Messenger - Lois Lowry [28]
Leader took several deep breaths. "Matty," he said, "I'm going to try again to see beyond Forest. I'm going to try to see Seer's daughter and her needs. You may stay with me now, because whether you make this journey will depend on what I learn. But be aware that it is very hard for me to do this twice in a row. Don't be distressed as you watch."
He stood again and went to the window. Matty, knowing he could be of no help, went to the corner where Frolic was asleep and sat down beside his puppy. From there he watched Leader's body tense, as if he were in pain. He heard Leader gasp and then moan slightly.
The young man's blue eyes remained open but no longer seemed to be looking at the ordinary things in the room or through the window. He had gone, eyes and whole being, far into a place that Matty could not perceive and where no one could follow him.
He seemed to shimmer.
Finally he slumped into the chair, shaking, and tried to catch his breath.
Matty went to him, stood beside him, and waited while Leader rested. He remembered how he felt after he had healed the puppy and its mother. He remembered the desperate need to sleep.
"I reached where she is," Leader said when he could speak again.
"Did she know you were there? Could she feel you there?"
Leader shook his head. "No. To make her aware of me would have taken more energy than I had. It's so very far, and Forest is so thick now, to go through."
Matty had a sudden thought. "Leader? Do you think two gifts could meet?"
Leader, still breathing hard, stared at him. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure. But what if you could go halfway—and she could, too? So you could meet in the middle with your gifts? It wouldn't be so hard if you only went halfway. If you met."
Leader's eyes were closed, now. "I don't know, Matty," he said.
Matty waited but Leader said nothing more, and after a while Matty feared he was asleep. "Frolic?" he called, and the puppy woke, stirred, and came to him.
"Leader," Matty said, leaning close to him, "I'm going to go. I'm going to get the blind man's daughter."
"Be very careful," Leader murmured. His eyes were closed. "It is dangerous now."
"I will. I always am."
"Don't waste your gift. Don't spend it."
"I won't," Matty replied, though he was not certain what the words meant.
"Matty?"
"Yes?" He was at the top of the stairs now, holding Frolic, who still couldn't manage the staircase on his own.
"She's quite lovely, isn't she?"
Matty shrugged. He understood that Leader was referring to Kira but the blind man's daughter was older than he. She had been like a big sister to him. No one in the old place had thought her lovely. They had been contemptuous of her weakness.
"She has a crooked leg," Matty reminded Leader. "She leans on a stick to walk."
"Yes," Leader said. "She's very lovely." But his voice was hard to hear now, and in a second he was asleep. Matty, holding Frolic, hurried down the stairs.
***
It was late in the day by the time Matty was ready to go. It had rained heavily, and though the rain had stopped, wind still blew, and the leaves of the trees fluttered and revealed their pale undersides. The sky was dark, from the storm and from the approach of evening.
He placed the packet of messages inside his rolled blanket. By the sink, the blind man was putting food into Matty's backpack. He could not carry enough for the entire journey; it was too long. But Matty was accustomed to living on the food that Forest provided. He would feed himself along the way when what Seer packed was gone.
"While you're away, I'll be fixing the spare room for her. Tell her that, Matty. She'll have a comfortable place to live. And she can have a garden. I know that's important to her. She's never been without a garden."
"I won't need to convince her. She's always said she'd come when the time was right. Now it is. Leader could tell. So she'll know, too. You said she has a gift." Matty, folding a sweater, tried to reassure the blind man.
"It's hard to leave the only place you've known."
"You did it,"