MESSENGER

∂
 Copyright © 2004 by Lois Lowry

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Houghton Mifflin Books
for Children, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2004.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,

write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lowry, Lois.
Messenger / Lois Lowry.
p. cm.
“Walter Lorraine Books.”
Summary: In this novel that unites characters from “The Giver” and “Gathering Blue,”
Matty, a young member of a utopian community that values honesty, conceals an
emerging healing power that he cannot explain or understand.
ISBN: 978-0-547-99567-0
[1. Utopias — Fiction. 2. Community life — Fiction. 3. Healing — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.L9673Me 2004
[Fic] — dc22
2003014789
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one 7
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M
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atty was impati ent to have the sup- 12
per preparations over and done with. He wanted to cook, eat, 13
and be gone. He wished he were grown so that he could de- 14
cide when to eat, or whether to bother eating at all. There was 15
something he needed to do, a thing that scared him. Waiting 16
just made it worse. 17
Matty was no longer a boy, but not yet a man. Sometimes, 18
standing outside the homeplace, he measured himself against 19
the window. Once he had stood only to its sill, his forehead 20
there, pressing into the wood, but now he was so tall he could 21
see inside without effort. Or, moving back in the high grass, 22
he could see himself reflected in the glass pane. His face was 23
becoming manly, he thought, though childishly he still enjoyed 24
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 2 I L O I S L O W R Y
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2 making scowls and frowns at his own reflection. His voice was
3 deepening.
4 He lived with the blind man, the one they called Seer,
5 and helped him. He cleaned the homeplace, though cleaning
6 bored him. The man said it was necessary. So Matty swept the
7 wooden floor each day and straightened the bedcovers: neatly
8 on the man’s bed, with haphazard indifference on his own, in
9 the room next to the kitchen. They shared the cooking. The
10 man laughed at Matty’s concoctions and tried to teach him,
11 but Matty was impatient and didn’t care about the subtlety of
12 herbs.
13 “We can just put it all together in the pot,” Matty in-
14 sisted. “It all goes together in our bellies anyway.”
15 It was a long-standing and friendly argument. Seer chuck-
16 led. “Smell this,” he said, and held out the pale green shoot
17 that he’d been chopping.
18 Matty sniffed dutifully. “Onion,” he said, and shrugged.
19 “We can just throw it in.
20 “Or,” he added, “we don’t even need to cook it. But then
21 our breath stinks. There’s a girl promised she’d kiss me if I have
22 sweet breath. But I think she’s teasing.”
23 The blind man smiled in the boy’s direction. “Teasing’s
24 part of the fun that comes before kissing,” he told Matty,
25 whose face had flushed pink with embarrassment.
 M E S S E N G E R I 3
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“You could trade for a kiss,” the blind man suggested with 2
a chuckle. “What would you give? Your fishing pole?” 3
“Don’t. Don’t joke about the trading.” 4
“You’re right, I shouldn’t. It used to be a light-hearted 5
thing. But now — you’re right, Matty. It’s not to be laughed at 6
anymore.” 7
“My friend Ramon went to the last Trade Mart, with his 8
parents. But he won’t talk about it.” 9
“We won’t then, either. Is the butter melted in the pan?” 10
Matty looked. The butter was bubbling slightly and gold- 11
en brown. “Yes.” 12
“Add the onion, then. Stir it so it doesn’t burn.” 13
Matty obeyed. 14
“Now smell that,” the blind man said. Matty sniffed. The 15
gently sautéing onion released an aroma that made his mouth 16
water. 17
“Better than raw?” Seer asked. 18
“But a bother,” Matty replied impatiently. “Cooking’s a 19
bother.” 20
“Add some sugar. Just a pinch or two. Let it cook for a 21
minute and then we’ll put the rabbit in. Don’t be so impa- 22
tient, Matty. You always want to rush things, and there’s no 23
need.” 24
“I want to go out before night comes. I have something 25
 4 I L O I S L O W R Y
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2 to check. I need to eat supper and get out there to the clearing
3 before it’s dark.”
4 The blind man laughed. He picked up the rabbit parts
5 from the table, and as always, Matty was amazed at how sure
6 his hands were, how he knew just where things had been left.
7 He watched while the man deftly patted flour onto the piec-
8 es of meat and then added the rabbit to the pan. The aroma
9 changed when the meat sizzled next to the softened onion. The
10 man added a handful of herbs.
11 “It doesn’t matter to you if it’s dark or light outside,”
12 Matty told him, scowling, “but I need the daylight to look at
13 something.”
14 “What something is that?” Seer asked, then added,
15 “When the meat has browned, add some broth so it doesn’t
16 stick to the pan.”
17 Matty obeyed, tilting into the pan the bowl of broth
18 in which the rabbit had been boiled earlier. The dark liquid
19 picked up chunks of onion and chopped herbs, and swirled
20 them around the pieces of meat. He knew to put the lid on
21 now, and to turn the fire low. The stew simmered and he began
22 to set the plates on the table where they would have their sup-
23 per together.
