My name: Greasy Sae, well that's what everyone calls me. My real name is Sage, Sage Northwood. But no one remembers that now. The few who would remember are dead. The ones that weren't killed by the capitol were sick of old age. It doesn't bother me that no one remembers my name. It spares me the sadness of having to hear my husband's name said out loud. He was a good man, and I miss him dearly. We were only seventeen when we married. Neither of us had a family, as both of ours had died in a flu pandemic that swept the district. There was no one to tell us that we couldn't. I was working as a laundress and Kale was in the mines. In district 12 were else would he be. Why was he in the mines at seventeen you ask? He was in the mines because there were so few men in the district; they started to recruit at seventeen. It didn't matter that the flu had killed many; the demand for coal in the capitol was still the same.
We were married on March 5. It was a warm day after a long winter; the ice was dripping off the icicles on the high security fence. It was new and as we walked to the justice building to sign the marriage papers we could hear the hum of deadly electricity.
There were stories back then of when it was first put up. Men who had been hunters would try and get out, to that forest to hunt. I would have been a toddler at the time so the memories are not very clear, but I have help remembering...if I want it or not. There are still a few that are in denial, or insane, they are the only ones that challenge the fence now and they always loose...always. Then a family had a charred body to burry, if there is a family.
There have been so many starving lately, so much for equality for all districts and all of Panam, I had seen the newspapers. The capital citizens had always looked so happy and well fed in those pictures, there was something else too. The buildings in the background. They were grand. Grander even than the justice building we were going to get married in. There would be no ceremony or white dress for me on my wedding day not even a rented dress. There was no money for it. We would sign the papers and go back to the little house they had assigned us and toast the little bread that we had saved for the occasion. That was how it was done in district 12, still is. No one knows where the bread toasting originated but the few elderly people I knew said it was something that our people did before we were district 12, before the dark days.
Despite all of the hunger around me I am happy, the day is mild and welcomed after a very long winter.
It didn't take long for us to get married. And soon we are at our new home, the bread is toasted and we are enjoying the feeling of being married. This feeling doesn't last long though. We should have known that it wouldn't last. Nothing seemed to last in the seam, nothing but the hunger.
There was an announcement one day through the great speakers around the town. The capital had enlisted district 6 into finding a better way to get information to the people of Panam. Their method would be arriving in a week.
And they came. I remember it clearly. At first I thought they were sending the message of force and brutality. There seemed to be an endless stream of peacekeepers filing out of the train that had pulled into the station. Then they started to unload great big boxes. At the time we had no idea what was in them or that they would change the way we saw the capital. They were called televisions. They could show moving pictures and sound from anywhere to anyone. This was all new and existing but why are they being delivered by a train full of peacekeepers. Why? Because there were still people alive who remembered the dark days.
They were called the dark days for a reason but there were still those who remembered what it felt like to make their own choices. There was some freedom in the dark days. These were that same people who were not sure if we had left the dark days behind at all. There were these horrid hunger games, starvation and sickness everywhere. Why? Was this really better? I couldn't say then and can't say now. I wasn't alive for much of the dark days and all I really remember is being scared and hungry, from what I could remember, things hadn't changed that much.
As I said before we were married at seventeen, this meant that we both had one more reaping to make it through. What were the chances that we would make it through? Quite good I thought. We were the youngest of our families and they had never allowed au too sign up for terraces. Both of us had our names in 29 times. That was far less than the others who had entered themselves for the terraces.
During the other hunger games there were reports in the newspaper but they were vague and uninformative. Like they wanted to say more but didn't know how. The writers in the capitol were really only good at writing when it was some stupid little poem that didn't matter to anyone in the districts. You can't eat a poem. It doesn't help you get better when you're sick. It's not practical. Especially when they are all about the glory of Panam. I was thinking even then, you should come here President, and see our little slice of the glory of Panam.
