The Visit
"Do you have a girlfriend back home?" Caesar asks.
Rye snorts. "Yeah, right."
Hank hushes him.
Peeta gives a shake of the head.
"Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name," Caesar Flickerman prods.
"Well, there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping."
I lean forward in my seat curious to hear my son name this mystery girl. As far as I know, unlike his brothers, Peeta has yet to take any girl to the slag heap. And now he never will.
"She have another fellow?" asks Caesar.
"I don't know, but a lot of boys like her," Peeta says.
That explains it. The girl must be very popular. Probably that stuck up daughter of the tailor. She's a piece of work.
"So here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down then, eh?"
"I don't think it's going to work out. Winning…won't help in my case." Peeta looks nervous.
"Why ever not?"
Peeta turns red and stammers. "Because…because…she came here with me."
"Ha, Ha. It's Everdeen," Rye shouts. He talks back to the flickering screen hanging on the wall across the room. "Little brother, you don't fall for Seam girls, you screw…"
Automatically my hand goes up and I smack my middle son across the side of the head.
"Ma," he cries out, as he rubs his hand furiously over his head. "No wonder Phyl wanted to watch the show with his fiancée's family."
I am sick. My stomach is in knots. Peeta has professed his love for a girl from the Seam during mandatory viewing. What are people going to think?
The past week has already been hell for us. Hank and I have joined an exclusive club in District Twelve, parents of the reaped. And most all of the members are not even people we'd ever consider socializing with as they are from the Seam.
If there was even a slight possibility Peeta could win, maybe I could summon up some small bit of pride, but I have no hope at all. Peeta was as good as dead once his name was called, especially when his district partner is Katniss Everdeen. That one is a survivor. If anyone from Twelve wins, it will be her.
I told Peeta so, before he got on the train. Why lie to the boy? I pride myself on being truthful.
"It could be a strategy Ma," Rye suggests. "Maybe Peeta said he loved her to get sponsors. Katniss did get an eleven in the private session with the Gamemakers. She looks like a winner."
Oh how, I hope Rye is right. In fact that's what I tell every busybody who shows up in the bakery the next morning commenting on Peeta's interview.
"It's all pretend, something Haymitch Abernathy told him to say." I laugh uproariously. "You can't believe Peeta would have feelings for a girl from the Seam."
At first it seems that Rye might be right and that Peeta made what everyone is calling "the star-crossed" love story up because he joins the Careers to hunt down Katniss.
Maybe my boy is smarter than I thought.
But then, when he finally has the chance to kill Katniss, he lets her get away and ends up nearly dead when Cato stabs him in the leg.
Could Peeta truly have feelings for her?
Interviewers from the Capitol arrive shortly after the announcement about the possibility of two tributes from the same district winning. Hank and I act as if we're overjoyed about the rule change when we speak with them. But only idiots from the Capitol and children too young to know better would believe that Snow would allow it.
We wake up the next morning to watch Katniss rescue Peeta from a muddy grave alongside the stream. She cleans him up and moves him to a small cave to rest. Finally after all this time, that damn Haymitch Abernathy sends a parachute to my son. Not the medicine he needs, of course. No, watery broth.
A day passes while the Gamemakers focus on the "love" between the two of them. Katniss kisses my son a few times. It's all I can do not to throw up. But then a feast is called, sleep syrup arrives, and Katniss drugs Peeta.
It's tense watching, but by the end of the day, she has returned with the medicine and injected Peeta.
They spend the next few days in the cave, both of them recuperating. Of course the Capitol fixes the weather, forcing them into the tight quarters because of heavy rain.
The love story revs up and the kissing starts anew.
"It's all part of a strategy to get sponsors," I tell our customers, but even I don't believe it anymore. The look on Peeta's face shows it all. He loves that girl. Oh how I want to slap him silly. Doesn't Peeta know what family that girl comes from? Her father was Seam. Her mother has mental problems.
We sit down after the bakery closes to watch.
"My father pointed you out when we were waiting to line up," Peeta says.
"Your father? Why?"
"He said, `See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner."
A sick sensation runs down my back. I turn to Hank and see his face go as red as if he'd just put it into a hot oven.
"What? You're making that up!" Katniss says.
Did Peeta make it up?
Hank's eyes are glued on the television.
Even Rye gives him an odd look.