24 He hoped the blind man would forget that he had asked
25 what something. He didn’t want to tell. Matty was puzzled by
 M E S S E N G E R I 5
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what he had hidden in the clearing. It frightened him, not 2
knowing what it meant. He wondered for a moment whether 3
he could trade it away. 4
5
( ( (
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When, finally, the supper dishes were washed and put away, 7
and the blind man sat in the cushioned chair and picked up 8
the stringed instrument that he played in the evening, Matty 9
inched his way to the door, hoping to slip away unnoticed. But 10
the man heard everything that moved. Matty had known him 11
to hear a spider scurry from one side of its web to another. 12
“Off to Forest again?” 13
Matty sighed. No escaping. “I’ll be back by dark.” 14
“Could be. But light the lamp, in case you’re late. After 15
dark it’s nice to have window light to aim for. I remember what 16
Forest was like at night.” 17
“Remember from when?” 18
The man smiled. “From when I could see. Long before 19
you were born.” 20
“Were you scared of Forest?” Matty asked him. So many 21
people were, and with good reason. 22
“No. It’s all an illusion.” 23
Matty frowned. He didn’t know what the blind man 24
meant. Was he saying that fear was an illusion? Or that Forest 25
 6 I L O I S L O W R Y
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2 was? He glanced over. The blind man was rubbing the polished
3 wooden side of his instrument with a soft cloth. His thoughts
4 had turned to the smooth wood, though he couldn’t see the
5 golden maple with its curly grain. Maybe, Matty thought, ev-
6 erything was an illusion to a man who had lost his eyes.
7 Matty lengthened the wick and checked the lamp to be
8 certain there was oil. Then he struck a match.
9 “Now you’re glad I made you clean the soot from the
10 lamp chimneys, aren’t you?” The blind man didn’t expect an
11 answer. He moved his fingers on the strings, listening for the
12 tone. Carefully, as he did most evenings, he tuned the instru-
13 ment. He could hear variations in sounds that seemed to the
14 boy to be all the same. Matty stood in the doorway for a mo-
15 ment, watching. On the table, the lamp flickered. The man sat
16 with his head tilted toward the window so that the summer
17 early-evening light outlined the scars on his face. He listened,
18 then turned a small screw on the back of the instrument’s
19 wooden neck, then listened again. Now he was concentrating
20 on the sounds, and had forgotten the boy. Matty slipped away.
21
( ( (
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23 Heading for the path that entered Forest at the edge of Village,
24 Matty went by a roundabout way so that he could pass the
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 M E S S E N G E R I 7
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home of the schoolteacher, a good-hearted man with a deep 2
red stain that covered half of his face. Birthmark, it was called. 3
When Matty was new to Village, he had sometimes found 4
himself staring at the man because he had never known anyone 5
before with such a mark. Where Matty had come from, flaws 6
like that were not allowed. People were put to death for less. 7
But here in Village, marks and failings were not consid- 8
ered flaws at all. They were valued. The blind man had been 9
given the true name Seer and was respected for the special vi- 10
sion that he had behind his ruined eyes. 11
The schoolteacher, though his true name was Mentor, was 12
sometimes affectionately called “Rosy” by the children because 13
of the crimson birthmark that spread across his face. Children 14
loved him. He was a wise and patient teacher. Matty, just a 15
boy when he first came here to live with the blind man, had 16
attended school full time for a while, and still went for added 17
learning on winter afternoons. Mentor had been the one who 18
taught him to sit still, to listen, and eventually to read. 19
He passed by the schoolteacher’s house not to see Men- 20
tor, or to admire the lavish flower garden, but in hopes of see- 21
ing the schoolteacher’s pretty daughter, who was named Jean 22
and who had recently teased Matty with the promise of a kiss. 23
Often she was in the garden, weeding, in the evenings. 24
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2 But tonight there was no sign of her, or her father. Matty
3 saw a fat spotted dog sleeping on the porch, but it appeared
4 that no one was at home.
5 Just as well, he thought. Jean would have delayed him with
6 her giggles and teasing promises — which always came to noth-
7 ing, and Matty knew that she made them to all the boys — and
8 he should not even have made the side trip in hopes of seeing
9 her.
10 He took a stick and drew a heart in the dirt on the path
11 beside her garden. Carefully he put her name in the heart, and
12 his own below it. Maybe she would see it and know he had
13 been there, and maybe she would care.
14 “Hey, Matty! What are you doing?” It was his friend Ra-
15 mon, coming around the corner. “Have you had supper? Want
16 to come eat with us?”
17 Quickly Matty moved toward Ramon, hiding the heart
18 traced in the dirt behind him and hoping his friend wouldn’t
19 notice it. It was always fun, in a way, to go to Ramon’s home-
20 place, because his family had recently traded for something
21 called a Gaming Machine, a large decorated box with a handle
22 that you pulled to make three wheels spin around inside. Then
23 a bell rang and the wheels stopped at a small window. If their
24 pictures matched, the machine spit out a chunk of candy. It
25 was very exciting to play.