When reaping day came we wore the same clothing that we were married in. It was our best. I was wearing a knee length skirt of dark blue material and a white long sleeved blouse. There was a stain one the cuff but you couldn't see it for the ruff that was there. I also wore a gold chain, on the chain there was a small six pointed star. My mother told me that it was old, older than anyone that I knew and that she had been given it by her mother when she had died. It had apparently been in the family along time. I still have this necklace. No matter how close I had come to starving throughout the years I never sold it. It means so much to me.
Kale wore his best clothes as well. They were black pants and a green shirt. We walked to the square in silence holding onto each other's hand. There was nothing we could do and no where we could run and hide. We went to the sections that were for the girls and boys of our age. We were separated by the rope but we stood as close together as we could. When the funny looking woman, with green hair, who pulled the names plunged her hands in to the large bubble and pulled out a name it was Rose Hawthorn. How sweet a girl to be reaped for such a horrible purpose. And to make matters worse her siblings were all boys. There was no one to volunteer for her. I know what you're going to say. Why not you, you obviously knew her. And it's true there was a second that I thought about volunteering to die for her but I had Kale now I had a life that I could go to after this reaping and never have to step foot on that stage again. Its heart less I know but I was so in love that I couldn't see past Kale who when my name wasn't called gave me such a smile that I thought my heart would melt. We were half way to freedom.
Who am I kidding, I knew that day was a bad day. It didn't feel right. I was shown just how bad a day it was when the male tributes name was pulled. 'Kale Northwood.' I could feel the colour leave my face. Why, why him? Kale looked at me from over the fence and in that moment I knew, we both knew that he would not be the one coming home. In the ten years that there had been a Hunger Game there had never been a victor from twelve.
I tried to hold on I really did but when Kale walked up to the middle of the stage and that woman form the capital said 'happy hunger games! May the odds forever be in your favour.' That's when I collapsed, I had nothing to live for, he was as good as dead.
The next thing I knew I was in my house with some friends around me. They were looking at me anxiously. They told me that I had been unconscious for an hour. Shock they told me. But I didn't need to be told what it was, I knew. And then he was there beside me. He told me.
"I'll be back Sae, I promise. We still have a life right." He smiled and I try to return it. When the time comes I see him of on the train but this time I have friends around me holding me up, making sure that I don't collapse again. There was no news for a few days then there is an announcement on the speakers that we are all to watch the boxes that we were given. You know what we were watching. The tributes being paraded around in the in the capitol. And there he was at the end of the line with Rose. They were dressed like the others to show the industry in their district. When I say dressed I use it loosely, there was my Kale out there for all to see, he and Rose covered only in coal dust. I was embarrassed for them. Watching them I couldn't help but think that it would be better being dressed as a tree or a salmon.
The next day we watched the interviews. Kale talks about me, he is the only married tribute. Then eventually we got the scores. Kale got an eight. I wonder what he showed them. What would a miner have to show? I didn't know at the time. All I knew was that Kale was strong and tall for seventeen. The highest score went to the male tribute from 2, Trek Wales. He was scary looking even through the television transmission. He had a long scare that went from his hair line to his chin. I couldn't tell what had caused it and I never found out.
Then all too soon I was watching Kale in the arena, it was new then, but not the second time they used that arena set up. It was a forest like the one on the other side of our fence. Green and lush. You know it like my Kale got to know it. Beautiful and welcoming until you found out what it was hiding. Mutts, so many mutts.
