Son: Week of 11/25/13

Pages: 94-266
Prompt: Summarize what you've read.

     I have just finished the second "story" in the book "Son", and I have to say, a lot has happened!

     It started out with Jonas (a character from the giver) running away with baby Gabe to elsewhere. Claire sees this, and wants to be able to keep her baby, even though she is technically not allowed to, so she climbs onto the ship to elsewhere that stops in her community once a year, and they set sail. Claire was going through so many things, that she seemed very ill, and the people on the ship weren't sure if she was going to live, but she did! She made many new friends on the ship too! She met Tall Andras, who seemed to be in love with Claire, though when he found out she had already given birth and was "touched" he lost interest. She also met Alys, who she was very fond of. Alys took care of Claire before she was well enough to do things on her own, and took care of others with sicknesses too! Also when Claire came aboard, she met Bethan, who played with her two other little friends! They would have tea parties and search for twigs and leaves and sticks to create things for their tea parties. Bethan's mother was Bryn, who gave birth to a baby girl, and twin baby boys. Alys, took care of Bryn when she was in labor. 

     When Claire was aboard the ship, and on new land with her new friends, she learned many things. She learned about colors, and animals, and seasons, and weddings! She had no clue what any of those things were, and some of them made her quite uncomfortable! She really did not like animals, or creepy crawly bugs! She absolutely hated the beetles! Though, she really liked the whole concept of colors, and how the colors could set the mood of things, and she really enjoyed the life they brought to things. This was the first time in the story where they even talked about how people in Claire's society didn't see, nor know what colors were! She also liked the feeling of snow and rain, because she had never experienced them before!

     When Bryn (Bethan's mother) eventually went into labor, and prepared to give birth to her new baby girl, Claire was scared and nervous but she didn't know why. She had been forgetting things all along her journey, and she couldn't remember the horrible experience she had, had with her first birth. When Alys began to help Bryn give birth, Claire was acting normal, and seemed fine as she helped Alys out. Though, when the baby was out, Alys took out a knife, and Clare flipped out! She didn't want Alys to cut open Bryn, but Alys explained that she would only be cutting the cord that connected the baby to Bryn. After Claire was more calm, she explained to Alys the horrible experience she had with giving birth, and how she had been cut open and though it must have been painful, she didn't know it, because she had taken a special medicine. The scar that was left though, was painful to look at, or think about. She later told Bryn about her experience, though, word got out, and soon everyone knew that she had once given birth, and lost her child.

     After remembering more about her birth, she remembered the whole reason that she was on the ship in the first place, because she wanted to find her baby who had been taken away from her. One day she talked to a man named Einar. She told Einar that she wanted to find her child, and he told her that she could find him, if she climbed over the ledge, and she was willing to do anything to be able to get over it, and to be able to see him again. So, Einar started training her, to be able to climb over, for he once tried to as well. Claire strengthened her legs, arms, feet, and hands, until she knew she was strong enough to make it over. She set off, and climbed and was careful not to fall, or lose her steadiness, because she knew that one wrong step, could mean death. She overcame obstacles until she was at the top of the ledge, where Einar told her that she would meet a man in a black cloak who would help her if she gave him a favor in return. When he approached her, she told him that she would like to have her baby, and told him that she really didn't have anything for him in return, but he said that she did, and she believed him. He said that in turn for him giving Claire her baby, she would have to give him her youth. She agreed, and as she stated that she agreed, she began to feel weak, her body seemed to shrink and shrivel up, and her hair turned to gray! 

     So, that's where I left off, and it was a really big cliff hanger in my opinion! I can't wait to see what happens next!