Chapter 23: A very special birthday present

[Autumn in the year of the 73rd Hunger Games]

The last days of summer were gone and autumn settled in. Those citizens having a garden harvested what they could to add to their nourishment, and Prim was also tending the herbs and plants in the Everdeen garden a lot. Getting that garden extended had paid off, and Prim proudly told me that she and her mother could brew a lot more potions to help sick people with all of the ingredients they now had access to. Without Lizzy's help, though, they would not have managed to cope with that, and Lizzy had developed into some kind of assistant apothecary, being already able to brew and mix a large variety of potions fully on her own.

The nights were too cold now to sleep outside, but Lizzy enjoyed spending time with both me and Prim above and beyond work and school hours. She claimed that we always provided lots of opportunities for laughing and having fun, and the neighbor girl flourished in our company; very rarely did we see her sad any longer when remembering her older sister who had died in the arena a few years ago. Her mother did not mind her being with us so much; since I had had them both over for a few days and nights almost a year ago and we had also spent many nights together on the meadow and in the Everdeen garden, I had assumed some kind of big brother role for Lizzy, and Mrs. Anderson fully trusted me with her.

Prim was already planing ahead for my birthday, and she mentioned to Lizzy and me:

"Do you recall how much fun we had last year in your room, Rye, when we pretended to be princesses and you were my servant?"

I chuckled and told her that I did remember, indeed.

"Do you think that we can do something like that again?" Prim continued.

"I am sure that we can," I nodded, "and maybe we can even do a game like this here in the garden."

"Like what?" Lizzy asked.

"Hm," I started to think, "what about that: One of you is a poor girl working hard in the garden, and the other one is the princess owning the garden and treating the other girl like a slave. Eventually I come in, and I am the king who disapproves of the princess' behavior; she is punished and looked in a dungeon."

"Where do we have a dungeon?" Prim asked.

"We can use the small tool shed over there" I suggested.

"Okay, and who is the poor gardening girl and who is the princess?" Lizzy asked.

"Well, you are much taller and stronger than me, Lizzy," Prim meant, "so that you should be the slave driver princess, I guess."

"Okay, let's do it, girls" I encouraged them.

Prim ran up to her room and changed into the oldest and most ragged clothes she had, while Lizzy went back to her home to find a nice dress and some decorations to use as fake jewelry. I also changed some of my outfit to the extent possible on short notice.

Prim was back first and crouched down to work. A few minutes later Lizzy came, dressed like royalty, and started to lash out verbally: "You there, work faster – this is not good enough!"

Prim pretended to be almost in tears and stated: "But I am already working as fast as I can!"

"Not good enough!" the fake princess retorted. "If you cannot do better, I will cut your rations!"

"But I am close to starving!" the poor girl sobbed.

"That's your fault for not working fast enough!" the fake princess told her.

"Can I have a break at least, please?"

"No way – work faster or I will throw you in the dungeon!"

"No, please, not the dungeon!"

Both Mrs. Everdeen and Mrs. Anderson, Lizzy's mother, had heard the shouting and were now looking out of their windows to see what we were doing. I chose this moment to step in and calmly asked my fake daughter:

"What seems to be the matter here, Princess?"

Lizzy snorted and told me: "The gardening slave is not working fast enough!"

"Princess Elisabeth," I started to educate her, "we do not have any slaves. Those working for us are human beings as ourselves, and it does not befit us to look down on them and treat them poorly."

"But she's just a slave girl, and she needs to work harder – I am the Princess, and I can give orders like that, can't I?"

"Giving orders implies to know about the consequences and implications, and in general a willingness to do yourself what you order. You show none of that, so that I will need to educate you by locking you in the dungeon for a night."

"What?" Lizzy shouted.

Ignoring her for a moment I addressed Prim: "And you, my hard working gardener, can take a break now. Please feel free to go into the royal kitchen and get yourself something to eat and drink."

"Thank you, your majesty!" Prim bowed and went off.

I dragged a struggling Lizzy to the tool shed, pushed her in, and locked the door behind her. Silence was all around us for some time, and then we had some rumbling and a question: "When do I get out again?"

"Didn't I tell you that you'd have to spend the night in there, to atone for your behavior?"

Silence again, and Prim came back. A few minutes later:

"Seriously, the whole night? I need to pee!"

I searched around, found a bucket, unlocked the door, opened it, pushed the bucket in, and closed and locked the door again, without saying anything. Prim looked at me and barely managed not to laugh.

Again a few minutes later the muffled voice from within the shed told us: "A bucket? You really expect me to use that? Is this still about pretending or a play?"

