The twelve Tributes were given the remainder of the day to say fairwell to their families and their District, with the Peacekeepers watching in case they tried anything clandestine. Delly insisted on performing a marriage ritual with Peeta, though it was doubtful the Capitol would accept it as binding. Gale and Katniss got their families together for one big dinner, doing their best to sort out what to do. Madge held her mother, telling her how beautiful the Capitol would be, and she would probably marry a nice Capitol boy who would pay to release her early, and she would be back soon.
Each Tribute was issued a uniform to be worn on boarding the train, consisting of a semidisposable white unisex tunic, a pair of plain but decently built shoes, shorts and undershirt, and little fabric pack to be worn around his waist. Each Tribute was allowed one token from home to stow in the pouch. The Tributes and the mentor pair filled a train car. Gale, Peeta, Katniss and Delly took the foremost staterooms. Delly opened a door to the adjoining car, and stifled a shriek. Katniss hurried after her, expecting trouble. What she saw was a huge young man with dark skin towering over Delly's short, slightly pudgy frame. "Hi, I'm Thresh, D11," he said, smiling broadly as he shook Delly's limp hand. "Nice to meet you." Delly squeaked something and retreated.
"I'm Katniss Everdeen, District Twelve," Katniss said, shaking Thresh's hand. "I'm really sorry about that. It's just, in Twelve, most of us look alike, and nobody looks like you."
"Tha's funny," Thresh said, "people always say we look alike." Katniss herself was a little nervous in Thresh's presence herself, until she saw Thresh's companion, an ebony elf of a girl Thresh introduced as Rue. The girl was quiet at first, but she was soon cajoled into smiling, and then the dam broke and there was no keeping up with her. Gale joined them, chuckling, and eventually Delly and Peeta came out. She kept snug under Peeta's arm, but tried speaking to Rue, who was tolerant enough to answer.
"Nope, we never met before," Rue said regarding Thresh. "We're a big District. Lot of people, all over. Do you know each other?"
"Gale and I are friends," Katniss answered. "Peeta and Delly go to our school." Peeta nodded. Rue looked at him, then at Katniss, and smiled.
"What do you think you'll do in Capitol?" Rue asked.
"Oh, I think I'll be asked to be a model," Delly said. "Everyone back home says I'm the prettiest girl in town..."
"Wonderful, you've made new friends!" Effie said. "But it's time for the big meeting!" Thresh and Rue cleared out, and Haymitch and the other Tributes came out.
"Lis'n up," Haymitch said, looking them over with narrowed, bloodshot eyes. "I know what you're all thinkin'. Maybe- maybe- being Reaped is the best thing tha's ever gonna happen to you. Maybe you'll make enough to get off in one year 'stead of ten. Maybe you'll catch a Captolite's eye, and go home. An' even if you never get home, you'll be livin' the Capitol life."
He curled his lips. "Here's your first reality check: To the Capitolites, you're talking animals. They really and truly see you like a different species." Effie was pointedly silent. "Take Delly here. Back home, people tell you you're pretty, just because you got some extra meat on your bones. But the Capitolites like thin. To them, you are a cow." She gave a startled, outraged screech. "Now, that doesn't mean the Capitolites won't show an interest in you. There's always going to be someone who will try anything, including the livestock. But just remember, how often is a cow invited to stay in the house? No matter what they do, the best thing is always to steer clear, if you can."
Haymitch held up two coins, a familiar large, ostensibly copper coin called an ace that was pay for ninety minutes of back-breaking labor in the mines, and another, small coin made of silver. "Reality check two," he continued, "currency exchange. This, of course, is an ace, and eight of them make a day's pay back home. This one's a diem, and it's a day's pay in Capitol. Officially, sixteen aces are worth one diem. For the first month in advance and every week after that up to the full year, District Twelve gets paid three silver diems for every six days you work, according the official exchange rate. But here's the thing: The real exhange rate is more like two hundred brassies for just one piece of silver, and when it's business, nobody's kidding anybody. If you actually complete the year, and the odds of that are long enough, the Capitol is going to hold you to working off the difference.
"Reality check three... script." He held up a fistful of paper slips of various colors. "These are Food Credits. The Capitol will give you these to exchange for food and anything else you think you need or want at their special `Tribute stores'. The only other place these will be good for anything is an outhouse that's out of tissue. You get five creds for every day's work. The kicker is, once the first year is done, the Capitol starts counting the credits as four aces off your pay."
He discretely reached into his jacket and pulled out a set of photos. "Reality check four... living conditions," he said. The first photo showed dozens of shappy, squat brick buildings enclosed by a massive, wire-topped concrete wall. "This is the 13th Precinct, otherwise known as the Ghetto. Outside of your work, it is as much of the Capitol as most of you are ever going to see. At any given time, it holds 100,000 non-Citizen workers, including Capitolite convicts. One building is supposed to hold five hundred workers. Actual occupancy can be as high as two thousand. If you leave your block after six, your building after ten, or attempt to leave the ghetto at any time except as part of a work detail, you will be shot."
"Reality check five... health care," Haymitch said. "The Capitol says they provide Tributes paid leave and free medical care. It's not untrue, but all it really means is that they keep sending the silver home and they don't add the cost of your care to your debt... again, for the first year. The fine print is that every day `off' is two weeks added to your time. Also, health care doesn't cover `extraordinary emergencies'... like having a kid." He narrowed his eyes at Delly and Peeta.
"Tha's right, sweetheart. Little ones are a liability in the Capitol, even to the Capitolites. But there's ways to deal with it. The Tribute shops offer pills for ladies that will take care of it if you take 'em regularly. They cost a fifth of your pay, but take them anyway, even if you don't have plans. You never know when you might run into someone with plans of his own. If the deed's already done, you can have a procedure to take care of it. The Capitol will do it free if you let them do an extra something to make sure it never happens again. Ever. If the father is from a wealthy family, or could be, his house will almost always pay for a quiet arrangement. Or, you put your child up for adoption, the adopting family will pay at least enough to get you out of having the cost of delivery added to your debt."
Delly was shivering. Peeta spoke: "What if we want to have a family?"
Haymitch took a long drink from his flask. "Trust me," he said, wiping his mouth, "you don't." At that, Effie quickly and quietly excused herself, and everyone pretended not to here the soft, dainty sobs from the Mentors' stateroom.
An after note: For this story, I have modeled the assumed society after Roman/ New Testament society, which I consider to be a reasonable extension of themes and subtexts in the book. The economic conditions described here are actually less extreme than those which really occurred at certain periods. Another thing I will mention is that my long-standing judgment call is that an "M" by this site's standards is equivalent to the edgy side of PG-13, and I rate and post accordingly.
