A/N: Madge is doing all the talking now, and Gale is..well, not to be found. We'll wait for him to find his way back.. Till then, enjoy reading. :)
Gale Lover, I'll dedicate this chapter to you. (to make up for the abysmally short last chapter.)
CHAPTER-11
It's been two weeks since the Harvest Festival, and still no sign of Gale. Not even on Sundays. I have heard that the working hours have been increased at the mines.
It's a good thing that I have school to take my mind off thoughts. Thoughts that turn into nightmares, which leave me breathless and crying and awake the whole night . But even at school I find no respite from my worries. I have been having nightmares constantly. About fires and explosions. What if the mines have another explosion? The one which claimed the happiness of countless families including Gale's still have shady official reports.
Each day during lunch hour I sit at my usual table, alone. Since Katniss left school, I don't have a lot of people coming up to me to talk. Everyone leaves me be. I keep looking at the table which Gale and his friends used to regularly occupy, which now remains unoccupied on most days. The empty table seems to mock the huge Gale-shaped hole in my heart.
Today I see some girls pointing at me and talking, and I recognize one of them as Cherry, the girl whom Gale had told off for being rude to me. Not wanting an unpleasant situation, I look down at my textbook which I have open in front of me only as a ruse. Out of the corner of my eye I see her slowly making her way over to me. I finally look up when I see her standing right across the table from me.
"So, Ms. Undersee must have known about this." She sneers my name like it's something unpleasant. I'm used to this treatment from everyone.
"What must have I known about, Cherry?" I try to keep composed and convince myself that it's really her shrill voice that's grating on my already frayed nerves.
"Ooooooh! So this one pretends she doesn't know!" she gives a short cackle and waves her friends over.
"Leevy, tell her how your brother is sitting at home when he should be really in the mines now." Cherry says in an imposing voice.
"Let it be, Cherry. It's not her fault." The girl called Leevy looks away, not wanting to be a part of her friend's histrionics.
"Then what is? Undersee here thinks she knows better than most, and takes is upon herself to give her valuable comments. What do you have to say about this?"
"Can you be please more specific?" I ask as pleasantly as I can manage. I take a deep breath.
I must not react. I must not react. I must not react.
But Cherry just got started.
"You keep boasting that your father does everything to help us, don't you?" she screeched, her face taking on an ugly red colour.
"Cherry, please." Leevy meekly tries to reason, but Cherry waves her off.
"You may forgive her and her father, Leevy, but I don't want to see my father suffering the same fate."
"Will you please tell me what happened?" I calmly ask.
"What happened? You are asking me what happened?"
"Yes."
"I'll tell you what happened. Leevy's brother here lost his job is what happened. Along with his entire unit. That too because they were lucky." She says through gritted teeth. "Who will feed their family? Your father?"
"Will you please calm down and explain? I mean, why would they lose their job?" I ask, genuinely confused and concerned.
"Hear, hear. Now she says she has no idea that her boyfriend is the reason behind all this." Another girl speaks up, whose name I do not know, her voice dripping venom.
"I'll tell you what happened, Madge Undersee. Hawthorne insisted the miners demand a better pay and safety measures." She glares at me.
"Please tell me where he has gone wrong. Wouldn't you want better conditions for our miners?" I reason.
"Oh, so you know that. Then why has Leevy's brother and his unit been thrown out of work? Why not Hawthorne?" she almost shouts in my face, and then turns to Leevy, "Look Leevy, I always told you that Hawthorne is nothing but trouble. But of course, you'd always tell me to 'Can it'-"
What have you done, Gale?
I was afraid of this very thing happening. I had told him so many times not to do something rash, to bide his time. And if he really needed to do something, to get all the miners to do it together.
"-now they have no job because that coward Hawthorne decided to stand back and do nothing while they went and fought for their right!"
"Wait! Did you say their team was the only one to make demands?" I ask uncertainly.