Prim could not keep calm any longer and burst out laughing, and I did the same. Lizzy must have heard us from inside and yelped. I decided to end the suspense and locked and opened the door again. Lizzy rushed out, quickly told us "I really need to pee now!" and was gone towards her home.

Both mothers, who had been watching all of the time, now started to applaud and laugh, and I saw Mabel shaking her head, probably wondering about my age once again.

On the next day I was called into another conference with Mayor Undersee and Mr. Peters, the mining operations supervisor. This time also Cray, the Head Peacekeeper, was with us. I was informed that guarding the coal mines during the last weeks had not produced any results, and that the Capitol still reported coal missing, with an increasing amount now. They had already authorized Mayor Undersee and Head Peacekeeper Cray to send a patrol outside of the district. Cray intended to lead the patrol, and I was asked to participate, representing the mayor. Besides the two of us only Darius, a young peacekeeper, was going to be with us; for a first scouting mission we wanted to be a small group only. We were supposed to use an ATV and drive on a path parallel to the train tracks; as the trains were something the mayor called a 'maglev', we could not go on the tracks themselves. The last train had left earlier today and the next train was expected in a week, so that we had a few days for our recon mission. Start was planned for tomorrow early morning, and we might be off for a few days and nights.

I told Prim and my family in the evening that I would be off for a few days. I could not tell them any details, but just mentioned that I had to do some work with the mayor which was going to keep me busy and stay in the Justice Building overnight.

Very early in the next morning I reported to Cray, carrying a large duffle bag with some clothes. Darius was already there, and we mounted a large ATV with a roof rack for extra supplies, spare tires, and tools. Cray had a key for the large gate close to the station, so that we could leave the district and drive on the unpaved road along the tracks. Well, tracks probably wasn't the proper term, as it was more some king of monorail on poles, but anyway.

The two peacekeepers were on the front seats and I had the back row for myself. Looking back through the rear window, I saw the district vanishing behind me; this was an odd feeling, as I had never left the district before, except for one or two quick trips with Katniss and Prim to collect some berries. I was seated behind Darius, who was driving, and Cray asked me to look out of the left window while he was doing the same on the right side. We were supposed to look out for anything unusual, not knowing yet exactly what that could be.

After a few kilometers I called out: "Look, there is something which looks like a trail!"

Darius hit the brakes and reversed to the spot I had seen, and we got out. Cray looked at what I had seen, examined the trail and stated: "True, it is a trail, but it is made by animals. Not footprints or such. But nice spotting. Let's move on."

Another few kilometers later Cray spotted something on his side and we got out again. There were a few black splotches on the ground not far from the road, and it looked like there might have been a campfire a long time ago, but we could not locate other indications.

After some more stops without finding clear evidence, we stopped for lunch and made a small campfire of our own. When I wandered off a little to relieve myself, I noticed more of those black splotches, and they seemed to increase in density west of us, leading deeper into the forest. I alerted the two peacekeepers to my finding when I got back, and they went with me right away. While the most black spots lead into the forest, we approached the monorail first, and Darius found a series of black marks along the rail line. I suggested:

"This looks like somebody dropped something from a train, doesn't it?"

"Boy, you may be right about that!" Cray confirmed my suspicion. "Look, the monorails are damaged here, and this looks like a slow order to all trains. When the train is going slow, somebody could indeed throw cargo down." Normally I'd mind being called a 'boy', but coming from an old and respected peacekeeper, it was all right, I thought. Even if it wasn't, I surely wouldn't want to antagonize him and complain about his choice of words. Cray had a digital camera with him and took lots of pictures, and then we followed the trail and the spots in the other direction. After about a kilometer we found a small clearing in the forest, and there were remnants of some kind of rough camp. Based on what we saw Darius speculated:

"Hm, I guess that one or two people on the train took advantage of the slow order and dropped cargo to the ground. People on the ground picked it up and carried it here, and finally another group of people took baskets or backpacks to carry it off. But where to?"

"I bet that we will get back to the district's fence if we follow that trail. I'd assume that they got the stolen coal to the Hob as black market ware. We should burn the Hob down!"

Darius objected: "Boss, you may want to reconsider. While the Hob certainly is suspected to trade with some stolen goods, it is the sole available store for some of the poor Seam residents, as they can trade there rather than pay with money. If we took that away, more of the coal miners would get sick and die from impoverishment."

Cray got suspicious and asked: "And how do you know all of that?"

I cut in: "Sir, he is right about that. I also know about the Hob, as I have prepared some data for the mayor related to it. We cannot just eliminate it without providing other means to get merchandise for the Seam; this would certainly hurt the coal mining business severely."

