Chapter 21: Don't Be A Stranger
Fast forward about a year. Sweetheart and I are finally going home to District 12. Whether the Boy - a shell of the man he once was - joins us remains to be seen.
Effie sees us off as we leave the seized Presidential Mansion.
"Effie, don't be a stranger," I smile tenderly. I peck her cheeks, and then dare to go for her lips. Oddly, she doesn't pull away, holding it for just a moment as if we have done this all our lives.
"Take care of her."
"I will," I promise softly.
Very few people return to 12 after the war, because very few people even survived the district's initial bombing after the end of the Quell to begin with.
Peeta is eventually cleared by the doctors to come back. He and Katniss have an emotional reunion, and live in the same house together. Little by little, they become adults, rekindling their romance. When I first hear Katniss moaning in only the way a woman does when she is being made love to, I have to put a pillow over my head.
Interestingly, Katniss's mother does not come back. But another mother does.
Hazelle Hawthorne lost four of her five children during the war. The one survivor, Gale, is now a captain in District 2. Despite the unimaginable loss she's endured, Hazelle resumes doing my laundry as if no time has passed at all. I have to admire her for that. And with Katniss and Peeta beginning to embark on their own adult life together, it is nice to have a friend of my own.