Chapter 4
The Psychic Child
(Delly's POV)
The next day, Finnick, Katniss, and I watch Ducktective, while Peeta re-reads some boring thing in his journal. When it cuts to commercial some weird ad comes on. "Dude," Katniss nudges Peeta. "You've gotta see this commercial,"
He looks up at the TV screen. "Are you having a bad day?" The TV voice says. "Well then you need to see Cato," I look at Peeta. "Cato," Another voice on the TV whispers. "Come on down to the Tent of Telepathy," The TV says. "Tent of Telepathy." It whispers.
"Maybe we should check it out," I say.
"No dice," Grunkle Mitch barges into the room. "Ever scence Cato came to town I've had nothing but trouble. As long as I'm in charge, you aren't to step foot under his roof." He leaves.
"Do tents have roofs?" Katniss asks.
Peeta grins. "I think we just found our loophole."
We go to the Tent of Telepathy and wait for the show to start. A voice announces 'lil Cato', and a blonde, chubby little boy jumps out from behind the curtain. I'm guessing he's around eight or nine years old.
"Good evening everybody!" He shouts. "I'm lil Cato, I'll let you all in on a little secret," He pauses. "I'm a psychic." The crowd gasps. "It's true! In fact, I predict all of you will say aww in a few seconds," He turns his back around making a cute face. As predicted the crowd says aww. Then he bursts into a little song and dance.
"Oh, I can see, what others can't see.
It ain't some sideshow trick,
It's innate ability.
Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined.
And you too could see if you was widdle o'l me."
"Come on, everybody, rise up. I want y'all to keep it going!" He shouts and everybody in the crowed – including Finnick, Peeta, and myself – stand up.
"You wish your son would call you more,"
Cato point to a little old lady who brought her cats to the show.
"I sense that you've been here before."
He points to Sheriff Flickerman who is wearing lil Cato merchandise.
"You think your husband is too smelly,"
He sings to the goat man and his wife.
"Something tells me you're names Delly,"
He points to me, and my jaw drops. How did he know my name? I look at Peeta who rolls his eyes at me. "You're sweater has your name on it," He tells me. I look down and frown. It does. This Cato is a fraud. He claims to be a psychic but he is just pointing out obvious information. I mean everybody thinks the goat man stinks. I turn my attention back to the performance.
"So welcome all ye...
To the Tent of Telepathy.
And thanks for visiting...
Widdle Ol' me."
Cato pulls out a water bottle and chugs the whole thing. "Thanks for coming, y'all, you guys are the real gift."
I want to get a souvenir, but Peeta drags me home before I can. "Man," Katniss laughs when we get back to the Mystery Shack. "That kid is such a phoney."
"I know!" Peeta exclaims. "He was just pointing out obvious things! He's an even bigger fraud then Grunkle Mitch,"
I shrug. "He's just a kid. There's no way he'll be able to make money off of this 'ability' when he's older."
"Yeah," Finnick says. "They must only go to his shows because he's a cute little kid,"
The doorbell rings and I run to get it. I find Cato on the porch. "Ahh... Cato," I say. "What brings you here?"
"I noticed you at the show today," He says. "And I realized I haven't seen you around town before. Are you new to town,"
"Yes," I nod. "Me and my brother, Peeta are spending the summer with our Great Uncle." I gesture toward the shack.
"I see, well, welcome to Panem Falls, I'm sure you'll have a great lil summer here."
"Thank you." I smile briefly. "Can I ask you something kind of... personal?"
"Why, of course!" He grins.
"Okay... Well, why are you pretending to be psychic?"
"What do you mean?" He frowns.
"Well... At the show today you were just saying obvious things," I say. "See, my sweater has my name on it."
"Oh..." He looks at the ground. "I can't really see the future." He looks back at me and adds. "But I have a friend who can."
"You do?" I ask. "When can I meet your friend?"
"Oh, you'll meet him later on this summer. It's not time yet."
"How will I know who he is?"
"His name is Bill. He's got some exciting plans, but, as I said before, it's not time yet."
"Oh, okay." I wonder what these plans are, and who Bill is. But it's Peeta's think to ask questions like this, and I shrug them away.
"Anyway," Cato says. "I may not be psychic, but I can do magic." He snaps and a white rose appears in his hand. He gives it to me. "I wanted to know if you'd like to go to dinner with me."
"As friends?"
"No."
"Cato, I-" He cuts me off.
"At least give me a chance, Delly."
"I don't know..." I look away.
"Please,"
Cato does seem really sweet. And he's younger, I don't want to break his lil heart... Then again, I really don't want to go on a date with him. "Fine," I finally agree. "But only one date."
With that, Cato leaves, promising to meet me at some restaurant. I sigh and go inside, Peeta looks at me. "Who was that?" He asks.
"Cato," I flop onto the sofa next to Peeta who starts playing with my blonde curls.
"Well... What did he want?"
"He... He wanted to ask me out to dinner tonight." I blurt out.
Peeta laughs. "Aww... How'd you turn him down?"
"I... didn't."
"What? Why?"
"I couldn't." I tell him. "I felt too bad."
"Well," Says Peeta. "You should probably get ready for your date." He mocks me.
