it now, Marie realised the three of them had never really changed from their younger days; Isabel had always been the most playful and teasing of the three, she the most determined, and Kara… Well, uh, Kara was a little clumsy; it made you wonder how she'd ever landed herself as an Engineer.
When the long-lost friends had finally broken apart, Marie chanced to wonder aloud why she'd never caught glimpses of Kara in and out of the Community's silent streets. "Where have you been all these years?" she asked the orange-haired woman – colour was a wonderful gift, she thought, amazed. It was astounding to know someone since childhood and not even know the true colour of their hair, or what colour was, for that matter. "I would have expected to see you more than once by now."
"Yes, well…" Kara paused, as if relishing the answer she would give Marie, who had unconsciously tensed with impatience. "I…I work in another Community."
Marie blinked, but it wasn't long before her features formed themselves into an expression of happily exclamatory shock as realisation dawned in. "Oh! You bring new technologies to and fro, right?"
Kara nodded vigorously. "I come maybe once a month or so. This time, I was delivering this produce harvester prototype." She bent down, her wrist brushing the perfectly manicured grass planted around their Community's winding river as she reached for a small metallic machine, encased in a glass cube. A thick copper hook was at one end; Kara pressed a button on this hook and instantly it began to lever itself up and down, as if reaching for the harvest. When it reached into the air and grabbed nothing, the machine's wheels ceased to turn, its cogs and gears halted their rapid-fire rolling and it fell silent as it clicked itself off. The Engineer carefully set the machine into a small satchel wrapped around the side of her tunic.
"See?" Kara laughed as the machine disappeared into the folds of worn brown fabric. "It's clever!"
And so, laughing, she joined Marie in her quest to find Arianna, her true mother.
------------------------------------
The visit to the House of the Old had been, to say the least, fruitful. The older woman had, without hesitation or them even asking her, told them the downright truth: she was Marie's mother. She knew lots of things about the Receiver, her spouse:
"Well, he went to another Community now, of course, to save them, too," Arianna knowledgeably filled them in about an hour after they had arrived. "Since all his memories were given away when he left the Community he'd grown up in, he knew that you, Marie, would grow and develop them – which you have."
"So that's where they've been coming from," Marie sighed, almost happily. "I was wondering how it worked."
She nodded in return. "Right, which is why you're not exactly a Receiver of Memory. Jonas went off because he knew you would redeem us all."
At this point, Kara leaned back into her chair with a relaxed sigh. "Great. Everyone's happy. Now, let's get that army!"
------------------------------------
Marie sighed as she trudged all the way to Jaime's house, her legs leaden and her footsteps heavy. She'd been staying with him for a few nights since she'd escaped with Cecelia; luckily, the Food Collectors only arrived once after the evening meal and once after curfew, to make sure everyone was sleeping. The curfew had been passed some hours ago; she would not be disturbed, and thus, was on her way back to her old house.
Kara was with her own spouse, Nate, when Marie finally set foot in front of the house. Nate, as his wife was away in the other Community for most of the year, lived on his own, with their young male Two. Nate, whose hair was the colour of hazelnuts and whose eyes were like mahogany, as she had noticed, turned to her now.
"Marie," Nate began, his eyes in rapid motion, left to right, up to down, never stopping, "I haven't got much of a plan; I'm going to quit for the night, but we'll keep helping you until the Ceremony."
Marie, a hollow and somewhat vacant expression in her blue eyes, nodded. "Good night, then."
"G'night." Kara returned the formality before whirling to the direction of Nate's dwelling. "I just have to get our Two. I'll be gone when you wake up tomorrow, which'll have to be pretty early." Nate and Marie watched in anticipation as she fiddled with the lock – nearly tripping over herself in the process – and stepped through the doorway. "Fenton!"
Nate felt Marie recoiling beside him. When he chanced to sneak a glance toward her, he noticed her light eyes had gone wide and her face had blanched, giving her a pale, almost ghostly expression. "What is it?" he whispered to her, but she appeared too shocked to answer.
It wasn't long before Kara returned, an adorable little male Two perched in her arms. "Marie?" She set Fenton down and shook her friend gently by the shoulder, all traces of clumsiness gone for once, dissipated by fear. "Are you all right?"
"Jeffrey…" Marie was still her haze, but she was conscious enough to reach down for Fenton. The young male looked quizzically up at her for a second, then, with a screech of "Mama!" rushed forward and wrapped his hands around her knee.
"You're a Birthmother, right?" asked Nate, and the other woman nodded slowly. "That explains it!" he cried excitedly, turning to his spouse. "Marie must have given birth to Fenton and called him Jeffrey!"
The redheaded woman had, finally, broken out of her trance. "Before the Committee took him, that it!" she said fiercely, pulling Fenton's prising fingers off her leg and lowing herself onto the sidewalk as she explained. "I had him two years ago, before Cecelia; she's at The Giver's house now. After her, I'll be a Labourer until I join the House of the Old!"
Fenton sensed his true mother's pain and stroked her arm, before tenderly encircling his real mother in a hug. Surprised, Marie turned to the little fellow and hugged him, making little sounds in her throat as she had done with Cecelia – it seemed like so long ago, now.
"I didn't realise!" Kara exclaimed, one hand on her mouth in astonishment. "I'm so sorry – do you want him back?"
"No, it's all right," Marie replied with a laugh, setting Fenton down on the pavement and rising from where she'd been sitting. "You keep him. He deserves you more."
The three of them clung onto each other as they watched the brave woman heading toward Jaime's house, right in front of them.
