Matched

Three Officials come to Cassia’s work the next day to administer her test. Cassia clears her head and focuses on her sorting task. When she’s finished, an older male Official shakes her hand and says she did well. As the Officials leave, he adds that they’ll be watching her more carefully. Later that night—the night of Em’s Match Banquet—it’s Cassia’s turn to wear datatags for dream monitoring. She has a nightmare in which Em dies after she gives the latter a red pill. Cassia wakes up in a cold sweat and wonders if the red pill induces death. She deems what she’s been feeling as “the dying of the light” (158)—a line from one of Grandfather’s poems.

Cassia decides to look at the new microcard of Xander but finds her mother awake using the portscreen. Cassia’s father is also awake, and when he sees her carrying the microcard, he jokes that he once acted the same way with Cassia’s mother. For them, it was love at first sight. Cassia’s mother finishes her call and explains that she has to go away for work. Cassia goes to her room and overhears her parents: Her mother is worried that she is still upset about Grandfather’s sample but adds that it was “an honest mistake” (162). Cassia realizes her father hasn’t told her mother the truth—and that “their Match isn’t perfect after all” (162).

Hiking is cancelled the next day due to rain. Cassia heads to the school library for study hours and looks through the Hundred Poems list. She doesn’t find anything by Dylan Thomas. She wonders why Grandfather gave her the two poems. If he wants her to fight authority—to not go gentle—she will lose everything. Cassia wishes she could look at the poems again on paper but hasn’t forgotten their words—even though she’s tried. She sees Em at the meal hall, who has been happily Matched with a boy named Dalen from Acadia Province. There is jealousy in Cassia’s voice when she asks Em what Dalen looks like, and she realizes Xander is listening. He doesn’t look at her, and she’s worried she’s hurt his feelings. Em tells Cassia that she gave her compact to Ky so he could return it to her at hiking. When Cassia notes she has yet to receive the compact (as hiking was cancelled), Xander finally looks at her and says she “can trust Ky” (167).

At hiking the next day, Ky returns Cassia’s compact. She thinks he lets his hand linger on hers “the smallest bit longer than necessary” (168). Ky heads for the woods, and Cassia loses sight of him. When she’s alone, she realizes that Ky gave her something else. Her “compact” is actually a gold artifact with the letters “N.E.S.W.” (169) and a spinning arrow—which she later learns is a compass. Cassia wonders why Ky gave it to her, thinking that the woods hold “far too many secrets” (169). As Cassia reaches the top of the hill, the Officer tells her that she and Ky are in charge as one of the others, Lon, has fallen. Cassia asks Ky what he’s doing, and he tells her that he’s writing. He writes the letter “C”—which she fantasizes is for her name. She asks how he learned, as no one knows how to write. She takes a droplet of water and tries to write along a leaf, imitating Ky’s movement. Cassia asks him to teach her, but he tells her that he’s not supposed to. She reminds him that they aren’t supposed to do any of what they’re doing; she asks him again, but he won’t respond. Soon, they are joined by other people, and Cassia has to enter their names into a datapod. Ky accompanies the Officer down the hill to assist the injured Lon. Cassia gives up on being taught by Ky until she feels someone brush past and softly say “yes” in her rush to get home.

Cassia reaches Ky on the hill at hiking and asks him for another letter, now that she’s mastered “C.” He tells her that she can teach herself, but she wants to learn how he does it—in cursive. While the Officer waits for the other students to arrive, Ky shows Cassia how to trace an “A” in the ground. A student named Livy arrives, and they quickly destroy the letters with their feet. Cassia tells Ky that she wants to learn the letters in her Dylan Thomas poem. He asks her to tell him the words, so he can remember them too. Cassia decides she can trust him and whispers the words, her heart “about to burst” (175). Ky hands her something and tells her to use it for practice; she should then destroy it.

When Cassia is alone that night, she observes Ky’s napkin with the phrase “Two lives” (177) in cursive. She interprets it to mean Ky’s life before and after he arrived in Oria Province. She doesn’t know how he found a writing tool and decides he must know an old secret. Cassia softly whispers the napkin phrase, her “heart beating fast” (177). Ky has also drawn two pictures of himself—one in which he appears young and looks up, the other in which he seems older and looks down. The pictures include a line that reads “Which one is the true one, I don’t ask, they don’t tell” (178). Cassia doesn’t know what either means.

