My name is Johanna Mason, and I was stripped away of everything I had and everyone I loved. This is my story.
The first one to go was my father. He was a kind man with a big heart and he always took me into the forests on weekends to help him with work. We would work with his chapter and chop down trees to deliver to the factories.
He taught me to throw my first ax when I was 5. "Easy, Jo," he said, "Just hold the handle loosely and aim for that tree." I took a deep breath, loosened my grip, and aimed for the tree, but, of course, I missed.
The men from Daddy's chapter laughed and laughed and joked about how a little girl being able to do a man's job was impossible. When I tried a second time I hit right in the middle of the tree.
That shut them up.
While working with Daddy with his job was fun, there were always Thursday nights. Every Thursday night, we would go down in the woods with dim lanterns and pick up sticks for kindling. Daddy would take Elmer, my older brother, too, and we'd see who could pick up the most and put them in the wagon the fastest. I always won.
Then, after that, we would take the sticks back home and use them for kindling; for free! Mama would always make rabbit stew with rolls and we would sit around the hearty fire and eat. I never realized it was illegal.
One night, I heard Mama and Daddy arguing from my bedroom. I snuck over to the kitchen and looked through the crack in the door. I saw Mama waving a bunch of our sticks in the air and Daddy standing across from her, fists clenched at his side. Mama was saying stuff like, "They'll find out, Hick! We have to stop!" and Daddy was saying stuff like, "This isn't right, Amara! They're just lying out there for the taking. What use does the Capitol have for them?"
I stood there for a while, listening, until Elmer came and took me back to my room. "It's fine, Jo," he said, "It'll blow over."
For the rest of the week it was cold and our kindling was gone. The fire was low and depressing. We didn't collect sticks and have rabbit stew on Thursday night. It was pretty clear that Daddy didn't like this. He was sulky and irritable most of the time and he didn't take me to work with him on the weekend.
Finally, on the Thursday night of that week, Daddy asked me if I wanted to go collect sticks. I agreed, thinking that things would go back to normal. We didn't take Elmer that time and I sort of missed him, but when we got there, there was another man with a boy my age, which was about 9. The man's name was Birch and the boy's was Aspen. I proudly introduced myself as "Johanna, but call me Jo."
"Why do you have such a long name," Aspen asked.
"No," I said, giggling, "My name is Jo."
"Cool," was all he said.
We worked hard that night and we had a competition like Elmer and I always did. It was tougher than usual, but I still beat him. After we were done, we said goodbye and took our half of the sticks home. There was no rabbit stew that night. Mama wasn't home and Elmer was hiding in his room.
From then on, Elmer never came with us on Thursday nights. It was sad, but I figured that he was 15 and had his own problems. Besides, I had Aspen to play with. We had become great friends over the two months that we had teamed up.
One particular Thursday night was just like any other. Little did we know it would be the last.
We set out in the woods just like usual and me up with Birch and Aspen. Immediately, Aspen and I started running around, plucking up sticks left and right. There were more than usual and the branches didn't match the type that were around for some reason, but we took no concern to it. After we finished our share, Aspen and I decided to play a little ways away while Daddy and Birch finished what they were doing. We played Hide-and-Find, a game that my daddy taught me. He told me that the people of where we are now, a long time ago in "North America" played it. I would close my eyes and count to 20 and Aspen would hide. Then when I found him, he would count to 20 and I would hide. It was a lot of fun.
When it was Aspen's third turn, I went out to find him. I started looking behind trees and bushes until I heard loud voices that were not familiar. I started to walk over to them, curious to see who they were, when someone put a hand over my mouth and pulled my down. I turned to see Aspen on his knees, his eyes alert and a finger to his lip. The voices were closer now and Aspen pointed to a hole in a bush. I looked through it and saw two Peacekeepers, Daddy, and Birch.
"This is stealing!" one of the Peacekeepers said, pointing to the sticks, "And do you know what we do to thieves? We kill them. Normally publicly, but I think this will do."
The Peacekeepers whipped out their guns and I just barely had time to grab Aspen's hand and snap my eyes shut before we heard two gunshots. Thump. Thump. Two bodies hitting the ground.
I wanted to scream, run out there, and rip those Peacekeepers apart, piece- by- piece. I wanted to strap them to trees and use them for axe practice. But before I could do anything, Aspen yanked on my arm and tugged me away. We tore through the forest like cowards, me crying the whole time.