Chapter 17: The 72nd Hunger Games

[Spring and summer in the year of the 72nd Hunger Games]

Spring was coming! Finally winter gave up, temperatures climbed, and nature prepared for the next season. When I walked around in the district, I specifically enjoyed looking at primrose flowers. Since my girlfriend had been named after them, they had become my favorite flowers, and they were indeed quite beautiful. For the last few years, I had made it a habit to find additional primrose flowers and help Prim to plant them around their house, and this looked quite nice.

In late March Prim and I could spend a few hours on our meadow again, and we sat on a thick blanket enjoying nature around us. Today we had Posy Hawthorne with us. She had been born a few months after Mrs. Hawthorne's husband had died in the mines, and the poor woman was sometimes having a hard time raising her together with her older boys. Prim and I had volunteered to babysit Posy on this nice Sunday, and we had quite some fun doing it.

Posy was almost two years old now and curiously exploring the vicinity. She liked to touch the flowers and the grass, and she squealed when a bumble bee flew around us. Sometimes when Prim and I hugged, she insisted:

"Posy also hug!"

And we quickly included her in our hug. Sometimes Posy was walking away from the meadow, wanting to explore the copse around it, and we had to make sure that she did not get too far away.

Meanwhile I started to throw Prim into the air as I had done several times before in past years, and Posy looked curiously. She could clearly see Prim enjoying that pastime, and soon she begged to join. Thus I also lifted up Posy and threw her up a little bit; as soon as I noticed that she liked it, I threw her higher, and then I alternated between throwing up Prim and Posy.

Eventually, though, Posy got hungry:

"Posy want eat!"

Of course we were prepared for that, and Mrs. Hawthorne had educated us on what we were supposed to give her for eating and drinking. In the afternoon Posy found out that Prim was ticklish, and the two girls had quite some fun with that, because Posy was ticklish as well. I had not been taking advantage much of Prim՚s weakness since I had known her; as I was so much taller and stronger than my girlfriend, it seemed wrong to me to 'abuse' her like that. Posy did not have any issues like that, of course, and she tried to find Prim՚s most ticklish body parts whenever she could, until Prim returned the favor. I enjoyed seeing the two girls being so happy and listening to their squeals.

Later on Posy needed a nap, and we just stretched out on the blanket, with Prim next to me and Posy across our two bodies, with her head and shoulders on my chest and her legs on Prim՚s. Prim and I both had one arm on top of Posy and our fingers intertwined, and we enjoyed the warm sunshine and the entertainment provided by singing birds until Posy had rested enough.

Posy had developed a distinct smell by now and needed to have her diapers changed. Prim had been instructed by Mrs. Hawthorne on how to do this properly long ago and had done it before multiple times, so she took over that chore and handled it quite well, as much as I could judge that.

"I guess," I commented, "that this is going to be one of the chores I will be happily leave to you later on."

Prim looked at me: "So you are already thinking about having a baby together with me?"

I blushed a little and nodded.

"This is so sweet!" my girlfriend squealed."I can't wait to tell my friends about that!"

"Oh, about that one, Prim," I objected, "you may want to think about it. If you run around and tell people that you are making specific plans on having a baby with me, this might come over in a way which is not intended."

"Why is that?" she asked.

"Well, lots of people tend to read between the lines." I tried to explain. "When you say that, some might assume that you are having specific plans on the process to make a baby, right now in the near future rather than much later."

"Really? But I am barely ten years old..."

"What about that – when you are home tonight, why don't you ask your mother what she thinks if you tell the story like you want to first."

"Okay."

Well, once we had delivered Posy back home and had told her mother that we had had quite some fun with here, Prim did not allow me to leave, but insisted that I see how innocent her statement would be. Right away she approached her mother:

"Mom, can you imagine, when we spent time with Posy, we talked about babies, and Rye said he would not mind to have a baby with me, and we even started specific plans..."

"Hold on, Prim," Mrs. Everdeen stopped her, looking quite concerned, "which specific plans are you talking about?"

I decided to explain: "I told Prim that people might misinterpret the statement the way she phrases it. When we spent time with Posy today and your daughter professionally changed her diaper, I mentioned that I'd gladly leave that to her once we're married and have a bay together. Prim was apparently excited about me thinking to have a baby with her eventually, and I tried to explain that her way of putting it might be misunderstood."

