Giver Trilogy 01 - The Giver by Lois Lowry Page B

that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. All of that was forgotten now. He simply willed himself to stand, to move his feet that felt weighted and clumsy, to go forward, up the steps and across the platform until he stood at her side.
    Reassuringly she placed her arm across his tense shoulders.
    "Jonas has not been assigned," she informed the crowd, and his heart sank.
    Then she went on. "Jonas has been
selected.
"
    He blinked. What did that mean? He felt a collective, questioning stir from the audience. They, too, were puzzled.
    In a firm, commanding voice she announced, "Jonas has been selected to be our next Receiver of Memory."
    Then he heard the gasp—the sudden intake of breath, drawn sharply in astonishment, by each of the seated citizens. He saw their faces; the eyes widened in awe.
    And still he did not understand.
    "Such a selection is very, very rare," the Chief Elder told the audience. "Our community has only one Receiver. It is he who trains his successor.
    "We have had our current Receiver for a very long time," she went on. Jonas followed her eyes and saw that
she was looking at one of the Elders. The Committee of Elders was sitting together in a group; and the Chief Elder's eyes were now on one who sat in the midst but seemed oddly separate from them. It was a man Jonas had never noticed before, a bearded man with pale eyes. He was watching Jonas intently.
    "We failed in our last selection," the Chief Elder said solemnly. "It was ten years ago, when Jonas was just a toddler. I will not dwell on the experience because it causes us all terrible discomfort."
    Jonas didn't know what she was referring to, but he could sense the discomfort of the audience. They shifted uneasily in their seats.
    "We have not been hasty this time," she continued. "We could not afford another failure."
    "Sometimes," she went on, speaking now in a lighter tone, relaxing the tension in the Auditorium, "we are not entirely certain about the Assignments, even after the most painstaking observations. Sometimes we worry that the one assigned might not develop, through training, every attribute necessary. Elevens are still children, after all. What we observe as playfulness and patience—the requirements to become Nurturer—could, with maturity, be revealed as simply foolishness and indolence. So we continue to observe during training, and to modify behavior when necessary.
    "But the Receiver-in-training cannot be observed, cannot be modified. That is stated quite clearly in the rules. He is to be alone, apart, while he is prepared by the current Receiver for the job which is the most honored in our community."
    Alone? Apart? Jonas listened with increasing unease.
    "Therefore the selection must be sound. It must be a unanimous choice of the Committee. They can have no doubts, however fleeting. If, during the process, an Elder reports a dream of uncertainty, that dream has the power to set a candidate aside instantly.
    "Jonas was identified as a possible Receiver many years ago. We have observed him meticulously. There were no dreams of uncertainty.
    "He has shown all of the qualities that a Receiver must have."
    With her hand still firmly on his shoulder, the Chief Elder listed the qualities.
    "
Intelligence.
" she said. "We are all aware that Jonas has been a top student throughout his school days.
    "
Integrity
" she said next. "Jonas has, like all of us, committed minor transgressions." She smiled at him. "We expect that. We hoped, also, that he would present himself promptly for chastisement, and he has always done so.
    "
Courage,
" she went on. "Only one of us here today has ever undergone the rigorous training required of a Receiver. He, of course, is the most important member of the Committee: the current Receiver. It was he who reminded us, again and again, of the courage required.
    "Jonas," she said, turning to him, but speaking in a voice that the entire community could hear, "the training required of you