Messenger - Lois Lowry [37]
The top edge of the embroidery had changed as well. Now, beside the house he had recognized as his, he could see the blind man standing. His posture was that of someone waiting for something.
And suddenly Matty could see, too, crowds of people at the edge of Village. They were dragging huge logs. Someone—it looked like Mentor—was giving directions. They were preparing to build a wall.
Matty sat back. He blinked, astounded, then leaned forward to look at it again. He realized he wanted to search the scene for a glimpse of Jean. But now the details were gone. He could still see the colored stitches, but it was a simple—exquisitely beautiful, but simple—landscape again. For a moment he saw the people, flat now, with no detail, but then they faded abruptly and were gone.
Kira set the embroidery frame down on the floor and rose from her chair. "We must leave in the morning," she said. "I'll prepare food."
Matty was still stunned by what he had just seen. "I don't understand," he said.
"Do you understand what happened when you stabbed your knee with that knife and then closed and cured the wound with your hands?"
"No," he admitted. "I don't. It's my gift. That's all."
"Well," Kira said matter-of-factly, "this is mine. My hands create a picture of the future. Yesterday morning I held that same fabric and saw you come out of Forest. In the afternoon I opened the door and there you were."
She chuckled. "I hadn't seen Frolic, though. He was a nice surprise." The dog awoke and looked up at the sound of his name. He came to her to be patted.
"While you napped," she went on, "I stitched again and saw Father waiting for me. That was just this afternoon. Now they have started to move the logs into place for the wall. And—did you notice the change in Forest, Matty?"
He shook his head. "I was looking at the people."
"Forest is thickening. So we must hurry, Matty."
Odd. It was the same thing that Leader had seen. "Kira?" Matty asked.
"Yes?" She was taking food from a cupboard.
"Did you see a young man with blue eyes? About your age? We call him Leader."
She stood still for a moment, thinking. A strand of dark hair fell across her face, and she brushed it back with her hand. Then she shook her head. "No," she said. "But I felt him."
15
They woke early. The sun was just rising, and through the window Matty could see that the gardens were bathed in amber light. Thick around a tall trellis, a vine that had been simply green when he arrived the day before was now profuse with opened blue and white morning glories. Beyond the trellis, on tall stalks, tiny aster blossoms, deep pink with golden centers, trembled in the dawn breeze.
He felt her presence, suddenly, and turned to see Kira standing behind him, looking out.
"It will be hard for you to leave this," he said.
But she smiled and shook her head. "It's time. I always knew the time would come. I told my father that long ago."
"He says you'll have a garden there. He wanted me to tell you that."
She nodded. "Eat quickly, Matty, and we'll go. I've fed Frolic already."
***
"Do you need help?" Matty asked, his mouth full of the sweet muffin she had given him, as he watched her arrange a wrapped bundle on her back, crisscrossing the straps that held it around her chest. "What's in it?"
"No, I can do it just fine. It's my frame and some needles and thread."
"Kira, the journey's hard and long. There won't be time to sit and sew." Then Matty fell quiet. Of course she needed this. It was the way her gift came.
She had put food inside Matty's pack as well as in his rolled blanket. It was heavier than it had been coming, for there were two of them now. But Matty felt strong. He was almost relieved that she had not allowed him to mend her leg, for it would have weakened him badly, cost them perhaps several days as he rested from it, and sent them out less prepared