"How does it matter? Haven't you been listening Undersee? That coward brainwashed-"
"Of course that's how it would seem to you. Excuse me!" I cut across her tirade and run out of the cafeteria as fast as I can.
I keep running and don't stop until I reach the Justice Building and pound on the door to my father's office.
"Enter" my father calls from inside and nearly trip on the carpet in my hurry.
"Dad, you need to do something about the mines! They're making demands!"
My father say nothing, just sits there rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"I know, Magpie" He quietly says after a long moment. "You were right. The new officials are not a happy lot. They have extended the production hours."
"Well then do something about it! You can't sit doing nothing while so many people lose their jobs as we speak!"
"I can watch people losing their jobs, Magpie." His voice sounds choked.
"What did you just say, Father? How can you say that? Whatever happened to 'working as hard as I can to make their lives easier'?"
He sighs rubs his temples; a sign of exhaustion. "Magpie, when they lose their jobs, it ensures that the mines don't have an explosion."
I want to cry out of despair, anger, disgust, relief; I don't even know why I want to cry in the first place.
"Stop them, Dad, please." I beg him.
"I can't stop these new officials, Madge. They are under direct orders from Snow. And I can't reason with the miners anymore, they don't want to believe that I'm trying my best."
"What about the people who have lost their jobs?" I press on.
"I can't employ so many of them, and you know that very well, Margaret."
"So you would have them starve to death rather than blown to bits. Thank you so much for showing concern, Father." I manage to throw at him through my disgust. I turn on my heels and stomp away, not wanting to be near my father right now.
I have to find Gale. I make my way to the Seam, not oblivious to the hateful and vindictive glares that come my way today.
"It's always a girl behind all that is trouble." They whisper among themselves as I pass them.
"That boy was trouble all right, but this brat is egging him on."
I try to shut out the cruel whisperings and walk as quickly as I can towards Gale's house. When I reach the Hawthornes' home, Rory opens the door and explains that Hazelle and Posy have gone over to the Victors' Village, and that Posy and Vick are a little under the weather.
"Can I come in?" I ask uncertainly; I don't want to stay out and become the object of the spiteful glares that are coming my way.
He lets me in and pulls over a chair for me.
"Have you seen Gale, Madge?" Rory asks me at once, trying to keep the worry out of his voice.
"No, Rory. In fact I came here to meet him when comes back this evening."
"I haven't seen Gale in two weeks, Madge, neither have Vick, Posy or Ma."
"What do you mean he hasn't been home in two weeks?" I ask, now positively alarmed.
He can't have landed himself in the stocks already, I would have known had that been the case. I requested Darius to be on a lookout.
"No, he has been home. I think. But none of us has seen him come home or leave the house." hesitatingly Roy admits. "He comes home really late and leaves before Ma wakes up, and he never eats at home. Ma went to the mines a few times to make sure he has clocked in. He goes to work. That's all we know."
"When was the last time you saw him?" I demand.
"Just before leaving for the Harvest Festival. I told you he went to the woods. Not since then."
"Did you ask Katniss? Maybe he has been to see her?" I prompt, though I have an idea that Gale will not be there either.
"He hasn't been there once." Rory confirms.
"Maybe the Hob. Did you try asking people in the Hob?"
Rory shakes his head sadly.
"Greasy Sae and Rooba say they haven't seen him since last Sunday."
Then where is he?
"Madge, I'll walk you back home." Rory offers. The sun is disappearing fast, but I'm least bothered about that now.
"Can I stay here, Rory? I really have something important to say to Gale."
He simply shrugs. He doesn't think I'll be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Gale. But I'm determined.
I will see him tonight. I will sit here on this chair until I see that man walk in through the doors. I grab a book from the living room table, a glossy fashion magazine, no doubt brought by Katniss from the Capitol, and brace myself for a very long evening.
Gale Hawthorne, you have been stubborn. Tonight you'll see it how I define stubborn.
...
P.S: 1000 views for the last two chapters! Gaaaaaaah I'm loving it. Thank you guys for reading. :)
