Part 1- The Storms of Change

I can still remember the day that the storm blew in. I was in school learning about the differences between Aspen and Birch wood and the benefits of genetically crossing the two. All of the students in the class piled up at the windows to watch the first snowfall of the year blow in. I remember the excitement as students began whispering that we would get out of school early to walk home before the snow got too deep.

I remember plenty about that day; however, I don't remember when exactly I figured out that it wasn't just your average snowstorm. I don't remember exactly when I figured out something was wrong. I gathered up my younger brother Ash from his classroom before we scurried home through the snow with our hoods pulled tightly against our ears. The snowflakes were coming down so hard that it felt like they were piercing our skin and, by the time we got home, the snow was already swirling up around our ankles. I picked up Holly from our neighbor, Maggie, who watched her during the day and we all welcomed the warmth once we stepped through the front door of our home.

I started up a fire and cooked up a stew that I couldn't bring myself to eat. I had started to suspect something was wrong even though I consciously denied it. My parents both worked up in the lumberyards. My mother drove a truck that carried the logs down from the mountain and my father chopped the pines that grew on the north face of the mountain. As dark began to fall, the snow continued to escalate and the wind picked up even more. Normally, the overseers let the workers come down from the mountains early when a heavy snow starts up. I could only imagine how hard it must be snowing up in the mountains. Here, in the valley, the wind was already blowing drifts up over the front porch. But they had been working longer hours to meet the Capitol quotas and sometimes they didn't get off shift until after dark.

I stayed up that night and kept the fire stoked waiting for my parents to come home. The wind howled through the night and I stuffed the windows with rags to seal up the drafts. There weren't enough chores to keep at least my hands busy that night. The sky was just shifting from pitch black to grey when there was a knock at the door. I opened it and Linden came in with a gust of wind and snow.

Linden was my best friend. We were in the same year at school and we spent a lot of time in the foothills together gathering food. He and his mother, Maggie Hollbrook, had lived next door since we were both born. After his father had died when a tree fell wrong and pinned him, my father had taken him in as a surrogate son. My dad had taken it upon himself to teach Linden everything he would need to know about the lumber industry and all those things that dads and sons talk about.

And now Linden was standing, breathless, on my doorstep. "Have they come back yet?" He asked as he moved over to the fireplace. There were snowflakes stuck in his short wiry black hair that slowly melted leaving it damp.

"No. I haven't gotten any word. " I said crossing my arms across my chest partly out of chill and partly to steady my shaking hands. "I've been up all night waiting."

He rubbed his hands together in front of the fire and then turned to focus his green eyes on me. "They didn't let the workers off the mountain when the storm blew in yesterday afternoon. No one is back yet."

I froze. I had seen animals do the same thing when we walked across them in the woods. The deer would freeze into statues just like I was now- staring and unmoving.

"Don't worry yet Camellia. No one's come back. That means they took shelter somewhere up in the mountains-"

"Where?"

Linden pauses a minute after I cut him off, "What do you mean?"

"Where, Linden? Where would they take shelter? There's nothing up on those mountains except for trees. The wind was cutting through the woods last night. You can imagine how bad it must have been on that mountain!" I said getting louder as I spoke so that I nearly shouted the last word.

"Camillia-" He started and stopped. I looked away from him then. I think that's when I really started to admit that there was more than a good chance my parents were dead because in his moment of hesitation those green eyes told me everything I needed to know. He knew I was right- there wasn't anywhere for my parents to take shelter up on the mountain. "Have you eaten?" he offered up as concession to make up for what he'd just given away.

"No. I made stew for Ash and Holly but I couldn't eat." I said collapsing onto the old couch across from the fireplace. I dropped my forehead into my hands and balanced my elbows on my knees.

I could hear Linden rustling around in the cabinets. I felt the couch sink to my right and a hunk of tessera bread was held in my line of vision. I took it still looking toward the ground. "Thanks." I said taking a bite of it but it crumbled in my mouth. It tasted like the sandy dirt down by the brook and I had to consciously swallow before it turned to cement in my mouth.

Linden reached over and weaved his arm around my back pulling me closer, "It's going to be okay, Camellia. I promise." He whispered into my hair. I still didn't look at him. I knew that he meant well but I knew that he was just as unsure about everything as I was. He had no idea if anything was really going to be okay.