"Oh, I see" Mrs. Everdeen smiled now. "Yes, leave that to me; I will try to explain further."

A couple of weeks later, when we were in my room together while looking into some of Prim՚s homework, I asked my girlfriend what she wanted for her birthday. She did not have to think long about it and blurted out:

"Can we have a sleepover?"

"What kind of sleepover do you have in mind?"

"You and me together in your bed, like we did when we were sick together. This was so nice, and I would like to have it again. I would love to do this in the night before my birthday and wake up on my birthday finding myself in your arms."

Okay, that was an interesting request. From my personal point of view I was all for it, but I knew that I'd have to run this across her mother, and thus I replied:

"Prim, I would not mind at all granting this wish, but we will need to ask your mother, you understand?"

"Sure, why not – let's ask."

And indeed Prim asked when I delivered her home in the evening. Apparently Prim՚s doe eye look sometimes also worked with her own mother, and we got approval. A look between Mrs. Everdeen and me was sufficient to let her know that she could trust me and that I knew what I was and was not supposed to do with her daughter. The unspoken rule was, as I knew quite well, 'keep your hands above the waist'.

On the day before her birthday, I picked up Prim from school in the afternoon. We stopped by her home to get a bag with some clothes for her and moved on to the bakery. Dad of course knew about the sleepover plans, and he asked if she had any specific plans on how to spend the evening. She did not, and Dad suggested:

"Well, maybe you want to join us in playing a couple of games?"

Wheat and Peeta had found old books about board games, and although the material and instructions were incomplete, they had tried to construct a couple of games from cardboard and leftover construction material. A particular one was our favorite; the book had called it "Mensch ärgere dich nicht!", but no translation was provided. Wheat had cut out the board and pawns, Peeta had decorated and colored everything, and I had helped them testing the game and figuring out the rules. When playing the game, up to four people had to circle the board once with their pawns to get them home, with movement points decided by a die. When others managed to get to the same field, your pawn was sent back to the starting position. Whoever managed to get all four pawns home first had won. The rules looked simple, but the game was a lot of fun.

Prim was willing to give it a shot, and Peeta, Wheat, and I played as well, while Dad was just watching. As the rules were not overly complex, Prim got the idea of it quite quickly, and soon we had some heated discussions about who was being unfair to whom, and statements and insults were flowing around the table, like those:

"Peeta, what kind of a brother are you?"

"Ha, got you now – back to zero!"

"Prim, if you do this, I will pretend that I don't know you any longer!"

"Rye, you love me, right? So you won't move this pawn..."

"Wheat, this is for cutting your last shift in the bakery short!"

Before we noticed it was time for dinner, and afterwards we sat together talking for some time. Prim liked that and told us:

"At times like this one I miss my father. So I am really glad that I found a second family here and that you let me be a part of that!"

"Yeah, about being family..." Wheat started, "I guess it's your turn to bring the garbage out, Prim!"

Prim giggled and replied while grinning: "Sorry, I cannot do this. You are way too heavy for me to carry out."

We all started laughing, Wheat included once he had overcome his shock, and once we had calmed down again, Dad admitted: "Prim, you are the best. I have not encountered anyone who can match Wheat in his jokes, but it looks like you can. I need to talk to your mother about adopting and keeping you!"

Although we all realized that this was a joke, Prim replied nonetheless: "There is no need to adopt me, as I am your future daughter-in-law anyway!"

I was very proud of my girlfriend for her ability to integrate herself so nicely and for being so quick-witted, a skill which I totally lacked.

Soon after that Prim started to yawn and declared that it was time to get to bed. Dad had already told my brothers that Prim was going to stay for a sleepover, and he had specifically asked Wheat not to tease us too much about that.

Anyway, we went to the bathroom one after another and then hit the bed. My girlfriend insisted that we both sleep topless, and I accepted that, recalling how comfortable this had been the last time. I spooned her from behind, and quickly both us fell asleep.

