"Are you ready, Finn?" I ask Finn, the small boy beside me. He nods, his green eyes pairing with mine. "Good. Do you know what we're doing today?" I ask him. He knows, of course. We're going to visit Finnick. There was nothing left to bury, but we remember him like this every year.
"We're going to daddy!" He smiles. I give a pained smile back, and then he departs somewhere, to collect something from his bedroom.
He toddles back, stretching his arms out, something that looks like a painting. I recognize who's in it.
"What's that?" I ask him. "A painting," He replies innocently. "He helped." He finishes, pointing to Peeta. They stayed over, since they wanted to visit Finnick, too.
"You played with his paints?" I ask him. He gives a nod. "I did everything." Finn boasts, not even giving credit to Peeta.
"Are you sure?" I raise an eyebrow. "Who supplied the paints?" Peeta comes up behind him, picking him up. Finn squeals, yelling "put me down!" and Peeta doesn't. He loves Finn as much as I do, treating him like a little brother.
"I think it's time to go, Annie?" Katniss comes out of one of the guest rooms, followed by Johanna. Both of them are wearing green, everyone is. Katniss is wearing a dress, while Johanna, isn't. It would kill you to wrestle a dress into that girl, but she's wearing a good set of pants and a ruffle blouse.
"Yeah, I think we're good." I nod and we set off.
The waves are crashing, the sun is shining; everything that Finnick would want in a day. We breathe in the scent of the seawater, the radiant sun falling on us. We walk to a point where is tridents are put in.
They're imbedded into the sand, very deep in that you couldn't pull it out.
We walk up there, everyone just pauses and bows their heads, remembering the times we've spent with Finnick, the great times we've had together. Everyone has something to bring up, like some sort of a gift.
We come back to reality and the next thing you know is Finn and Peeta are walking up to one of the tridents, placing the beautiful painting they had both made.
Second comes Johanna, bringing up a bow of saltwater, remembering the time when he dunked her repeatedly into the water during the Quarter Quell. A smile is on her lips as she places it down.
Katniss comes along, some sugar cubes in hand, a smile plastered on her face. She had told me about how they both met, because of the sugar cubes. She places it down carefully, but rushes back to Peeta, as if she's holding back tears.
I come along, a copy of our wedding rings, a gold band with a small replica of a trident. I place it down and I sink to my feet.
"Hey Finnick." I almost talk to the trident, but I am. The cold metal is brushing onto my cheek.
"We all miss you, very, very much." I emphasize on very. "But we all know you're happy where you are."
I let tears roll down my eyes, and everyone just becomes silent, as you can clearly hear the roar of the waves.
"But I know you did it for us, for everyone." I say, more tears rolling down than there should be. "So that we all live peaceful lives." I stop to try to halt my tears, but it's not working. "Thank you so much." I can almost see him, smiling my way.
I stand up, my eyes puffy from the tears I've shed, but there are tears rolling down Katniss' eyes too. Johanna looks like she doesn't want to show us, but she's silently crying. I wipe my eyes, trying to stop the flow of the waterfall from my eye.
Johanna comes up to one of the tridents, and says something; we all are going to this.
"Hey, Finnick," She's on the brink of tears. "I was wondering where you are now, I hope you're alright." She sounds calmer than usual, as if she's seen the happiest thing on earth.
"Well, I hope you're okay, I mean, wherever you are, you're still a legend, and will always be." These words are not the common things you hear from Johanna, the girl who's got out of the Hunger games twice, you could never get these words out of her.
Tears start rolling down her eyes as well, but she's determined to hide them. I guess they also miss, and need Finnick, too. Considering that they've gotten to know him, of course the miss him.
Katniss comes up next. Everyone's silent, to pay respect to the person talking, or at least, connecting with Finnick. As if a real conversation is happening.
"Hey Finnick," She starts; you could hear her because we're all too silent. "All of us miss you, you know that?" She puts her hand into a fist; a tear is rolling down her cheek.
She continues on, but after she's finished, you could tell that she's had too much for now, so she fires herself into Peeta's arms, for comfort.
After everyone has finished, we're all into tears, except for Finn who doesn't have an idea about what we're doing. I'll have to explain these to him when he's grown up, about how Finnick died for all of us, so we could live in this now peaceful place.
Katniss places her fingers to her mouth, three actually, and put them to the tridents. She taught me this, meaning 'goodbye' to someone you love. Of course, I follow too, until we all do this. Everyone's smiling, yet you could see their eyes are pained.
This is just when Johanna notices something's engraved into each trident.
They say;
Father; Father to Finnick Odair, your son.
Husband; To your beautiful wife, Annie Odair.
Friend; To Johanna, Katniss, Peeta and the rest of us.
Protector; To Annie and everyone else you saved, for warding off Annie's nightmares.
All of them touch me, to think that everyone here present has something to connect to this.
Even though in the end, Finnick is not here to join us, even if he's not here, he is.
He is A father, a husband, a friend, and a protector.
Finnick Odair,
A father,
A husband,
A friend,
A protector.