Sorry for the short chapter. The next one won't be long either, but I hope neither of them let you guys down. :)
My suspicions have been confirmed, Julie was a soldier in the war. A lieutenant.
Salama is about to say something when a nurse walks up to the door pushing a young boy on a wheelchair.
"Sala, I was looking for you. Nurse Joanne has been wheeling me around on this thing for ten mintues." He looks up at the nurse and apologizes.
"You don't have to apologize, Jake," the nurse smiles at him then looks at Salama, "he didn't want to have lunch without his big sister."
"Don't worry, Jakey. We'll head down to the cafeteria in a few minutes. I would like to introduce you to Mrs. Katniss Mellark," Hope then looks at me, "this is my brother, Jake."
"Nice to meet ya, Mrs. Mellark," Jake says with a grin, just like Peeta's grin.
"You can call me Katniss," I respond, returning the smile.
"Would you like to join my sister and I for lunch, Katniss?" Jake asks.
"Thank you for inviting me, Jake."
"Then let's go, Hope walks too slow anyway. I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm starving."
During our lunch, Jake asks me a lot of questions and I have to admit that some make me uncomfortable, but he is such a nice boy and I don't want to upset him. If Peeta were here right now, he would be surprised with how kind I am being to these strangers. Maybe he has rubbed off on me a bit over the years. Somewhere in the conversation, Jake asks about my husband and I explain to him that Peeta has the same illness as him. He frowns and apologizes, saying that he knows how hard it is for someone to go through that. The way he talks about his illness, you wouldn't think that he was the one who had it. He's more like Peeta than I think, so I tell Jake that I'll bring Peeta with me to visit him soon. Jake seems to like the idea and just nods.
Soon enough, a doctor pages Jake and says that he needs to be back in his room for blood tests.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Katniss, but it seems that I must go. I'm glad I got to meet you. I'll see you again soon and tell Peeta I say hi."
I say goodbye and walk back to my office to use the phone. I dial my house phone number, which I had to write down since I don't have it memorized. It rungs two times until someone answers it.
"Hello?" It's Peeta. I smile at the sound of his voice.
"Hi, Peeta. How are you doing?"
"Mom is taking good care of me. She made me lunch and hot chocolate. How's your first day of work?"
"It's good so far. The people hear are genuine and transparent. I might like it hear."
"That's great, I'm glad you like it. I'll have to visit you soon when I'm not working at the bakery."
"Peeta, you know you can't go back to work anytime soon, doctors orders. I left Haymitch there to run the place while you're gone."
"Haymitch?" I have never heard Peeta so worried.
"He was the only person I could get. It was a last minute thing." I can hear Peeta's sigh, but continue talking, "I met this young boy today, Jake Livingston. He has the same condition as you and wants to meet you. He also says 'hi'."
"He sounds cool, we'll talk about it more when you get home. Mom wants to take me to the Square with her."
"Okay, I'll see you in a few hours, then. I love you."
"I love you too, my Katniss. Later."
For once, things seem to be looking up. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and that things are going well in my life, back under my control. I'm starting to feel tired, but I push that feeling aside. At my desk, I start on a list of tasks that Julie left on a clipboard. I'm not sure how good I'll be at this, but I might as well try. Besides, Katniss Mellark is not a quitter.