 M E S S E N G E R I 9
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Sometimes he wondered what they had sacrificed for the 2
Gaming Machine, but one never asked. 3
“We ate already,” he said. “I have to go someplace before 4
it gets dark, so we ate early.” 5
“I’d come with you, but I have a cough, and Herbalist 6
said I shouldn’t run around too much. I promised to go right 7
home,” Ramon said. “But if you wait, I’ll run and ask . . .” 8
“No,” Matty replied quickly. “I have to go alone.” 9
“Oh, it’s for a message?” 10
It wasn’t, but Matty nodded. It bothered him a little to 11
lie about small things. But he always had; he had grown up ly- 12
ing, and he still found it strange that the people in this place 13
where he now lived thought lying was wrong. To Matty, it was 14
sometimes a way of making things easier, more comfortable, 15
more convenient. 16
“See you tomorrow, then.” Ramon waved and hurried on 17
toward his own homeplace. 18
19
( ( (
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Matty knew the paths of Forest as if he had made them. And 21
indeed, some of them were of his making, over the years. The 22
roots had flattened as he made his way here and there, seeking 23
the shortest, safest route from place to place. He was swift and 24
quiet in the woods, and he could feel the direction of things 25
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2 without landmarks, in the same way that he could feel weather
3 and was able to predict rain long before the clouds came or
4 there was a shift in wind. Matty simply knew.
5 Others from Village rarely ventured into Forest. It was
6 dangerous for them. Sometimes Forest closed in and entangled
7 people who had tried to travel beyond. There had been ter-
8 rible deaths, with bodies brought out strangled by vines or
9 branches that had reached out malevolently around the throats
10 and limbs of those who decided to leave Village. Somehow
11 Forest knew. Somehow, too, it knew that Matty’s travels were
12 benign and necessary. The vines had never reached out for him.
13 The trees seemed, sometimes, almost to part and usher him
14 through.
15 “Forest likes me,” he had proudly commented once to the
16 blind man.
17 Seer had agreed. “Maybe it needs you,” he pointed out.
18 The people needed Matty, too. They trusted him to know
19 the paths, to be safe on them, and to do the errands that re-
20 quired traveling through the thick woods with its complicated,
21 mazelike turnings. He carried messages for them. It was his
22 job. He thought that when it came time to be assigned his true
23 name, Messenger would be the choice. He liked the sound of it
24 and looked forward to taking that title.
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But this evening Matty was not carrying or collecting a 2
message, though he had fi bbed and told Ramon so. He headed 3
to a clearing he knew of, a place that lay just beyond a thick 4
stand of bristly pines. Deftly he jumped a small brook, then 5
turned off the worn path to proceed between two trees, push- 6
ing his way through. These trees had grown fast in recent years, 7
and now the clearing was completely concealed and had be- 8
come Matty’s private place. 9
He needed privacy for this thing he was discovering about 10
himself: a place to test it in secret, to weigh his own fear for 11
what it meant. 12
It was dim in the clearing. Behind him, the sun was start- 13
ing to set over Village, and the light that reached down through 14
Forest was pinkish and pale. Matty made his way across the 15
mossy ground of the clearing to a thicket of tall ferns near the 16
base of a tree. He squatted there and listened, leaning his head 17
toward the ferns. Softly he made a sound, one he had prac- 18
ticed; a brief moment later, he heard the sound he had both 19
hoped and dreaded to hear, in response. 20
He reached gently into the undergrowth and lifted out a 21
small frog. From his hand, it looked up at him through bulg- 22
ing, unafraid eyes, and made the sound again: churrump. 23
Churrump. 24
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2 Churrump.
3 Matty repeated the frog’s throaty sound, as if they were
4 conversing. Though he was nervous, the back-and-forth sounds
5 made him laugh a little. He examined the slick green body
6 carefully. The frog made no effort to leap from his hand. It
7 was passive in his palm, and the deep translucent throat quiv-
8 ered.
9 He found what he was looking for. In a way, he had hoped
10 he would not. His life would be easier, Matty knew, if the
11 little frog were unmarked and ordinary. But it was not; he had
12 known it would not be; and he knew that things were all shift-
13 ing for him now. His future had taken a new and secret turn. It
14 was not the frog’s fault, he realized, and gently he replaced the
15 small green creature in the tall ferns and watched the fronds
16 tremble as it moved away, unaware. He realized that he was
17 trembling as well.
18
( ( (
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20 Returning to Village along the path that was deep in shadows
21 now, Matty heard sounds from the area beyond the market-
22 place. At first he thought in surprise that people were singing.
23 Singing was common in Village, but usually not outdoors, not
24 in the evening. Puzzled, he paused and listened. It was not
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singing at all, Matty realized, but the rhythmic and mournful 2
sound they called keening, the sound of loss. He set aside his 3
other worries and began to hurry through the evening’s last 4
light to the homeplace, where the blind man would be waiting 5
and would explain. 6
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