But then Peeta continues. "No, true story. And I said, `A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner when she could've had you?'"
Ryes snorts loudly at his brother's words.
I stare at Hank, waiting for him to say something. To make a joke about it. But he doesn't even look at me.
It's then that I realize the truth. My stupid husband actually told our son at age five that I was his second choice. That he wanted to marry another woman.
I hardly listen to Peeta as he continues to spin the story because I'm beyond enraged at my husband.
This conversation is going out all over Twelve, all over Panem. How in the hell am I going to show my face at the bakery counter tomorrow?
It's bad enough that my son was reaped. That he's professed his love for a girl from the Seam. Now, everyone will think that I was Hank's second choice.
I spring off the sofa and shut off the t.v. as Peeta is insulting us further. Telling Katniss he could care less about us. Mentioning that if they win the Games, they'll be living in the Victor's Village.
The boy is plain crazy if he thinks Snow will allow two kids to win.
"Ma, don't turn it off or we'll have the Peacekeepers on our butts," Rye says.
"Good," I reply. "Maybe they can whip me in the Town Square. That would be the perfect ending to all the crap I've had to endure lately."
I glare at Hank. "Sleep in Peeta's bed tonight if you like because you're not sleeping with me."
Rushing from the living room, I go into our bedroom and slam the door.
Already I can hear the television has been turned on again.
I lie on my bed fuming. My mind goes back to my high school years. To the best of my knowledge Hank never even talked to Lily Everdeen, well Lily Bolduc, as she was called in those days. I doubted he ever said more than two words to the apothecary's only child.
Lily was a quiet girl who had no close friends but the Donner twins, Marigold and Maysilee. When Maysilee was reaped and then died in the second Quarter Quell, her sister Marigold had a breakdown of sorts. Lily was friendless and on her own.
A rumor started that she had become close to Glenn Everdeen. He was already out of high school a year or two, a miner who hunted beyond the fence and sold the plants he found in the woods to the apothecary. I imagine Lily was in a dark place after the death of one friend and the loss of another. Maybe she needed to rebel and Glenn was her personal way of getting back at everyone and everything.
I'm fairly certain, there was never anything between Hank and Lily. Still, why would Hank tell Peeta that he wanted to marry Lily?
Our marriage hasn't been perfect by any means. But it started with love. Hank said he loved me. And I've given him three sons, raised those boys, and kept house for the lot of them.
It hasn't been an easy life for me. If it wasn't for my firstborn Phyl, who is the best of the three, I wouldn't have survived. Hell, even now I don't know how our business is going to fare without Peeta. He was the best cake decorator of the three.
Before I fall asleep, I make up my mind. Tomorrow I'll pay a visit to Lily Everdeen in the Seam and get to the bottom of Peeta's story. If there is any truth to it, I may kick her ass and then my husband's as well.
Hank is already baking when I go downstairs in the morning. From the dark circles round his eyes, I wonder if he even slept.
I join in to help, but don't speak to him. I make him go into the front to deal with the customers this morning. Once the rush is over, I'm out the door. "I have errands to run," I tell him.
The Games may continue, but mandatory viewing generally occurs in the evening hours. Although the day is warm I cover my head with a scarf to hide my face. I'm sick of everyone in Town looking at me with pity.
I walk briskly to the Seam. I haven't been here in twenty years or more and it's a worse eyesore that it was then.
I have no idea where Lily Everdeen resides; I have to stop and ask someone. Of course the woman looks me full in the face.
"Isn't your son…" she begins.
I snarl back at her. "Where do the Everdeen's live?"
She points me down a dirt road. I rush off in that direction.
There is a shingle on the side of the broken gate outside the house that says "Everdeen/Healer."
So that's how Lily supports herself these days. She could have married a man who was an heir to a business or even a second or third son who could have taken over her parents' apothecary shop. I hope her dalliance with Glenn was worth the loss in her Town status.
Opening the rickety gate, I go up the stairs and knock on the door.
No one answers. "Is anyone home?"
A head peeks out from behind a tattered curtain at the front window. A young blond-haired girl. This must be Primrose Everdeen, the girl who was originally reaped.
I give her a hard look. "I want to speak with your mother," I shout through the glass.
The girl stares at me like I have two heads. Does she know who I am?