"Yeah... I just want to get tonight over with." I go upstairs and search through my closet. I don't want to give Cato the wrong idea. I am not going to be his little girlfriend. He's nine years old, and I'm twelve. He should know that this could never work out. But I also don't want to be too mean and break his heart. I have to think of the right way to tell him I'm not going to go on a second date if he asks me to do so. I put on a sweater, a skirt, and my shoes. Sighing I go to the mirror and brush my hair. I hope this works...
I leave the Mystery Shack and find the restaurant. Cato is already waiting there at a table set for two. I laugh and walk over to him. "Cato, funny seeing you here," I joke.
He smiles. "You made it."
"Yep." I sit down. This restaurant is too fancy. "How can you afford this?"
"My business is quite popular in town, and great for tourists... Like your Great Uncle's Mystery Shack."
"Oh,"
"You look lovely."
I look down at my outfit. "Thank you... So do you- I mean... not lovely, but-"
"I get it." He interrupts. "Thank you." I look at his tuxedo. He really is going all out with this date. I really hope he doesn't ask me out on another.
We order our food, talk, and eat, but at the end of the night, when I go to leave, he asks me out on another date. I don't know why but I agree. Which makes me very angry with myself. Why am I too nice? It's not fair. I go home and tell Peeta everything.
"Delly," He sighs. "If you don't want to date him why do you keep agreeing?"
"I don't know!" I cry. "I just don't want to hurt his feelings, I guess."
"Do you want me to go find him tomorrow and tell him you don't want to date him anymore?" Peeta asks.
I perk up. "You'd do that for me?"
"Yeah." He says. "You're my twin sister, I'll always have your back."
"Thanks bro bro... Awkward sibling hug?"
His mouth twitches up. "Awkward sibling hug."
We hug each other, and it's quite awkward. "Pat pat," We both say as we pat each other on the back.
The next day, I sit in the Mystery Shack while Peeta talks to Cato. I feel really bad, I wish I could talk to Cato myself but I just can't. I watch as Katniss comes in for work. She sits down by the cash register then eyes me. "What's wrong?"
I sigh and pull a stool over to Katniss. "Well," I say. "Do you remember Cato?"
"Yeah," She smiles. "We went to the Tent of Telepathy yesterday, remember?"
"After that, Cato came over and asked me out."
Katniss laughs. "He's nine! You don't have to date him,"
"I agreed to go only once – because I didn't want to hurt his feelings,"
"Delly," Katniss sighs. "Cato is a nine year old. Just tell him there's too much of an age difference. Just be nice when you do it,"
Katniss is right. I might be sparing Cato's feelings, but I'm not being any fair to myself. I want to find someone closer to my own age. Ii don't' want to be stuck pretending to me Cato's girlfriend all summer. "You're right," I say standing up.
"Course I am," She says.
"I've got to go," I run out of the Mystery Shack to the park I was supposed to meet Cato at. There, I find my brother levitated in the air by some magical green clouds coming out of Cato's hands.
"This is all your fault!" Cato shouts at my brother. "You came between us, and now you're gonna pay!"
"Cato!" I shout back.
"Delly, I-" He says with his back still turned to me.
"I'm sorry I should've told you this in person, but I think I'm just too old for you," I say. "I didn't want to hurt your feelings I still want to be your friend." I move closer to him and he turns to face me.
"Really?" I notice he is wearing a glowing amulet. That must be his magic is coming from. If I could get it off him he can't hurt us.
"No, not really!" I rip the amulet off his neck and Peeta falls to the floor. "You were gonna hurt my brother!"
"Delly, please give it back!" He pleads. "I won't hurt your brother, just please."
I don't give the amulet back. Cato was going to use it to hurt my brother, he could use it to hurt anyone. I have to do the right thing and make sure Cato can't do anything bad with the amulet. I drop the amulet and crush it under my foot.
"Delly, you have no idea what you just cost me," Cato says.
Peeta moves to stand by my side. "You aren't much of a threat without your powers, are you?"
Cato glares at Peeta. "I'm gonna make your whole family pay." He looks at me. "You remember my friend Bill?" He asks. "Well, he is more powerful than either of you could ever imagine. And he's gonna help me... When the time is right. And then we can be together, Delly."
I raise one eyebrow at him. "I will never date you," I say.
A flash of pain crosses his face then he smirks at us. "Fine," He says. He walks toward the forest, then turns around to say "But this isn't' the last you'll see of widdle ol me." With that he disappears into the woods, and I look at Peeta.
"Psychic child?" I ask. "More like psychotic child."
He smirks and we walk back to the Mystery Shack together.
Cato's POV
I stare at the model of the Mystery Shack I made out of Popsicle sticks. "Okay," I try to calm myself down. "You're okay. They'll see. They'll see who they're dealing with. They think they took all my power. But they're wrong. I pull out the journal I found one lonely day in the woods. It's cover has a golden six fingered hand with the number '2' written on it. Inside it lies the secrets to Panem Falls. Secrets to Panem Falls. Secrets that will help me destroy the Mellarks.
I hope you guys liked this chapter. It was weird for me to write Cato as a crazy nine year old, but I think it's really funny, I'm sorry if your a fan of Cato and didn't find it amusing... Anyway, tell me what your thinking of this story so far, I don't really know how any of you feel about this story because you aren't reviewing, should I continue?