District 11 – Marri
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There is a strict curfew at night in District 11, but if you are stealthy enough and know the right ways to go like Marri Harken does, one can be out of their home at night unseen.
It is a little after 10:00 when Marri's aunt, uncle, and cousin are finally passed out drunk in the house that she if forced to live in with them. Only her aunt is in her actual bed, as usual. Her uncle finally lost consciousness at the small kitchen table. It is only Derik that poses a problem tonight as he has passed out in Marri's bed where he forced her to lay with him. With the sound of him snoring comes at last, she peels his arm off of her and drops it to his side as she sits herself up. Carefully and silently, she brings herself up to her knees and reaches her arms up to her small single bedroom window. With practiced ease she lifts herself up and through it, landing softly on the dry grass outside.
Keeping herself low, she travels quickly through her normal route around others homes and trees while keeping out of sight of the Peacekeeper posts. If she had the time right, the Peacekeepers wouldn't be doing another round for another 10 minutes or so, but she didn't take the chance to take her time. She pauses to hide behind her usual spots in case she is wrong, looking around to make sure the coast is clear before moving on. After about 15 minutes of creeping through the darkness, she reaches the destination that would have taken her 5 minutes to reach in the day time.
The light is still on in the small shack by the stream that is half covered by two trees and an overgrown bush. With no Peacekeepers in sight, Marri approaches the shacks front door and knocks twice, pauses, then knocks three times.
The crooked wooden door opens and Gragg appears before her, his face wearing his normal grumpy expression but with a lit rolled cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth. He looks down at Marri with no change in expression and then turns his back on her and walks away with the door still open. Marri smiles to herself as she climbs the two uneven wooden steps and enters the shack, closing the door behind her.
Without either of them saying a thing, Gragg sits himself down in one of his two wooden chairs positioned by the large tree stump that he uses as a coffee table and Marri sits in the other. On the flat stump surface is a small light blue bag, a small black dish, a box of matches, and a few scattered small rectangular white papers. Gragg bends in his seat to place his cigarette into the black dish and pick up the bag and a single white paper. Marri still wears a small smile on her face as she silently and patiently watches Gragg roll a cigarette. She watches how he carefully holds the paper as he sprinkles the tobacco from the blue bag onto it, then roll it carefully with his fingertips, then lick it twice before finishing the roll. Once he is finished he holds the cigarette with the fingers of one hand as he looks at Marri with serious eyes.
"Your lip is swollen." He says gruffly but quietly.
Marri bites her swollen bottom lip gently. "It doesn't hurt." She replies with a smile.
Gragg grunts, looks at her for another moment, then hands her the rolled cigarette. Marri thanks him as she takes it. Gragg reaches down at the table again to grab the matches. He takes one out and strikes one, then holds the fire towards Marri who puts the cigarette between her lips and inhales as she lights its end with the fire.
Gragg picks up his own cigarette from the dish and brings it to his mouth. The two of them smoke silently together until Gragg finishes his and stubs it out in the black dish.
"You're too young to be smoking." Gragg says.
Marri giggles a bit as she lets out a lung full of smoke. "You keep saying that but you keep giving me these."
Gragg makes a disgruntled gesture but says nothing. Even though he doesn't say it, Marri knows that he knows, or at least has a good guess. Out of everyone in District 11, Gragg is the only one that has ever suspected that something is wrong with Marri and her family. Whether or not that he thinks that it is her uncle or if it is her cousin she does not know. But she is sure that he doesn't suspect the truth, that it is both. Marri knows that Gragg lets her come to his shack and smoke with him because he feels sorry for her. He must think that smoking tobacco will help with her stress like he thinks it helps with his. He never offers her alcohol because Gragg stopped drinking years ago when his wife died. Even if he did Marri wouldn't take it. Alcohol makes her think of her so-called "relatives".
As Marri takes her last drag of her cigarette she wonders if Gragg knows how much she appreciates him letting her come here. It was the only place she could go that's indoors that wasn't her aunt and uncle's house, the place she hated being in the most even if everyone else was asleep or gone.
Tonight the two unlikely friends are avoiding the topic that everyone in District 11 is avoiding: The Reaping. It is now only a day away, and with Marri still being of age to be chosen, the atmosphere is slightly tense with that knowledge. In order to break the tension, Marri asks, "Do you think it will rain soon?"
"I damn well hope so." Gragg answers. "I'm lucky that I live by the stream, but even that is going to be dried up soon if we don't get some damn rain."
The young girl and the old man continue to complain about the lack of rain and the heat together as Gragg rolls them each a new cigarette. The conversation changes to less negative topics, or at least topics that don't make them whine or get angry, as they fill the small shack with smoke. Time passes comfortably until Gragg starts to cough uncontrollably into his fist and Marri tells him that they both had enough for the night and that he should keep his windows to air out the shack while he sleeps. Gragg just waves her off, but Marri is confident he will do as she says. She smiles and says good night to him. He grunts and tells her not to get caught by the Peacekeepers on her way back. Marri is more worried that she will get home to an awoken Derik, furious at her absence. Marri almost doesn't notice the extra-long look that Gragg gives her as she leaves. It is a solemn look, a worried look, a look that warms Marri's heart as she attempts the dangerous trip home.
But she avoids both Peacekeepers and any conscious members of her house when she returns. She is able to get in through her window and onto her bed without disturbing a still sleeping Derik who has luckily turned onto his other side. Knowing full well that if she slept anywhere else she would receive a beating in the morning, Marri positions herself on the bed with her back firmly against the wall as far from Derik as the bed will allow. It is not comfortable to fall asleep so close to someone she hates so much, and as Marri stares at the back of her cousin she allows herself to finally think of The Reaping. Her mind wanders into a fantasy, the sight of the stage on Reaping Day, the announcer reaching their hand into the bowl of names written on little pieces of paper, pulling one out and reading the name Derik Harken for all to hear.
But when she finally falls into her light sleep, a sleep that never feels like she has slept at all, she dreams her normal dreams. While every other eligible kid is having nightmares about their names being called at the Reaping and their parents have nightmares that their child will be chosen, Marri dreams of being chased mercilessly by her angry uncle or cousin. She dreams of trying to run but her legs won't move. She dreams of drowning, being held under water by a male hand on her head pushing down. She dreams of terrible words and faces, of terrible feelings that seem to never go away. She wakes gasping in a cold sweat after every one only to fall back asleep and into another.
If she could think of it, Marri would rather dream of the Reaping than have the nightmares that she has every night in this bed. But her mind is too overwhelmed to allow the horrors that haunt everyone else around her enter. To her, the Reaping will be just another day.
