Chapter Two
November 14, Year 92
My Dearest Thomas,
It is to you my son, that my desire is that you know how loved you are by both your mother and me. The only memories that I have that I treasure when I was young, is when I was with my father. I had always wished that you could have met him. He is what I desired to be when I became a father.
Always believe in the innocence that you can reach for the stars and actually grab one. Never let anyone tell you differently. Live in the clouds, and never stop dreaming that you could find the one who makes your heart stop and start at the same time, believe me, it can happen, it happened for me. Your mother is the one that I dreamt about when I didn't even know what dreams where. The fact that I had a life with her let me believe that dreams are real things if you could only believe.
Thomas believe in the sunsets and sunrises, that they are beautiful kisses between the land and the sun. Believe in the stars that it everyone who loves you watching over you. Believe in that the air is crisper when it is free. Never let them take that from you. Always believe in the good in people, even when all you see is darkness.
Remember my beautiful boy that you are like the roots of a tree. It isn't what you can see that matters, but what is beneath the ground. You are special, to both your mother and to me. I only wish that I had the chance to watch you grow up into the man that you are destined to be.
Look up at the stars and know that I am watching you from there.
Your Father,
Peeta Mellark
We don't care anymore what they can do to us. We actually welcome it. Come into our home again and see how far you get to the door. She smiles and I can tell she is calm. It isn't a mask, she is actually calm.
"Did we?" I start to say.
"Yes," she says.
"The whole night?" I say.
"Hmm hmm," she says. "Haven't done that since, well two weeks is it?"
It has been two weeks, since we were brought into this nightmare. It has been two weeks since we were almost killed, not once, but twice. The most that either of us has slept is probably three to four hours. When we lost Katniss's mother, it was a lot less time, probably only twenty minutes or so, before the nightmares would wake us both up.
She leans in and kisses me. Her bottom lip soft and moist lightly touches mines almost as if she did it too hard they would break. She pulls on my lower lip playfully, before she makes a giggle sound.
"Oh I am sorry," I say as I move my hand from her ribs.
"To this day I still have twelve ribs," she says laughing.
"Oh okay, just wanted to make sure," I say laughing. Before going in and tickling her again.
She lets out a burst of laughter and I know that although it is because I am tickling her, it is a good thing to laugh. We have seen so much death, so much hardship, that even a smile was forced.
"Peeta!" she finally lets out and I have to stop.
She finally looks at me with this upset but not really look. She hates it when I tickle her, but she doesn't stop me from doing it. She stands on the bed with her hands on her waist.
"What did I tell you about tickling me?" she says.
I shrug as if I don't know.
"Oh so you don't know?" she says grabbing a pillow.
She always talks a good talk but she has never hit me with a pillow.
That is what I was thinking to myself as I got bombarded by the pillows over my head. I have to cover my head and roll over to the ground to get away. As I roll onto the floor I grab my pillow and then stand.
"Now you are going to get it," I say playfully.
She nods her head no and then points down towards her belly.
That is when it hits me.
"That is right," she says. "No more tickles, no more carrying me over your shoulder, no more raspberries on my belly."
I give her a look.
She smiles.
"Should we go?" I say.
She nods.
"Okay," I say. "I will heat up some water for the shower."
She grabs my hand though on the way out. I turn and she kisses me on the nose.
"Thank you, Mr. Mellark," she says.
"Your welcome, Mrs. Mellark," I say walking out to the kitchen. I rub my arms as I pass by the living room. My mind had forgotten of the winter outside. I pick up the pace and finally make it to the kitchen where I open the cupboard to the left and get out the large metal tin pot with the markings on it.
One marking for one bath, two marking for two baths, we had calculated it a while back to know exactly how much to put in there. I turn on the water and the water begins to pour into the pot.
Once it makes it to the second marking I turn off the water and place it on the stove.
"Darn," I say out loud. "That is right; we do not have any dry wood."
I walk out to the fireplace hoping to find something that I can heat. I see that there might be one log there. I open the screen and then finally grab it.
"Yes," I say. "One dry log."
I walk over to the stove and place the log there. On top of the table I see the matches. I walk over to it and grab it, striking the matches and heating up the water. After a couple of minutes I test the water and find that it is just right.