I curled into him and rested my head on his shoulder. I dozed off listening to his breathing and taking in his warmth. For a moment, just as I was drifting into sleep I forgot about how worried I was about my mother and contentedness took over. It never failed that Linden could make me feel safe.

I slept for several hours before there was a knock at the door again. I was instantly awake as was Linden who apparently had fallen asleep as well. The sky was now that bleached out grey color that meant the sun was fully up. I crossed the short distance to the door and quickly opened it. But it wasn't my mother or my father standing there; instead it was Red the overseer usually in charge of my father. A man in his mid forties, he had auburn hair peppered with gray and had always worn a smile on his face any time I saw him since the day I had met him, which was why I found him so disconcerting that morning. Red stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind him. He took off his stocking hat and his eyes moved everywhere but never landed on mine. His smile seemed to have gone into hibernation like the bears do when the snow comes.

"Red, what's going on?" I ask trying to sound like it was a surprise to see him and I had no idea what he was here for but really it came out shaky and sounded like I was pleading with him not to tell me what I was expecting to hear.

"Camellia," he started and his dark eyes finally met mine. My heart skipped a beat. I started shaking my head and looked away. I didn't want him to look at me now, not if he was going to tell me what I knew he was going to. "I'm so sorry. You're mom and dad-"

"NO!" I shouted turning around the slapping my hands up to my ears. If I couldn't hear what he was saying, it couldn't be true.

Red took a deep breath and let it out between his teeth- I could still hear through my hands and I pressed them harder against my ears. "They were still up on the mountain when the storm came in. We didn't think it was going to be so bad. We thought that we could hold out a few more hours to make the quota before we ended the day.

"Then the wind started to kick up so we started down the mountain but it was too late. The snow was blowing too hard and we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. Your mom-" He broke off as his voice cracked. I shook my head again but now my whole body was starting to shake and I could hardly stand. "The truck she was driving. The back tires slid off the road and took the whole truck with them off the side of the mountain."

I couldn't breath. I felt my knees buckling and Linden was there holding me up just before I collapsed onto the ground. He guided me back onto the couch and I sat there trembling with my hands still over my ears and his arm still around my shoulders.

"And your dad. He. Well, we stopped the evacuation off the mountain, you see. It was too dangerous to get down. We tried to start up some fires in the woods to keep warm enough. But it was so damn windy we just couldn't keep them going. We lost a lot of the men up there, Camellia. He just fell asleep and didn't wake up. He didn't feel anything." Red finished and now his voice was the one that sounded like it was pleading. "I'm so sorry. If there's anything I can do. Your dad was a good man. I'm sorry." He added.

"YOU DID THIS!" I screamed with my hands still over my ears. I was rocking on the couch now and trembling uncontrollably. "YOU MURDERED MY PARENTS! ALL BECAUSE OF THE DAMN CAPITAL QUOTAS!" I could feel Linden tighten his grip on my shoulder to try and settle me.

"I've got it Red. Thanks for letting us know." Linden said in hushed tones whether to keep from upsetting me further or to console Red after my outburst I don't know.

"I truly am sorry." Red said just as he slipped out the front door again and Linden closed it softly behind him.

Everything was quiet for a minute until I heard a creak on the floorboard upstairs. That would be Ash. He was always a light sleeper and my yelling would have been more than enough to wake him up.

"Camellia, I-" Linden started to say as he walked back over the couch to place a hand on my shoulder. His voice was shaky. He was upset too. And why wouldn't he have been? After all he'd just lost a father for the second time.

"Don't." I said and stood up running my hands through my hair. It's a deep honey blonde, thick and wavy like my mother's was. "Ash is awake. I can't do this now. I don't want him to see me upset." Linden closed his mouth and gave a sharp nod. Even then he understood me. He knew that I had to be strong for them at least for a little while and that meant that he had to be strong too. I wasn't crying yet but I was sure that if he started to show any emotion I would be a goner as well.

I heard the light tread of footsteps on the stairs followed by, "Camellia, were you yelling?" He still sounded like he was half asleep. And now I was the parent, which meant I was supposed to have all the answers. But I didn't even know how to answer his simple question.