Messenger: Chapter Five Summary & Analysis

As Matty and Seer unearth beets in the garden, Matty says that Jean's dog had three puppies and she's promised that Matty can have one. Seer teases Matty that if Jean is the girl who promised him a kiss, he'd suggest taking the kiss. Matty says that he misses Branch, his old dog, and Seer gently says that a puppy would be fun. That afternoon, Matty goes to Jean's but finds Jean in distress. She explains that all the dogs came down with some illness, and two of the puppies died. The mother dog won't drink the usual cure, and the puppy is too little to drink.

As Jean leads Matty to the dogs, Matty looks around the house and doesn't notice anything silly or frivolous that might point to a trade, though he remembers that there are other kinds of trades for things you can't see. Those are the most dangerous, but he doesn't know how they work. Jean takes Matty to the storage shed and Matty looks at the puppy and its mother. As he touches the puppy, he feels a painful jolt in his finger and jerks away. He remembers what people say about lightning—to go indoors—and thinks of one Village farmer who was struck by lightning. It's the same sensation that Matty felt in the clearing one day, and he's tried to put it out of his mind, but he knows he needs to test it.

Matty asks where Mentor is, and Jean explains that he's at a meeting. With amusement, Jean says that she believes he just wants to court Stocktender's widow. Matty briskly sends Jean to Herbalist for a variety of herbs, though he knows the herbs won't do anything. Jean flounces off and when she's gone, Matty puts a hand on the mother dog and one on the puppy and wills them to live. When Jean returns later, Matty lets her believe that the herbs cured them. He sits weakly against the wall and heads home when he has enough strength to do so. At the homeplace, Matty is relieved that Seer isn't home and crawls into bed.

Matty remembers healing the frog. He'd been in Forest and stepped on the frog on accident. The frog was injured, and its hind leg was almost severed from its body. Matty inspected the frog and began to dig a grave but as he tried to put it in the ground, the frog became painfully connected to his hand. The frog's body twitched, and finally Matty was able to put it down. Scared, Matty got ready to leave, but then decided to find a rock to cut off the hurt leg. As he touched the frog again, Matty felt his own blood flowing into it. When the sensation ended, Matty felt sick, and the frog hopped away on two useful legs. In bed, Matty thinks that he needs to learn to control this power, whatever it is. He starts to cry and finally falls asleep. His dreams are scary at first, but soon become dreams of calm and healing.