When I woke up I noticed that my girlfriend had turned around while sleeping, as she was now facing me. I still had my arms around her, but her face was very close to mine, and she actually smiled while still sleeping. This felt so comfortable that I could have stayed like that forever. I could not resist the temptation and quickly pecked her lips with mine a couple of times, and her smile deepened. As I normally did, I had woken up some time before we actually had to get up, so that I could spend time just watching Prim while she was sleeping. During that time it hit me that waking up with her in my arms and seeing her lovely face first when opening my eyes in the morning was something I would not mind at all to happen more frequently, ideally on a daily basis. Well, maybe once we got married, that might happen, and it was clearly something to be looking forward to.

Of course it was kind of odd thinking about it, with me being 19 years old and Prim having her 10th birthday today, but it was a nice thought nonetheless. Wait – today was her birthday! I was getting curious if she liked waking up in my arms as much as I like to have her in my arms, and soon I would actually have to wake her. How to do that nicely? Not being quite sure about it, I decided for something which I knew she liked – back stroking and scratching. Slowly moving the arm which had freedom of movement – the other one was stuck by her body – up and down her back, I went about stroking and massaging her tiny body, and in addition to her smile she now started to moan a little. A few minutes later she slowly opened her eyes, closed them again, and then suddenly opened them wide, while also saying my name.

"Happy birthday, my dear Prim!" I whispered in her direction.

It took her another minute to realize that this was indeed her birthday, and she almost jumped up in bed, asking:

"Rye, thank you, but how did you manage to wake me up in a way which makes me feel so happy?"

"Well, I stroked your back for a few minutes."

"Yes, thank you, this was real nice. But there was something else; I dreamed that you were also touching my mouth..."

"Well, yes, I also blew a quick kiss on your lips while you were sleeping."

"Rye!" she complained and made a pouting like face. "This is totally unacceptable!"

She did not like it? Well, she was a little young for kissing, I guess, and it had been forward. But to my surprise my girlfriend continued:

"It is totally unacceptable that you only kissed me when I was sleeping and could not really appreciate it. How do you plan to correct this situation?"

Oh, looks like I had misunderstood, and wow.

I responded: "If you put it that way, there seems to be a single way only to amend..."

Seeing in her face that we were on the same page, I stopped talking and gave her a real tender kiss, with closed lips of course. She moaned, and when I moved back after a few seconds, she smiled again and sighed, with her eyes being closed:

"I have been kissed by a baker's vanilla scented lips!"

I had worked a lot with vanilla on the day before, and I guess that even the toothpaste had not managed to get all of that out. Wait, my toothpaste even was vanilla scented, as this was my favorite scent. Okay, good that she liked it.

I was not really surprised that Prim mentioned the kiss when we had breakfast together with Dad and Wheat; Peeta was already working in the bakery. Wheat looked disappointed when he heard about that, and he asked her:

"So, just to make sure, this was really the first kiss, today, on your 10th birthday?"

"Yes, it was!"

"Damn, I lost the bet."

"Language, Wheat!" my father scolded him.

And I asked, not quite sure what they were talking about: "Which bet?"

Wheat explained: "Oh, Peeta and I had a bet, and I said that you two would kiss before your 10th birthday, while Peeta disagreed. Could you not have kissed yesterday instead?"

Prim and I laughed, but my father also looked disappointed, so that I asked what was up with him. He replied:

"My bet was with Wheat. I was so sure that you'd kiss long before Prim՚s 10th birthday."

"You had a bet running as well, Dad?"

"Yes, I had."

When I had delivered Prim to school, I spent some time working, and in late afternoon I was at the Everdeen home for the birthday party. Prim was jumping up and down when she saw me, and she babbled so quickly that I did not get a single word.

"Prim, slow down!" I tried to tell her.

Apparently she was too excited to slow down, and rather pulled me behind the house. In a small shed I saw a goat which had not been there before, and the animal did not really look good, with a big wound along shoulder and neck. Prim proudly told me that it was hers:

"This is Lady, and she is a gift from Katniss, can you believe it?"

"Okay, but what about the wound?"

"That's why Katniss was able to purchase the goat for an affordable sum. Don't worry, I will have her back to full health soon enough."

