Prompt : Hi, I have a few things I wanted to say. The first is that I love your writing and I think your Hayffie stories should be published. :D Two questions: Do you have any playlist? and How did you come up with the name Oria? Where did you get that from? It's my current favorite name. ^^ Now a request (if you're still taking prompts!): Could you write a story with Oria where one of her geese dies? I know it's mean but I'd like to see Haymitch trying to comfort her. Thanks for your time! Bye .o/
About the playlist thing, I have a special tag on my Tumblr « hayffie music » and you can find me on 8tracks at "RunYouCleverBoy" for playlists. =)
As for Oria, it is short for Orianna and it means "dawn" or "rising of the sun" and I thought it was perfect for a hayffie kid because just like Helios in Must Be Something In The Water, she brings them joy and light. You can read the long discussion about baby names in "Kicking The Odds" ;)
The Circle Of Life
Breakfast was always a complicated affair, Effie mused as she placed a glass of orange juice in front of her six years old daughter, but it was also a joyful one. It was probably the time of day she liked best: Oria sitting at the table, waving her little legs under her chair despite her mother's recurrent admonitions to behave properly, and Haymitch at the stove, trying to cook something edible, muttering obscenities under his breath more often than not while she prepared coffee.
"We're out of eggs." he said. "Go get them, baby girl, and feed the geese while you're at it."
Oria bolted from her chair with a happy cry, rushing to the purple wellington boots lying in wait next to the kitchen door.
"Are you sure?" Effie asked, chewing on her bottom lip in worry, like she did most mornings. She didn't like the idea of Oria going into the pen alone but her daughter loved it and had accepted the chore readily.
"She will be fine." Haymitch dismissed her concerns. "You know the rules, Oria." He tossed the child the bag with the food for the geese and the little girl nodded eagerly.
"No bothering them. No poking. No getting close if they quack. Grab the eggs only if they're not too close." Oria recited dutifully. "I can go now?"
"Yeah." Haymitch snorted. "Leave the pen open so they can get some exercise."
Oria was gone in a dash, leaving only a trail of cheerful laughter in her wake. Effie walked to the window and peered in the backyard, surveying the proceedings to make sure nothing would happen to her. Arms sneaked around her waist and turned her around.
"You worry way too much." Haymitch declared. "She does it every morning, nothing happened to her yet."
"I dislike the yet part of this sentence." Effie huffed. "What if they peck her?"
"Then they peck her and she will be more careful next time." he shrugged. "She's tough, our girl, she will survive."
He looked so proud she couldn't help but shake her head and respond to the kiss he pressed against her lips without a second thought. She loved her family so much… It sometimes felt as if her life before Oria didn't belong to her, as if it had been lived by a stranger. The kiss grew more heated and she grinned against Haymitch's mouth, happy that he was still so eager after so many years together.
"Daddy?"
Effie almost jumped out of her skin. Oria was anything but quiet, she was always loud and boisterous and her approach was heard from feet away. Yet, when she saw her daughter on the kitchen threshold, with wobbling lips and teary eyes, a bird carefully nestled in her arms, its limp neck propped against her shoulder, she understood at once that the happy family breakfast was done with.
"Betsie doesn't want to wake up." Oria said. "I think she's sick… She's all cold."
"Oh, sweetie…" Effie breathed out, exchanging a quick glance with Haymitch. She rushed to her daughter but her hands froze inches away from the dead goose, disgust rising in her throat. "Put it down, sweetie, and we will wash your hands, yes?"
"Give her there." Haymitch said, taking the bird from Oria.
He laid the bird on the floor but Effie didn't pause to look, she grabbed her daughter under the armpits and brought her to the sink, instructing her to use a lot of soap. Who knew what kind of germs a dead bird carried? Oria complied but she twisted her head so her eyes never left the goose.
"What's wrong with Betsie?" she asked.
Haymitch winced but didn't answer, looking at Effie with an almost pleading expression. Of course, he would leave the difficult explanations to her, of course. Betsie wasn't one of her daughter's favorite, fortunately. It wouldn't soften the blow but Betsie wasn't Greta. If it had been Greta… Well it would have been a lot worse.
She sat Oria on the table – despite her own rules that furniture didn't make for proper seats and that there were chairs for that purpose – just so she could see her better without having to crouch.