Cassia’s father tells her that she has a message from the Matching Department. Cassia incinerates Ky’s napkin, along with her dinnerware. She goes into the foyer to talk to the Official, who tells her that they’ve planned a supervised outing for her and Xander. Shortly after, Xander comes over and asks to speak to Cassia before curfew. Outside, he asks her if she ever thought about her Match before the Banquet. Cassia responds that she did but realizes this wasn’t what Xander wanted to hear. He takes her hand, and she wants him to kiss her. Instead, he squeezes her hand and leaves. Cassia sees Ky coming home from work and walks over to greet him. He returns her Grandfather’s compact in a brown envelope, and she watches him walk away.

Cassia sprints up the hill during hiking, eager to see Ky. However, when she gets to the top, she finds Ky already with Livy. They are sitting together, and Cassia realizes that he’s teaching her how to write. She quickly walks away, feeling defeated. At the bottom of the hill, the Officer tells the group that they’re going to a new spot the next day. Ky quietly jokes that he was starting to feel like Sisyphus, and Cassia stops herself from asking who that is. She wonders if she’s a fool for thinking she was special to Ky. As they leave, Ky asks Cassia if she wants to tell him anything, but she only shakes her head. She doesn’t feel like sharing more of the Dylan Thomas poem with him.

Cassia gets ready for her outing with Xander, wishing her mother was around to help her. The doorbell rings, and Cassia still doesn’t feel ready. She finds the fact that Xander can’t come inside as a symbol of “what is wrong here” (190). The pair ride the air train with a “bored-looking Official” (190) to a private dining hall. Cassia suddenly recalls a memory in which a freshly-picked flower fell out of her mother’s hair when the latter was tucking her into bed. She realizes that her father “bends the rules” (191) for his loved ones, as picking flowers is forbidden. He’s not unlike Xander, who did the same thing when he gave Em his green pill.

Xander links his arm with Cassia’s, and they walk through the dining hall, observing the stares of the other patrons. A waiter brings their food, and Xander notes how large his predetermined portions have been getting lately. Cassia feels as though hers are getting smaller. She has trouble wrapping the noodles around her fork and feels herself getting emotional. A worried Xander looks at Cassia. She tries to give him a reassuring smile, but then asks why he didn’t kiss her the other night. He tells her it’s hard when they’re always being watched, adding that there are more Officials patrolling the Borough lately. Cassia wonders if Ky doesn’t touch her because he doesn’t want to get caught—or perhaps, he only thinks of her as a friend.

When Cassia and Xander return from their date, they see an air car in front of Em’s house. Their date Official departs, and they watch as three Officials exit Em’s house with a container. Em comes out crying and tells the pair that Officials are collecting everyone’s artifacts. They told Em that they saw her with one at her Match Banquet, and Em, overcome with fear, explained it belonged to Cassia. Remembering Ky’s artifact, Cassia tells Em that she has to get home and tries to walk as quickly as possible without attracting attention. Xander catches up to her, telling her to give him the compact so he can hide it.

Cassia runs to her room and grabs Ky’s artifact instead of her compact. She doesn’t want Ky to become an Anomaly if the artifact is discovered, and she wants to preserve “the last piece of his old life” (200). She runs back outside, calling to Xander. They kiss and embrace as planned, and she slips the artifact inside his shirt. Cassia tells Xander not to open the artifact when he hides it. She kisses him with meaning despite “falling for Ky” (201).

Bram calls out to Cassia, explaining that their father is helping with the collection of artifacts. They embrace, knowing they are going to lose Grandfather’s watch. Cassia tells her brother to look at the watch one more time before he has to get rid of it. He asks if they can hide it, but she “won’t risk Bram” (203). When the Officials arrive, they explain that it has been determined that artifacts promote inequality. They search the house and conclude there is “nothing valuable”—to which Cassia mentally argues that they do “have things of value” (205). The Officials take the siblings’ artifacts, reminding them that they can come see them in the museum. Cassia goes to her room and starts to rip the envelope that once contained Ky’s artifact. She notices more words and two pictures of Ky. In one, he is drinking the falling rain; in the other, he appears to be drowning in it.

When Xander gets off the air train the next morning for swimming, he whispers to Cassia that he hid the artifact beneath the newroses at Ky’s house. At hiking, the students are paired up according to ability, which places Cassia with Ky. They are to climb the Hill and mark obstacles, so the Society can clear a path. When Ky and Cassia are alone, he asks about his compass. She angrily tells him it’s under his newroses, thinking his artifact is all he cares about. Ky replies that he was up all night worried that he got Cassia in trouble because he cares about her. She suddenly has the desire to touch him and run her fingers down his face. She steps back at the intensity of her feelings. Ky guesses that she had help from Xander.