Mrs. Everdeen explained later that Katniss had been extremely successful in hunting for a few days and had managed to trade some deer and turkeys for the goat, knowing that this would make her sister happy. In addition, the goat provided milk, and they had a family recipe to make excellent goat cheese from it.

I joked with Prim: "So you've got a cat and a goat now. What's next? A wolf maybe?"

She chuckled and replied: "If I knew where to get one from, sure."

School was out again for this year, and Reaping Day was upon us once more. I was participating as a visitor for the first time, as last year had been my last one to be eligible. Of course, I was concerned about others being chosen, like one of my brothers, and in two years I would have to worry about Prim as well. However, for this year none of the people I knew were reaped – they got a boy and girl both from the Seam, and they were also not friends of the Everdeen or Hawthorne family.

After showing the tribute interviews the games started a few days later, and I was at the Everdeen home for the starting scenes. For this year, the arena had a desert theme, showing rocks and sand and little vegetation; finding water probably was a top priority for the tributes. As soon as the countdown ended, almost all of the tributes started to run, some of them towards the Cornucopia and the others away from it, trying to find at least a small backpack or so. At first we though that the Cornucopia was in easy reach for the Careers, but about halfway from the starting platforms suddenly a tribute got caught in quicksand, followed by others. Most of the other tributes could not see that, and within minutes half of the tributes were out of the game.

I could feel Prim twitching on my lap each time the quicksand caught another tribute; there was no previous warning, as the quicksand looked like normal sand, at least on the cameras. The bloodbath was this time caused more by quicksand than by Careers, and it actually turned out that most Careers had actually perished there. The few remaining ones gathered around the Cornucopia, but the majority of the living tributes were out there somewhere. The camera also clearly showed that even the supplies around the Cornucopia did not provide much water, so that everyone would have to search for something to drink very soon.

At the end of this viewing session Prim asked timidly:

"Rye, do you remember that patch of sand near the meadow where he had played for a few times?"

"Yes, I do."

"Do you think that there is quicksand there?"

"No, definitely not."

"How do you know?"

"Well, there was nothing when we played, and there was nothing the last couple of times Dad and I went there in winter to get more sand when we had lots of ice on the roads."

"Yes, but maybe this has changed by now?"

"No, it hasn't. That patch of sand is way too small for quicksand, and quicksand needs lots of humidity to form, whereas our patch of sand is mostly dry. No reason to worry there."

"How come you are so smart?"

"Well, I paid attention at school, I guess."

Prim chuckled, as I had successfully distracted her. I was glad that she was in a slightly better mood now and was about to take my leave for the day, but Prim had made it a habit not to let me go without a quick good bye kiss. Being her normal self, she was not shy at all about that and claimed her kiss right in front of her mother and sister. Katniss reacted by showing her trademark scowl, and Prim told her:

"Katniss, maybe you should also find a boyfriend!"

Her sister dryly replied:

"Having a boyfriend is a waste of time."

Prim was known to agree with her sister on almost everything, but now she shook her head and informed her sister resolutely:

"No Katniss, I do not agree. You don't know what you are talking about, as you've never had a boyfriend, and you don't really know what you are missing!"

A few days later we watched again at the bakery, and we were shown that a few tributes had already died from thirst. The gamemakers presented an eagle eye view of the arena a couple of times, and this showed that there were only two a couple of places with drinking water, like an oasis. They had a few small tress and bushes around each, which provided ample opportunity for laying an ambush. One of today's highlights showed that – two of the few remaining Careers had found an oasis, and they waited for others come for a drink. Most of the tributes who came were already weak, and killing them was not much of a challenge for the Careers.

The camera moved over to the other oasis, and a few tributes from higher numbered districts had gathered there. Apparently they had agreed to some temporary alliance, and they took turns resting, guarding, and scouting. The male tribute from district 10 had told them that he came from a more arid area in the district and was at least kind of used to a similar environment, and he took the lead and gave advice on what to do. They were even brave enough to send a scouting party towards the Cornucopia to find out if any supplies were left there, and this group managed to scrounge up a few more meager food rations and some utilities. The summary at the end of the day pointed out that the two Careers at one oasis and the five other tributes at the other one were all who were left alive in the game. A gamemaker՚s voice in the air announced a feast at the Cornucopia for the next morning at sunrise.

