Chapter 11: Hope.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games or any of the characters.
I'm sorry I had taken too much time to update but I really wasn't sure of what to write. Finally, here's my new chapter. Enjoy and please review!
Mint tea. That is all we have eaten for almost a week. It's April 28th and it's raining. I'm in the Square, alone. Katniss is at home taking care of Prim and Mom, she isn't with me because after the pneumonia, her lungs and her heart were extremely weak and the will never return to normality. In fact it's a miracle that Katniss is still alive.
I'm trying to sell Prim's old baby clothes, but nobody wants them. I'm cold, wet and weak but I can't return home, at least, not with any hope.
In home my family is waiting for me; Prim with her hollow cheeks; Katniss with her weak body, and Mom dived in her world of sadness. The clothes slip off my hands and they end up in a mud puddle. I think of getting them again but maybe if I try, I'll fall and I'll never get up again. So, I keep walking, until an idea arrives to my mind: I could look in the garbage cans and maybe I'll find some wastes that just me and my family would eat; stale bread, rotten vegetables or old meat.
I move onto the bakery and take a look into the garbage can. Damn, they have just cleaned them. The baker's wife sees me and starts yelling at me; the words are hard and I'm defenseless. There's a boy behind her, I think he is in my group at school. They disappear inside and I lean on their old apple tree. I her noises and yelling, and the boy goes out of the bakery. He is carrying two loafs of bread, the bread is burnt in some parts but it is perfect. The boy tears up a burnt piece of bread and then he throws it to the pig, then his mother disappears inside the shop and he throws one loaf of bread and then the other, both in my direction. He disappears inside without a word. I take the bread and hide them inside my jacket. I run until I reach home thinking that maybe we will survive until May 8th when I will be able to sign for tessera.
When Katniss sees the bread, her eyes shine in hope and a smile comes to her face, we prepare the table and we cut pieces of bread. We make Mom sit and eat something. That night we eat one loaf of bread and I sleep with no nightmares.
Of course, we still need tesserae and I will have to take them, but there are several weeks left until May 8th and there's a big possibility that we won't make it alive.
The next morning we have bread for breakfast and for lunch. In school, I see the boy who gave me the bread. He has a red mark in his face, he is talking to his friends and he's not paying attention to me. During recess, we are on the playground and I see a pretty dandelion.
The dandelion is a reminder of spring, my father and the woods, although it is beautiful, it makes me sad, until I realize who we can survive. The forest and the meadow, I can find edible plants and animals and fish, but I have never gone to the forest alone.
That afternoon I go to the Meadow, I stop at the Fence and listen. Silence. I enter and see huge apples hanging from a tree; I forget any ideas of hunting something down, at least for now. I cut some apples and recollect some edible plants in the border of the meadow; dandelion, ombus and many others that Dad tough me. Before eating them, I check the book of plants, and that keeps us alive. That night we make a salad with all the plants and we finish the bread; we eat until we are full.
The next day, I'm determinate to shoot something. Katniss is still weak, so she can't come with me and Prim is afraid of the woods. So I'm alone. I don't walk more than 3 miles and I climb up a tree. While I'm in the tree, I shoot a pretty fat, white rabbit. I return to the house and leave the rabbit in the kitchen table. When Mom sees the rabbi she stands up, and skins the rabbit and then she puts it in a pan and she returns to bed. She seems scared, sad and confused. Few minutes later the rabbit is cooked and I serve it, we sit at the table and eat.
The light of hope is shining as bright as the sun; the woods will be our source of food. We can survive.
Days pass and I keep hunting, Katniss starts going to the forest with me, and Mom returns slowly to us. She starts answering to Prim's questions, she cooks, cleans and one day she starts healing people for some money. One day I even hear her singing.
On May 8th, I go to the Justice Building and I sign for tesserae and Katniss does the same.
We were about to die but The Boy with the Bread saved our life.
I know, maybe this was boring. It had no talking but I promise that the next chapter will have. The reaping will be like in 5 or 6 chapters.
Thanks for the ones who review!
I'll try to update soon.
Any mistakes or ideas and suggestions, just tell me.
Taylor.