And that was that, Kale was fighting to the death. He had been assigned a mentor from another district as twelve didn't have one but I don't know how much their advice was actually trying to help, or if he even followed it. I watched him sprint off his pad at the sound of the gun. He was fast, faster than the others. I didn't know this about Kale. This made him lucky. He got to the cornucopia before the others and was away before the blood bath started. It was awful. It was only the ones you would now call careers. They weren't called that back then. The little ones had either been killed by a flying knife or had scampered away unseen. Kale got away with a knife and a pack. That was it. I was proud of Kale. He hid and let the others do the killing while he waited in hiding. I knew that he didn't wasn't to kill any more then he had to. But then as he was waiting in a rock crevice, waiting for night, to go and gather food, he had to come out. Why, because he heard Rose. She was screaming. He ran. Not away but to her, he fought the career. Hand to hand. Apparently the career only had one knife on him and thought it would be enough to finish Rose off. He was wrong. I held my breath watching, the career threw his knife aiming for Kale but as I said before he was fast and dodged it, only getting a small cut on his arm. Kale lunged at his attacker and wrestled him. It was wrestling and boxing. The fists were flying until there was the smallest of cracks and they were both motionless. I thought my Kale was gone. But he pulled himself out from under the other tribute who now had a pool of blood forming around his face. That face that was so menacing when alive now had a sort of calmness to it with its staring eyes. It was Trek Wales. The male tribute from district two. It was an odd sensation watching this, for the first time in my life I was frightened of Kale. How swiftly he had killed, it rattled me. But I reminded myself that this was the arena, this was different that real life. I had known him my whole life and he had never been like this...ever. Then he and Rose made an alliance. It stung a little but I told myself that this was not like the alliance he had with me out of love this was one made out of need for survival, she was also twelve. Rose who was the daughter of the apothecary stitched up Kales arm and they were hiding again. It was the tenth day in the arena. Slowly like all the other games I have been forced to watch over the years since then, the numbers got smaller and smaller. Soon it was down to a hand full. Fighting with each other, with nasty mutts, part bear and part sabre-toothed tiger. They were large with great big long teeth the crossed and once were around a limb would never let go. Not until you died that is. One girl got ripped into pieces.
There was only the two from 12 who were hiding, the girl from four and the boy from seven. He had hacked the girls form 11, 10, 9, and 2 with an axe. And he killed Rose when she went out to get berries. That axe killed almost half of the girls in the arena. It was a sad day in district twelve when Rose was killed, worse than normal. It was lightened slightly when the next day he was poisoned.
The girl from 4 was at the little salt water stream, she was cooking something. There was a fire and a pan she had scavenged from a dead tributes pack. In it was some sort of fish and berries cooking. As she sat on the edge of the water watching her food cook she heard a snap. She ran, but not as far as you would think. When the boy from seven rushed out of the trees he had an emaciated quality that was not there the day before. You know as well as I do the change that can come over your body in a day while in the arena. He looked sick. He ate what was in the pan and as he swallowed the last bite he started to convulse on the ground. The girl from four whose name was Mags returned with a hardened mask on her pretty face. It was the face that the games made them all wear, one of distrust, disgust and self preservation. She said to him.
"Shallow water puffer fish. It's the only one that lives in this stream. That's what you just ate. Pitty you forgot to ask me if it was ready. See shallow water puffer fish is poisonous and only edible after 30 minutes on a very hot flame. But this fire, not nearly hot enough, so it would take three times that time to cook all the poison out of it. Well it's a shame that you won't be able to put to practise this lesson. You do know what it is don't you?" She got no answer. "The lesson is that even in the arena you shouldn't go around and target the girls with that big axe of yours, cause some day a girl is going to cut you down like I just did. You should have just kept to trees." And then she ran off. It took that boy for district seven an hour to die.
Then it was only Kale and Mags. The next day Kale was attacked by a mutt. It was a different kind though. Not the tiger bears that I had seen before it was a fox that had a tail of a scorpion. At first glance like most other foxes but looking closer one could see the stinger hiding under all the tail fur. It struck him once, twice, three times. He was lying on the ground dying when Mags came out of the trees. She put his head in her lap and sat with him.
I can feel the tears in my eyes as I lie on my bed and tell this story.
He asked for me you know, he asked her to bring me over to see him. She could only tell him that I was at home, safe. He told her that he needed to tell me something. Then she got tears in her eyes and did something would not expect another tribute to do. She stabbed herself. She wanted him to win. But it didn't work. The venom worked faster than her knife in her own side. Kale's last words were 'I love you.' His eyes went all glassy and then the cannon went off. Mags had won.
