It was still the palest of blond, almost white. It curled up like the letter C, with a little curlicue at the end, as if to emphasise its shape.
Using the thin tipped brush covered in resin, she carefully coated the back of the lock of hair, then pressed it onto the parchment in front of her, fingertips smoothing it down until it was secure. It was a different type of entry to the ones they'd originally created in the book - but as Peeta had gently pointed out when they first added Dylan's photo, it was a memory book, one full of stories and anecdotes and remembrances that they wanted to make sure they didn't forget.
A lock of hair from her little boy, before it darkened and lost the innocent pale shade she knew he'd never retain, was something she definitely wanted to remember, that she definitely wanted to keep.
She picked up a pen, began to print his name, and his date of birth, and a few words about the day-
"Mommy, what are you doing?"
Katniss looked over to see Holly - 5 years old, dirt smeared across her cheek, a hole in the knee of her pants and the bright blue eyes that were identical to Peeta's - standing at the entry to the lounge room.
"I'm uh, writing, baby," she replied, glancing down at the book in front of her. She was normally careful to keep this out of sight and out of reach, and had thought that both Peeta and Holly were out of the house. "Are you ok? I thought you were with Daddy and Uncle Haymitch playing with the geese?"
"A geeses bit Uncy Haymish, and he said a bad word and Daddy yelled at him so I came home," Holly rambled, twisting the end of her thin black braid around her hand.
"Ohhhhh," Katniss replied, trying to hide her grin behind her hand. "Well, that's probably a good idea, because Uncle Haymitch probably yelled back, right?"
"Right!" Holly grinned, showing the gap beside her two front teeth. "I heard him said lotsa bad words!" She scuffed her feet against the polished wooden floor, lowered her voice to barely above a whisper as her eyes flitted to the book. "Are you writing me a story?"
"Um..." Katniss glanced down again, wondered how honest she could be. She and Peeta had agreed, long before Holly had been born, that the book would be something they'd explain to her when she was older. They knew with school that she'd eventually be exposed to the history of Panem and their role in it. Until then, they'd wanted to keep anything to do with it from her.
But the realisation finally hit her that Peeta's comment about the book being filled with things they wanted to remember applied to this as well. She didn't have to explain the past, but she could at least share it.
"Well, not exactly, Hols. But do you want to come look?"
The little girl nodded her head enthusiastically and skipped into the room until she was standing beside Katniss at her spot on the floor beside the coffee table. Katniss gestured towards her lap, where Holly flopped down heavily, then flipped the pages so it was open at the first one. She took a deep breath.
"So, do you remember when Daddy told you Mommy had a sister?" The little head in front of her nodded.
"Yup! You said she was sick and she had to go and live far, far away."
"That's right." Katniss traced a finger over the picture of Prim Peeta had drawn. "Well, this is your Aunty Prim when she was a little girl."
"Ohhhhhhhhh. She's pretty," Holly announced. "She's got light hair like Daddy."
"She does," Katniss agreed. "And see that goat there licking her cheek? That's Lady." She pointed to another, smaller drawing of Prim in the corner of the page that Peeta had added some years after the original. "In this one she's holding her kitty. That's the original Buttercup."
"Like our Buttercups?" Holly asked, turning her head to look up at Katniss, eyes as wide as saucers.
"Yes," Katniss smiled. "Like our Buttercup." She quickly flipped to the next page - before Holly could ask any more questions that Katniss didn't think she could answer without tearing up - to a double page of both of Mr Everdeen and Mr Mellark.
"Who's these?" Holly asked, bouncing up and down slightly.
"This is Grandpa Everdeen and Grandpa Mellark," Katniss said quietly.
The wide-eyed look returned, and Katniss smiled to herself. Other than two conversations the previous year - one where Peeta had explained that sometimes family moved away when they got 'really sick', another where Katniss and Peeta had told Holly about the first time they'd really met - they'd avoided talking about their past as much as they could. Now, she felt bad that she'd kept these images from her little girl for so long.
Slowly but surely they went through the memory book. She showed Holly the perfect renderings of her uncles, the gentle smiling face of Cinna, the wise old eyes of Sae. Finnick's sassy grin, Portia's dark, glossy corkscrew curls, Madge's flushed cheeks while her hands cupped a punnet of strawberries.
There were large chunks of pages she skipped over - "These are old...school friends, baby," she'd choked out, at the pages dedicated to the tributes Twelve had lost - and others where she simply said their name and nothing more before moving on. There were definitely some truths Holly was not ready for.
Eventually, she started to arrive at the few entries they'd slowly begun to add for those still with them, faces Holly recognised and laughed or smiled at. Annie's serene gaze, along with that first picture they ever received of Dylan in the mail. Her mom, out by the beach in District Four, a look in her eyes that had been missing for so long while she lived in Twelve. Delly and Thom and their brood of 5 kids, Johanna with an axe over her shoulder and a smirk on her face.
"Uncy Haymish!" Holly laughed, as they turned the next page. The drawing Peeta had included of their mentor - seated on his front steps, flask in hand and a scowl aimed at the geese that flocked around his feet - was so lifelike there were times Katniss had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a photograph.
"Yep, that's Uncle Haymitch," Katniss agreed.
"He isn't really that grumpy, you know," Holly said importantly, pointing to the ever present lines in his forehead.
"I know," Katniss agreed. "But we'll let him think he is, ok?"
Holly giggled. "Ok!" She patted Katniss' hand, prompting her to flip to the next double page, and she felt the sharp intake of breath that her daughter took.
"Mommy, that's me," she breathed. "I'm in the book!" Her plump fingers reached out and touched the black lock of hair, and the drawings that Peeta had added in over the last five years - one on the day she was born, on her first birthday with her face smeared with cake, her fourth birthday, when they'd surprised her with Buttercup the Second. Then her eyes shifted over to the page beside it, with only the lock of hair and a half a dozen words. "Is this for Ashey?"
"Yes, it's for Asher," Katniss confirmed, her eyes sliding over to the sleeping 6 month old in the portable cot they'd placed in the corner of the room. "And Daddy will draw some pictures in here for him soon."
"When he stops yelling at Uncy Haymish?" She mock whispered, with her hands cupped around her mouth.
"Maybe. Now-"
"Holly! You there? Uncle Haymitch wants to say something to you!" Peeta's voice carried from the backdoor, and Holly leapt to her feet.
"I'm gonna go out to Daddy!" she exclaimed, and Katniss smiled.
"Alright, baby, you go on outside. I'll come out soon, ok?"
Holly nodded, and ran from the room, her footsteps pounding on the wooden floors. Then suddenly she was back, and throwing herself into Katniss' arms, her hands patting against Katniss' braid. "Thank you for the picture book, Mommy. It's pretty," she whispered. And then she was gone again, a ball of energy, yelling for her daddy.
With a soft smile, Katniss finished documenting Asher's first entry.