"Betsie is gone, sweetie." she told her daughter gently. "I'm very sorry."
The wobbling lips wobbled even more and tears escaped her blue eyes but Oria was trying very hard not to cry.
"But she's not gone, she's just here." the child argued, pointing at the dead bird, with a confused expression. "Tell her to wake up, Mommy."
"I can't tell her to wake up, Oria, she's gone." There was a lump in Effie's throat and she didn't even like the damned bird.
"She's dead, baby girl." Haymitch added, not so helpfully.
Effie could tell Oria had understood at some level that Betsie wouldn't be coming back but couldn't reconcile it with past experience. In her six short years of life, Oria had blissfully never known death.
"What's it mean?" the little girl asked in a small voice, more tears rolling down her cheeks.
Effie softly wiped them away with her own sleeve, barely sparing a thought for her outfit or her daughter's less than stellar grammar. "It means… Sometimes, when it's their time, pets and people die. Everything has its time. And it was time for Betsie."
"What's it mean die?" Oria insisted.
"It means your mind goes to heaven." she explained. It was far-stretched and she saw Haymitch lifting his eyebrows in a surprised – and perhaps disapproving – fashion but Effie didn't correct herself. The lesson Oria was learning that day was harsh enough without adding philosophical debates to it.
"Everyone dies?" the child asked. "Even me? Even you?"
In the corner of her eyes, she saw Haymitch shaking his head and knew exactly what he was thinking. Trust Oria to think about herself first, she was too much like her.
"Not for a very long time." Haymitch cut in. "I don't want you thinking about that. Nothing will happen to you or to your Mommy."
"And you?" Oria cried out. "I don't want you to die!"
"Nobody is dying, sweetie." Effie promised, gathering her in her arms and shooting a glare at Haymitch. Oria wrapped her arms around her neck and clung to her waist with her legs like a little monkey, so Effie had no choice but to carry her. She was too heavy to do that now but Effie didn't complain. Her daughter needed comfort and she would provide it. "It's alright, Oria."
"I don't want Betsie to go to heaven!" Oria wailed, fully sobbing now. "Tell her to come back!"
"She can't come back, sweetie." Effie said apologetically. "You can't come back from there."
Her heart was breaking for her daughter and all that talk about death was making her uncomfortable.
"I want Betsie!" Oria sobbed, growing even more distressed.
"I know, baby, I know." Effie whispered, rocking her gently. Tears of frustration at her own helplessness burned her eyes. Haymitch quietly shuffled away, carrying the bird outside – out of sight – and disappeared upstairs. He came back a few minutes later with Oria's stuffed bear. Their daughter snatched Mr Grrr from her father's hand and buried her face in the crook of Effie's neck once more.
Eventually, she exhausted herself and sobs became breathless hiccups. She sipped from the glass of water Haymitch handed her but she ultimately fell asleep in Effie's arms.
"That wasn't something I wanted to deal with today." Haymitch sighed.
Effie sat down on a chair, careful not to jostle her daughter, feeling exhausted herself. "You need to find a box big enough for Betsie and to dig a hole in the backyard."
He stared at her as if she was crazy. "You're seriously not saying what I think you're saying."
"What else do you want to do?" she snapped, out of patience.
"Stew?" he joked but it fell flat.
"In the Capitol, when our pets die we bury them." Effie retorted, almost challenging him to argue. "It will help her grieve."
He rolled his eyes but gave in, not without muttering about how absurd and ridiculous Capitol people were.
When Oria eventually woke up, she wasn't as enthusiastic about the idea of a funeral as Effie hoped she would be. Haymitch had found a big cardboard box and she suggested Oria should decorate it, promising Betsie would have loved it, but her daughter's attempts with her felt-tip pens were dubious. It was Oria's idea to ask Peeta to do the decorating and Effie nodded her agreement, being quite useless at drawing herself when it didn't involve clothing. Instead of running to the children's house though, the little girl used the phone – which was probably a first – but she was reluctant to let Effie out of her sight. She clung to her dress, sat on her lap and followed her all around the house.
Peeta was there in a matter of minutes, followed by Katniss who quickly made an escape when she realized just how upset Oria was, just as uncomfortable as Haymitch had been with the child's distress. Peeta did an awesome job both with the box and with Oria. She wasn't her usual chatty self but she opened up a little.