While walking, Cassia asks if Ky was teaching Livy how to write the previous day. He explains that Livy had seen them writing and wanted to know what they were doing; he told her that they were drawing trees. Cassia apologizes for her behavior, and Ky teases her for being jealous. She asks him why he gave her his artifact, to which he replies that he wanted her to see it. Cassia interprets this to mean he wanted “someone to see him” (213). She wants to “reach for him” (213) but stops herself because she doesn’t want to betray Xander. Instead, Cassia recites Dylan Thomas’s poem in full. Ky observes that despite the turmoil within the poem, he finds it calming. Cassia agrees, adding that it’s reassuring to know that others have felt the same way. They continue to recite the poem to each other as they climb the Hill. Before hiking is over, Ky teaches Cassia how to write the rest of her name. He tells her that they can learn more letters the next day and gives her another napkin. Cassia thanks him for teaching her how to write, and he thanks her for hiding his artifact and sharing her poem.

Em apologizes to Cassia for the compact incident as they walk home after school. Cassia reassures her and says she’s glad they “both got to enjoy it” (216). Cassia embraces her mother, who is waiting outside their house. Her mother apologizes for the removal of the compact as well but, as usual, doesn’t say anything negative about the Government. As they eat, Cassia asks her mother about her work trip. Her mother only shares that she filed a confidential report after going to a few different locations to look at crops. When Cassia’s mother asks if she’s thinking about Xander, she simply smiles—unable to confess that she’s not only thinking about someone else, but decided that the Society is wrong.

After dinner, Cassia goes to her room and pulls out Ky’s new napkin. She cries at the drawing of a village where everyone lies on their backs except for two Ky’s. The younger Ky holds the word “Mother” in one hand and the word “Father” in the other, as rain turns to “Ammunition” (222). The older Ky is turned away from the village, smiling and hands clenched as Officials watch him. A poem is included about rain changing “from blue to black” and leaving “nothing” (222).

Later, at the game center, Cassia notices only a few, stressed Officials present—concluding that “Somewhere, things aren’t going quite right” (223). Cassia wants to hold Ky’s hand, knowing he watched his parents die and likely recalls this every time it rains. In an unusual move, Xander challenges Ky to a game of chance. Livy joins them to watch Ky, and Cassia feels sick with jealousy. She worries Livy’s view of Ky is “purer” than her own. After Xander and Ky end their game in a tie, the former leads Cassia into the hallway and tells her that he’s noticed the latter deliberately loses games and is uncertain why. Ky clearly doesn’t want the Officials to know how smart he is, which Xander respects. When they return, Ky challenges Xander to a game of skill. Cassia sits between them, feeling “a pull from either side” (228). As Ky deliberately loses the game, he holds Cassia’s gaze, making it clear “He knows exactly how to play, and that’s why he loses every time” (230).

Cassia is distracted at work on Sunday, wishing she could talk to Ky about his parents. She’s interrupted by a message from Norah to report to the supervisor’s station, where Officials congratulate and explain her next step—a “real-life sort” (232). Cassia reflects on the artifact removal, her friends leaving school for work, and her mother’s trip. At home, Cassia’s mother is packing for another, potentially longer, trip. Cassia notices her mother’s tablet case is missing its green pill. She looks at her mother as they embrace, making it clear she’s “not ashamed of her” (233) for taking the pill (despite Grandfather’s warning in Chapter 10).

At hiking on Monday, Cassia expresses her condolences for Ky’s family. She touches his back to indicate her sincerity, and when he turns around, she sees “the pain in his eyes” (234). She changes the subject and asks him about Sisyphus. Ky says the myth of Sisyphus is one of his father’s favorites, as it follows a man from the Outer Provinces who was always stirring up “trouble for the Society and the Officials” (234). The Society decided to punish Sisyphus, who was classified as an Aberration, by condemning him to push a stone up a mountain forever. Cassia now understands why Ky compares their repetitive walks up the other hill to those of Sisyphus.

Cassia asks Ky why he deliberately loses games, and he responds that he has to. He’s also aware that Xander knows his strategy. Cassia then asks Ky about the color of his eyes. He says they are blue, but Cassia tells him that she sees many different colors. He invites her to look at them and assess their current color; she tells Ky that they are “everything.” As they continue walking, Cassia recognizes that she’s in love and wishes the Society would fall so she and Ky can be together; however, she knows its fall would also make life harder for other people. As the pair build a cairn to mark an obstacle, their fingers intertwine. Ky explains that he can’t be Matched, but if he could be, his Match would be like Cassia. As they continue to hold hands, Cassia decides she “cannot go gently now” (241) for anyone­—not even Xander.