I had nothing against her. But why did she do it? I wanted to know. I was a wreck for weeks after the games were over and Kale was buried. When the time came for the victory tour I couldn't stop myself. When Mags was on the stage I rushed up to her throwing off the guards that were trying to keep me back. They thought that I was going to attack her. But I wasn't. I hugged her. When I was sure that we couldn't be overheard I asked 'why did you do it.' Her answer was short. 'I have no one to live for, he had you.' When we are finally pulled apart by the guards I call after her. 'Thank you.' She may have been the victor but she got the warmest reception in twelve out of all the others for what she did. Even warmer that in her own district.
I vowed to never married again even though I had many men asking for me. I was pretty and still very young. But not after Kale.
Without him beside me as my little piece of happiness in the world, I saw what was happening in the district with even greater clarity. The orphans and the hungry walking the streets begging and the young women waiting at street corners. I thought about the last. Without a miners income what I got from the laundry I did was not enough to live on. But the day I had made up my mind to start selling my body it was announced that there had been a seller found dead on her corner, murdered. What kind of person would I be I threw my life away like that when there was already so much waste of life around us? So I scraped by doing mending and washing. I even rented part of my house to a seller and made sure that she was fed and had a place to sleep. She had been an orphan. She was the one who started calling me Greasy Sae. Because I put sage in everything I cooked. And that was before I was drying the sage so all my cooking was oily.
When the time came I went to the hob and sold my cooking there. It was nice to get food into people that I knew wouldn't have had a meal for the rest of the day. I gave away free soup to those who didn't have anything but their bodies to sell. That's why you never got a free bowl in the hob Katniss, you always had something to trade even if it was a wild dog. I laugh but it turns into a nasty cough. Pneumonia, I am now the one sick with old age. But I'm not finished my story, not yet.
It was hard Katniss, watching you in the arena, especially when to was so similar to the one Kale was in. It didn't help that you were so like him too, the things you did. Singing to that little girl, Rue. And hiding in the rocks with Peeta. I had to leave the room when you were stung by those trackerjakers. It was like the fox all over again. But you didn't die then and you didn't die when they sent those wolf mutts after you. And to me those berries were first the berries in the pan that Mags was cooking. They weren't defiance at all. I was caught up in the past. You showed me how little had changed from when Kale was in the arena 62 years ago. Then you showed me how much we could change, you were the little mockingjay. Showing the capital all they had done wrong. That's my story Katniss. Will you write that in that book of yours?
I will greasy Sae...Sage Northwood. Katniss smiles as she sits on a stool by my bed side.
Sing please, sing what you sang to Rue. And she sings. I close my eyes and hear her soft voice fill the little room. I lie there with my eyes closed. She finished the song and I squeeze her hand to let her know I want her to keep going. She sings the hanging tree. But the third stanza I am drifting away the words are no longer clear and the pain is drifting away. I am coming Kale. I think. Then it is quiet and dark.
Katniss sits now alone in the room, tears escaping from her eyes. Then Katniss did was Sae had asked her to do only after she had passed away. She opened the small wooden box on the bed side table. Inside she found a small piece of folded green fabric tied with a string. Pulling the string the fabric fell open in her hand. Inside was a piece of paper and the necklace. Kaniss unfolded the paper and read the letter
Pressous Katniss.
I don't have much in the way of possessions any more, but there is one thing that I want you to have. It was passed to me by my mother and to her by her mother. You should know that you were like a daughter to me, as close as I could ever get. I do not want it to be buried under earth for the rest of time, and besides you wear gold well my little mockingjay.
Sage Northwood
Katniss let out a small laugh at Sae's comment about the gold but it turned into a great sob. The tears that were slowly coming gave way to a river of tears. Katniss couldn't see her hands in front of her face but she tipped the fabric into her other palm and sat their feeling the fine gold chain and the tiny points of the star that Sae had worn.