She disappears and the curtain falls back into place. I wait on the porch and survey the fenced-in yard. If I didn't know it, I'd never guess Lily had been born in Town. How is it that she lives in such slovenly surroundings?
It's a good two minutes until the door opens. She was pretty once, but Lily hasn't aged well. She's gaunt, which causes the lines on her face to stand out more.
"I'd like to talk with you," I say.
She opens the door and motions for me to come inside. I follow her in. I've never been inside one of the homes in the Seam. They are run-down and plain.
I sit on a lumpy couch.
Lily sits across from me on a wooden rocker.
"Would you like something to drink?" she asks.
"All right."
"Prim make some chamomile tea for Mrs. Mellark."
"How are you holding up?" she asks me.
I refuse to answer her question. I'm not here to be her friend. "I wanted to talk to you about last night's viewing."
Her eyebrows rise. "What about it?"
I'm sure she's embarrassed by her daughter's actions in the Games. Lily may be Town-born, but her daughter has proven herself to be typical Seam trash, with her brazen flirting and loose ways. Wasn't she the one who climbed into Peeta's sleeping bag the first night in that cave?
"My son mentioned something last night. I wanted to ask you if it was true. Were you ever in a relationship with my husband? Did you talk of marriage?"
A tiny smile forms on Lily's face and I want to reach across to her and slap it away.
She shakes her head. "No. I don't think I've ever spoken more than a few words to your husband."
She remains calm, not flustered, and I have a strong feeling that she speaks the truth.
Surprisingly, I am relieved. I'd never expected to be so grateful for her words. Our marriage may be more of a business arrangement these days than a love match, but I've put my life into that man.
"Perhaps Peeta made it up," she suggests. "I know Katniss has been playing with the truth. That story she told about Prim's goat was changed completely."
"Perhaps," I say, but Lily wasn't there to see Hank's reaction. Peeta was most definitely telling the truth about what his father told him.
It suddenly dawns on me that if it weren't for the Games, Peeta likely would never have even spoken to Katniss Everdeen. Never had the chance to reveal his feelings.
Was Hank just like Peeta, harboring a crush for someone that he didn't have the courage to even speak more than a few words to? Telling his five-year-old son that he wanted to marry Lily when that possibility was as likely as me becoming the Queen of Panem.
Men are such fools.
Primrose brings me a cup of tea. I take a sip.
"Chamomile is good for stress. It will help you sleep. I've been drinking it ever since…" Lily's voice drops off and she looks away.
It strikes me that she is the only woman in District Twelve who is knows exactly how I feel at this moment in time. Still there is too big of a divide between us. We might have been friends once, long ago when we were young. But not now. Never.
I take a few sips from the cup and set it down on the small side table. I stand up. "You know they'll never let two victors win."
She nods sadly. "I know."
I hear her younger daughter gasp. Lily reaches for her hand, squeezing it.
She stands up as well to let me out.
I turn to her before I leave. "I think Katniss will win. Your girl is a survivor."
Lily gives me an odd look, as if she's wondering why I'm not supporting my own son.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
The Games continue and Hank and I resume talking. He may be a fool but he is my fool. We cling to each other on the couch the night Peeta lies wounded on top of the Cornucopia. Although mandatory viewing ends late, we stay awake all night watching our boy slowly bleed out on television.
Rye joins us at sunrise to watch Katniss shoot Cato.
When Claudius Templesmith announces that the rule change has been revoked, that only one victor may win, I am beyond caring. I have been mentally preparing my son's funeral for the past three weeks. I am ready for this. Peeta throws his knife in the lake and Katniss aims her arrow at him. I'm not surprised. At least it will be quick for Peeta.
But then she pulls out the berries and my heart stops. Katniss is either the biggest rebel ever, or maybe, perhaps, she feels something for my son. I hold my breath because I can already guess at the outcome of this. If they both die, the districts will revolt.
Claudius calls out for them to stop. For the first time ever there will be two winners to the Hunger Games.
Rye turns to us. "Peeta's won. We're moving to Victor's Village."
Without thinking, I smack Rye in the head.
It's bad enough Peeta has fallen for a girl from the Seam. There's no way in hell I'm allowing my husband the opportunity to do the same.
"Peeta's the victor," I tell Rye. "We're staying here in Town. We have a bakery to run."
THE END