As Jonas made his way down the hill, he saw a girl in the distance. He pulled on the rope and the sled slowly came to a stop, right next to the girl.

The girl had short brown hair and light brown eyes. She was wearing a heavy jacket and pants. She stared at Jonas, and then she picked up the sled.

“This is mine.” She said as she gently handed Gabe to Jonas. Jonas took Gabe, but didn’t take his eyes off of the girl. The girl looked familiar to Jonas, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen him. In a dream perhaps?

“I’m Jonas.” Jonas said.

“I’m Emily. Is that your brother?” The girl asked.

“Uh…” Jonas looked down at Gabe and smiled. “Yeah. He is my brother. This is Gabe.”

“He’s so cute! I love him!” Emily said as she touched Gabe’s nose.

Jonas hesitated. “You, you love him?” Jonas said, surprised that she had feelings.

“Uh huh.”

“You have feelings?”

“Uh huh. Why?” Emily stared at Jonas, trying to figure out what was going on. She stopped playing with Gabe and stepped back.

“Are you a receiver also? I thought there was only one!” Jonas said.

“Receiver. What’s that? And…Jonas, what ARE you talking about?” Emily asked.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Emily. I’m, I just haven’t eaten in, in a very long time.” Jonas said, trying to cover up what sounded insane in Emily’s opinion. He remembered what the Giver had told him, how in other communities, everyone had memories, and how they put them in books for people to read about. Emily probably also saw in color.

“Well, Jonas. If you and, uh little Gabe here want, you can come over to my house.” Emily said.

“Um, that would be…Thank you.” Jonas said as he followed Emily home. Jonas finally remembered where he had seen this girl before. In a dream. The Giver had given him the memory of his sister. She had looked just like her. She had run away from the community when she was a six, and the community hadn’t seen her since. The community had been told that she had died, so only Jonas the Giver and the Elders knew about her.

“Fiona, I mean, uh, Emily.”

“Yes Jonas.”

“Are you, are you my sister?”

There was a long pause as Emily looked at the ground. “Yes.” Gabe giggled while Jonas and Emily looked at each other, trying to figure out what to say next.

“So I guess you know that Gabe isn’t my brother!” Emily slowly nodded. “Well…He has no family, so I think I’ll make him my brother.”

“Jonas, we need to talk, about, you know, how I’m your sister.”

“Why did you run away?”

“I don’t know! It wasn’t the place for me! I, I couldn’t stay there. I had already broken a rule, big time.” Emily said through tears.

“What did you do?”

“Your father, he used to be my father also, before Lilly. I had followed him to work one day, and I saw him kill someone. It was the most tragic event in my life. I couldn’t take it! Knowing that there were people in the world that killed babies because they were identical to there twin, knowing that I could be released because of breaking that rule. So i…I decided to release myself. Well, not kill myself, just go and run away, and get away from all that I had ever known. That’s why I’m here. My parents found me alone, about to die and took me home with them.” Emily turned around to see if there was anyone watching.

“I never thought I would see you again Jonas. We are really related though. Not that fake related that you know about. Here, you don’t have to apply to get married, you marry who you love.” Emily said.

“I could marry Fiona?” Jonas said.

“Fiona?”

“Never mind!”

“Yes, you could marry Fiona. My point is though Jonas, do you really want to go back, knowing that there’s another life out here, waiting for you?”

“I want what’s best for Gabe.”

“Then stay here.” Jonas looked down at Gabe. Gabe giggled and threw his hand onto Jonas’s nose. Jonas put his hand on the infant’s hand.

“I, I guess I’ll stay here.”

Emily smiled and ran to the big blue house ahead of them. Jonas put his arms around Gabe and ran as fast as he could, which wasn’t that fast at all. Emily knocked on the door.

A tall woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles on her nose opened the door. “Mom! Its,”

“Jonas.” The woman said with a huge grin. “We’ve been waiting for your arrival.”