4

Jonas bikes through the community to choose a final volunteer location before the Ceremony of Twelve and finds Asher’s bicycle outside the House of the Old, along with Fiona’s. Reflecting on the freedom of volunteer hours and peers like Benjamin who have clear paths, Jonas notes he still has no sense of his future Assignment.

Inside, after signing in and hearing that a release earlier has disrupted schedules, Jonas changes into a smock and joins Asher and Fiona in the bathing room. He helps Larissa, an elderly woman, into a tub and bathes her carefully, comforted by the trust and calm of the setting, and recalling similar tenderness when Father bathed Gabriel.

As Jonas works, Larissa eagerly recounts Roberto’s release that morning. She contrasts it with Edna’s unremarkable life story, then describes Roberto’s accomplishments as Instructor of Elevens, Planning Committee member, parent, and designer of the Central Plaza landscaping. Jonas listens and prompts for details of the ceremony.

Larissa outlines the ritual: the telling of Roberto’s life, a toast, the anthem, Roberto’s good-bye speech, and well-wishes from others. She emphasizes Roberto’s visible happiness as he bowed and exited through the special door of the Releasing Room, while admitting no one outside the committee knows what release actually is.

Jonas expresses a wish to have witnessed it, and Larissa wonders why children cannot attend, joking with Jonas about suggesting an enlargement of the Releasing Room to the committee. Jonas helps Larissa from the tub, ending his shift with heightened curiosity about release and continued uncertainty about his own Assignment.