Prologue
I believe the best way to start this is by saying that I'm not crazy, just misunderstood. My entire life I've been looked at funny, well, not my entire life, but since I was about twelve. If I try really hard I can remember before everything changed, before I grew up, before everything, and everyone, I had slipped away from me. I remember holding my younger brother Jonathan as we walked along the pier of our district with our parents, being protective to the point of near foolishness. I remember my mother braiding my hair with her skilled hands, slowly incorporating sea flowers and shell barrettes. I remember my father, the strong fisherman he was, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulders into the vast crystal blue sea that was practically our backyard. I remember the smile that my grandmother, Maggie, would give every time she sang to me as a child. Mostly, I remember being peaceful and content, living in my family's near shack in our village.
Funny, isn't it? Somebody who is deemed certifiably insane can remember tedious, no longer important, details from her childhood. Well let me tell you this, they're wrong. Snow was wrong, beyond wrong. I'm sure if you know anything about me, all you know is what the Capitol told you. Let me tell you, nobody knows me, not anymore at least.
