Sky's head popped through my door the next day.
"Theoretically, would you be ready to go out and do something today?" she asked. "You might maybe have about fifty-five visitors." She turned around and tried to hush the throng of people outside my door to varying degrees of success.
Weirdly enough, I was ready to go out and do something. Most of my life wasn't like the coronation. I was still dazed and having trouble believing that I'd really won the Games and would never be in the Arena again, but not everything was scary. Things that didn't remind me of the Arena, like nice, well-lit areas, were okay.
"I guess so," I said. The bustling crowd was still uncommented on. "Why do you ask?"
"We Victors have a tradition. We always do something to welcome our new member. I would have warned you so you could prepare, but some of us- Azure- got impatient." She shot a glare behind her.
"I am not a patient person," a voice came from outside the room.
"Does anything come to mind?" Sky asked.
"I want to eat so much food," I said.
Capitol buffets were, I was told, the stuff of legends. I didn't really grasp what that meant until we were streaming into a building the size of a football field. Inside it were so many different kinds of food that there were separate rooms for different categories.
"We're gonna need six of your biggest tables," Blake said to the starstruck head of house.
I went to the first table and scooped out some of the first tray. I didn't realize until after I scooped it that I hadn't even looked at what it was. I just saw food and grabbed. Half my plate was already full, since I'd scooped as much as I could. I scooped the next choice as well, filling the rest of the plate, and scurried back to the table, where I ate in a hunched, ferocious motion. When I was done, I remembered eating something that tasted good, but not actually what it tasted like.
The second time, I tried to slow down. It was hard. Seeing food triggered a primal reflex to grab and run. I kept one hand clenched onto my shirt to quell the urge to grab. I set my plate down on the table and used my other hand to scoop out smaller amounts of what actually looked good. Everything looked good, but I managed to select herb-flecked mashed potatoes, some fancy-smelling fried chicken, and some meat stewed in spices totally unfamiliar but with an amazing aroma.
Sitting at the table, I could not accept the sheer amount of food before me. I speared a chunk of meat on a fork and as I brought it to my mouth, I just froze. The food sat trembling on the fork as I looked at it spellbound. It was food. Right in front of me. I could eat as much as I wanted. I put it in my mouth and tears welled up. It was just so good. I couldn't even make a poetic description. My brain was misfiring and just sending out caveman signals of enjoyment.
That's one table.
One table. The tears welled up again and I pretended to sneeze so I could wipe my eyes. I looked at the table I hadn't ventured past. It was full of basic dishes. It was in front of the food section and seemed to be a sort of "classics" table. Beyond it there were dozens more. There were dozens more after it. This was the first table. In the first room.
On my third trip I didn't have the screaming urgency anymore. I took a few minutes to walk from one side of the buffet to the other, through every room. One room had people behind the counter wrapping sushi however you wanted it. I hadn't even known what sushi was before this. One room had enough seafood to fill a lake. There was a room for every kind of pasta I could imagine. A room where cooks tossed food in the air and into giant sizzling bowls while you watched. Three tables of different kinds of bread. I saw four rooms with nothing but dessert. And while I walked, I was told by a smiling waiter that anything I didn't see, the cook would be more than happy to make.
I ate four plates. At the start of the night, I was nervous and hiding by Sky. With each plate, I felt myself believing a little more that it was real. I didn't try even a twentieth of all the things the rooms had. I could have kept going, but I didn't need to. This was my life now. It wasn't just one day. The rest of my life. I didn't need to try everything, because I could come back.
I was going to get all Brian Jacques with food descriptions, but then I looked back at boot camp and how when I ate, I was so hungry I actually did remember things as tasting good but not remember how they tasted because I ate so fast.