THE GIVER

But the aircraft ayear ago had been different. It was not a squat, fat-bellied cargo plane but a needle-nosed single-pilot jet. Jonas,looking around anxiously, had seen others— adults as well as children — stop what they were doing and wait, confused,for an explanation of the frightening event.

She became a Nine that year, and got her bicycle.I’d been teaching her to ride mine, even thoughtechnically I wasn’t supposed to.” The childrenall received their bicycles at Nine; they were not allowedto ride bicycles before then.

“Three years,” Mothertold her firmly.“Three births, and that’s all. After that they are Laborers for the rest of their adult lives,until the day that they enter the House of the Old. Is that what you want, Lily?Three lazy years,and then hard physical labor until you are old?”

. He had tossedit back and forth betweenhis hands a fewtimes, then thrown it again to Asher.And again — in the air, for an instant only — it had changed.

But the aircraft ayear ago had been different. It was not a squat, fat-bellied cargo plane but a needle-nosed single-pilot jet. Jonas,looking around anxiously, had seen others— adults as well as children — stop what they were doing and wait, confused,for an explanation of the frightening event.

She became a Nine that year, and got her bicycle.I’d been teaching her to ride mine, even thoughtechnically I wasn’t supposed to.” The childrenall received their bicycles at Nine; they were not allowedto ride bicycles before then.

“Three years,” Mothertold her firmly.“Three births, and that’s all. After that they are Laborers for the rest of their adult lives,until the day that they enter the House of the Old. Is that what you want, Lily?Three lazy years,and then hard physical labor until you are old?”

. He had tossedit back and forth betweenhis hands a fewtimes, then thrown it again to Asher.And again — in the air, for an instant only — it had changed.