She still almost threw a fit when Effie tried to leave the kitchen to check on Haymitch's progress. It took her ten minutes to convince Oria she would be alright with Peeta and that she wasn't going to disappear if she left for a little while.
"We're burying food now." Katniss was saying without any humor, leaning against a shovel, when Effie stepped outside. "Times really have changed."
"Wouldn't eat it anyway. Don't know what she died from." Haymitch retorted, out of breath, waist deep in a hole. "Too fat maybe. Her heart probably gave out."
They were both covered in dirt and sweat and she insisted they changed before the actual funeral, even though Haymitch argued they would only get dirty again when they buried the box. She also refused to let Oria place Betsie in the box despite her pleas to be the one to do it. It might have been stupid but she didn't want her daughter touching dead things. She couldn't bear the thought. Katniss had no qualm about it so she placed Betsie on the nest of grass and hay Oria had prepared for her and closed the box.
The actual funeral was quite nice – for a goose's funeral. They all dressed up and said a few nice things – mostly invented on the children's and Effie's part – about Betsie. Oria swore to never forget her and started crying again but she didn't get upset to the point of falling asleep which Effie counted as small victory.
Haymitch later declared that the small wooden mark and the bunch of wild flowers in the backyard were over the top – not to mention creepy – Effie retorted it was at the back end and wasn't visible from the house so it would have to do. There were no pet cemeteries in Twelve.
Oria spent the whole afternoon outside, trailing behind Greta with the rest of her goslings while Effie watched from the window. Haymitch had once told her the goose must have been thinking Oria was one of hers because she had been chasing after it ever since she could walk. Each time Oria stopped or lingered too far behind, Greta stopped and honked as if to call her back in line with the rest of her offspring. Effie prayed that this particular goose lived a long and healthy life.
The true problem arose in the late afternoon though. Effie had been busy in the study and it was the shouts and screams that made her hurry outside, almost certain another disaster had occurred. The disaster was in the making. She reached the backyard just as Oria stumped her foot, arms folded over her chest with a stubborn expression on her face in the characteristic pose of a tantrum. Haymitch had been wrapped around her little finger ever since she was born but there was one thing he didn't stand for and that was a tantrum.
"Be very careful how you speak to me, Orianna." he warned. "I know you're upset but it's no excuse to talk like that."
"You're a meanie and I don't care and if you don't let me I will tell Mommy!" Oria shouted back.
"You do that." Haymitch snapped, nodding at Effie before going back to herding the geese inside the pen for the night. "She will just love it."
"What in Panem is going on?" Effie asked, astonished.
"I want Greta and the babies to sleep in my room." Oria declared, turning to her with puppy eyes. "I will make them a nest and everything."
"Absolutely not." she replied without even a second of thinking it through. Oria lifted her foot and Effie narrowed her eyes. "Don't you dare stomp your foot. Who stomp their foot?"
"Spoiled brats." her daughter mumbled, kicking the earth instead.
"And who don't stomp their foot?" she insisted.
"Ladies." Oria sighed in a tone that let her know she was exasperated.
"Watch it, Orianna." Haymitch warned again from inside the pen.
"Sorry." the child answered, not sounding sorry at all. She knew that when her parents used her whole name, it usually meant trouble. Effie was leaning toward leniency though, their daughter had had a difficult day after all.
"Why would you even want the geese in the house?" Effie frowned. "You know they're dirty. They would make a mess of everything."
"I don't want Greta and her babies to die." Oria pouted. "Betsie was here and she died."
"Betsie would have died anywhere else, baby girl. It's sad but life is sad sometimes." Haymitch offered, leaning against the side of the pen. "And Greta would be very unhappy in the house. She needs to be outside with the other geese to be happy like you need to be with us. You wouldn't like anyone taking you away from your family, yeah? Well, it's the same for Greta."
"Greta will still be here tomorrow, I promise you." Effie whispered, offering her hand to her daughter. "Now come inside, it's time for your bath. I bought the pink bubble bath you like."
"Pink like raspberries?" Oria looked up, suddenly more interested.
"Pink like raspberries." she confirmed, as the little girl latched herself on her hand.
Even the pink bubble bath wasn't enough to take Oria's sorrow away but, Effie mused, as much as Haymitch and her wanted to, there would be no shielding her from certain aspects of life.