Walking towards the bathroom I find her there sitting in her rob on the toilet seat waiting for me. I place the pot into the device that tilts the warm water. Finally turning my head she just stands there looking.
"Your warm shower awaits," I say with a snooty accent. I bow sticking out my hand out, she snickers and accepts the hand. Helping her up she places her hand on my cheek.
"Hey mountain man," she says rubbing my full on beard. "You haven't seen my husband around have you?"
I look at her there laughing because of my bread. I rub fingers through it and know that it has been some time before I have shaved.
"I think I saw him somewhere around here," I say.
She walks into the shower and close the blinds. I start to hear the splashing noise of the water. Then I hear her let out a deep sigh and I know that she has missed the fact of warm showers.
Walking out to our room, I see that Katniss has already made our packs and the bed. There isn't really that much in the packs, just a change of clothes, some of the left over dried fruits and finally our survival knives. In the district we know that we can't bring in our bows so all we can bring is something that we can hide.
She comes into the room and I am just in awe of her.
"How do you do it?" I say.
She lifts one eyebrow a little confused.
"Even in a towel you look beautiful," I say.
She just blushes and then finally tells me that we have to hurry to make it to the district before anyone gets up. The fact is that I did forget about the whole going into the district. She still doesn't know the effect she has on people. How they can be so engrossed in her world that you totally forget where you are.
"I still can remember that day," I say. "The day of the opening games."
I walk over to her and see the wet hair and the shy smile.
"I was so nervous that day," I say. "But when I held your hand, it was everything was okay, I don't know how you do it. All those days I spent being tortured all I had to do was think of you and I knew that everything was okay. You were what kept me going, even now in the snow."
She kept me going, she kept me believing even if I had lost faith in myself. It was the third day into our hike to District Twelve. The food that we were trying to save or stretch had finally had been unsafe to eat. Looking at the meat it looked spoiled and the smell was something that would turn the stomach.
It was getting later and later in the day before she would get up. The night before when Katniss went to sleep, I finally allowed myself to think we may not make it. The moon was out that night and I could easily see the three envelopes. The first one labeled to her. My fingers trace the letters of her name. The fact that I may not get to see her again, but I know she will survive.
The following morning, I saw that she was too weak to get up, so all I could do is get up and go hunting. I try to write her a note but find that my mind is cloudy and my hands are unresponsive. After warming them up by blowing hit air into them the only thing that my mind could come up with was "gone hunting, love you."
I make up my mind that I have to come home with something, that I cannot fail, not today, she is depending on it.
I notch the arrow in the bow and start the walk to find something, anything. The white barren wasteland that would be filled with game is my opponent, it is my tribute.
Walking through the trees, for the first hour, I find absolutely nothing. There is no sound, not tracks, nothing but white snow. If we could have some certainty that someone is coming to save us then we would just sit tight and wait, but no one is coming. We knew that the closer we got to the mountain the less food options we would have.
I turn and look at the base of the mountain. If there is going to be any food it will be up there. I have wasted enough time trying to find food down here. The terrain is a lot worse than the forest. Well the artificial leg doesn't help at all, but no other choice.
It is only a half hour before I find some tracks. It is fresh and heading up the mountain. The only animal that I know that heads up a mountain is a goat. Not exactly the softest meat but anything is better than starving.
I pick up pace and see that the rocks of the mountains is loose down here. The fact that I just realized as the ground gave way and I am on my knees. Lifting the bow before my hands hit the ground, my right hand take the brunt of the fall.
"Okay that is going to leave a mark," I say out loud.
That is when I see it. A mountain goat there standing completely still. If I had not tripped and fell then I would have never had saw it. The eyes focus on mines and there it is. The only thing that would keep us both alive, and from the stare I know that it will not go down without a fight.
I move to a kneel position and lift up the bow. The goat all of the sudden makes a break for it going down the mountain. That is when I pull back the arrow and line up the shot.
"Aim for the belly," I say to myself.
I have to aim straight, she is counting on it. The arrow flies through the air and finally it hits it as it tries to flee. Thinking about her, and I knew that I could do this, that I could provide for her.