The subsequent viewing started with the first hints of daylight, and a number of items materialized around the Cornucopia. The bags were not labeled, and the tributes would have to find out if there was anything useful in them. The group of five non Careers all approached from one direction, and the two Careers from the other one. All of them moved carefully, as they had seen before how dangerous the quicksand could be, but eventually they were close to the Cornucopia.

One of the Careers was first and jumped forward to grab a few bags, but he had not seen the additional challenge the gamemakers had provided – a snake was hidden between some bags, and it took the opportunity to bite the boy. One of gamemakers explained for the viewers that this was a rattlesnake, and that it was was poisonous. The other Career was more careful and managed to grab one bag and hide with it. The other group had not seen what had happened, as the view was obstructed by the Cornucopia in the center, and two of the tributes also fell prey to a couple of snakes. The tall boy from district 10 managed to grab three bags, once he had carefully looked out for more snakes, and he also left with the bags. One more tribute was not careful enough and got trapped in quicksand, so that the remaining contestant now were only four – the one Career, the boy from district 10, and two girls who had by now decided to separate themselves from the others, they rightly assumed that any alliance would be at the end now with only four tributes remaining. The two girls had survived that long not by being strong, but evading fights and hiding successfully.

The next day's viewing showed the district 10 boy around the Cornucopia again. He had found a few waterskins in his bags, had traveled back to one oasis to fill them, and he was now busy laying traps around the Cornucopia. Part of his activity was to mark all of the quicksand patches he could identify with very unobtrusive signs, like a few pebbles. A couple of hours later the two girls showed up. They had not dared to come close to one of the oasis because they had been afraid of an ambush, and they now hoped to maybe find some goodies in one of the remaining bags. Well, they did, but the rattlesnakes were still around, and contrary to the district 10 boy, the girls did not pay attention to the rattle noise, and one of them got bitten. The other girl ran away screaming, lost her way, and ran straight into quicksand area.

When this happened, Prim was wiggling around on my lap again, and she had started sobbing. I stroked her hair and tried to comfort her as much as I could, and fortunately the mandatory viewing had ended at this time for now. This had been the morning viewing and the sun was shining brightly outside; I invited Prim to go outside and enjoy the nice day, and she agreed.

While we were walking, a peacekeeper stopped us for interrogation about the game's events. The most challenging question was for the name of the snakes which had been released around the Cornucopia, but I had paid attention and recalled that they were called 'rattlesnakes'. I took Prim to the bakery first and grabbed some food, and then we went to our meadow. After some time of just sitting there and relaxing, Prim had a few questions:

"Do we have snakes like those in our district?"

"Not that I am aware of. The gamemakers had briefly mentioned that the rattlesnake is at home in hot and dry areas, and this would not fit our environment at all. We have a few snakes here, but they are only grass snakes and such, not poisonous and totally harmless."

"I still might get some nightmares about snakes and quicksand."

"Yes, not a pretty thought, I know."

We sat there for some time again, enjoying the sunshine, and I presented the food I had gathered before on the blanket. Prim did not need a written invitation or so and started to help herself, while smiling at me.

Next day's viewing had what we expected to be the end of the games. Only the district 10 boy and the last Career were left alive in the arena, and the final showdown was likely to happen today. As a matter of fact we did not have to wait long, as the Career boy tried to force the decision and moved towards the Cornucopia again. He was moving carefully, being aware of the danger from quicksand spots and rattlesnakes, but contrary to his opponent he did not know where all of the quicksand spots were located. All of us expected the boy from district 10 to lure his opponent into a quicksand, but he was getting overconfident and did not realize that the Career boy hid something behind his back. That thing turned out to be a bow, and before we knew it, the Career had shot his opponent in the chest. It was not enough to kill, but the poor boy dropped to the ground. The Career was seen to take his time, carefully proceeding forward, and he reached the other boy, cutting his throat with some kind of dagger.

The games were decided and the victor called out, and this was that.

[Author's Notes: There is indeed a German board game called 'Mensch ärgere dich nicht' (something like 'human, do not get angry'), and it is very popular in our country. I do not know if there is a direct equivalent in English speaking countries.]