Cray nodded and continued searching for evidence, but whoever had used this place had been careful to clean up before leaving. Eventually we left the place and got back to the truck. We spent a couple of more days searching for hints, but what we had found on the first day was by far the best lead we had, so that we returned to the district on day three. All three of us reported to the mayor, and once he heard our full report, he nodded and decided:

"I guess that we should prepare an ambush at the place you found for the time the next coal train leaves. You will need to park your vehicles far away and hike from there. What do you think, Cray, two vehicles with four peacekeepers each?"

Cray pondered that and replied: "Yes, that should be good enough. We do not know how many bad guys we may encounter, but I expect not more than four or five in total."

This was decided, and I'd be out of the loop for now; I would not be needed for the ambush, as this was entirely peacekeeper business.

Being back withing the district's boundaries and leaving the Justice Building, I found that the day was almost over, as the sun was close to the horizon. Rather than walking home directly, I made my way towards the Everdeen՚s, and I found my young girlfriend still busy in her garden. She took the task of tending the plants very seriously, and I liked to see that. She was looking in the other direction and thus did not see me; I sneaked closer until I was right behind her, and suddenly I grabbed her and swooped her up in my arms from behind. Prim was obviously totally caught by surprise and squeaked and fidgeted in my arms, but when she heard my voice she calmed down. I turned her around for a welcome hug, and she quickly wrapped her arms around my neck, saying:

"Rye, I have missed you. I am glad that you are back."

"I have missed you, too" I responded. "Did you have a good day?"

Prim nodded and said: "Yes, I did, as the weather is perfect for gardening."

After some more hugging she continued:

"Rye, by the way, for tomorrow after school I have promised to babysit Posy again. Can you join us, please? This is going to be so much more fun with you around!"

"Sure, I can," I replied, "I can take the afternoon off and meet you after school. By the way, how old is Posy now?"

"Posy is three years old, and she does not need diapers any longer. Maybe we can play in the sand together tomorrow?"

Considering that I had been doing lots of extra work during the past days I could easily get the afternoon off, and I picked up Prim from school. I already had a bag with me with some toys and food, and once Prim had changed from the school clothes to something more practical at home, we went to pick up Posy. Mrs. Hawthorne was delighted to see us:

"You know, I dearly love my daughter, but sometimes it is good to have her off for a few hours. She is like a little whirlwind, and I always need to pay attention to what she is doing. A few times Rory also can supervise her, but I cannot always have him take care of his little sister. Have fun with her, and thank you for taking her out!"

Posy was already running ahead, but not quite in the direction we had in mind. I picked her up and turned her into the right direction, but had to stop her again a few minutes later.

"You know," Prim suggested, "why don't we let her run where she wants to go, and take her where we want to go later on when she has exhausted most of her surplus energy?"

"Good idea," I nodded, "let's do that."

Like a little whirlwind, as her mother had called it, Posy ran here and there, giggling and chuckling and having fun, and we just followed. We got to the shed where Prim kept her goat, saw Posy running along a small creek, and moving forward to other houses. We had probably traversed the Seam multiple times before she slowed down and told us:

"That was fun! I am hungry now!"

Not a surprise, really. We guided her towards the copse with the patch of sand and found a place to eat on the grass, after spreading a blanket. Posy had developed quite an appetite, and once she had eaten, she dropped down on the blanket for a quick nap. Prim and I took advantage of the break and also found a place on the blanket to sit down for cuddling and hugging, until Prim looked up at me and told me, showing her big doe eyes:

"That's nice; I can feel the butterflies again."

We kept sitting and hugging like this for probably about one hour, when Posy woke up, saw us cuddling, and quickly joined us, so that we opened our arms and included her. This did not take long, though, as the little girl now decided that is was play time. She moved over to the sand and started to get herself sandy and dirty. I opened up my bag and got a few things out. Wheat and I had spent some time weeks ago on doing that, and we had crafted a few toys from wood, like a small shovel and a small rake. It had turned out that my brother Wheat was actually quite good in crafting things, and he was already thinking about making a business from that. There was a metallurgist in the district working mostly with metal, but so far there was no dedicated craftsman or shop for wood, although some residents dabbled in that for repairing or extending their own furniture.

Anyway, I took the small wooden toys, brought them over to the sand, and showed Posy how to use them. She squealed and took over, and the toys were put to good use. Later on, in the evening, we brought a dirty, but happy Posy back to her mother, and at home I could tell Wheat that the toys we had crafted had worked quite well indeed. He had found a part of a shed in our yard where he had established a small workshop, and as he was already done with school, he divided his time between baking and crafting. His main problem was, as he repeated:

"You know that this is really something I like to do. But, there is not established wood crafts shop in the district, which implies that not only I cannot be an official apprentice to an expert, I am also not allowed to open a business. For the time being, I guess, I still need to be a baker."

"I understand, but let me talk to the mayor about that, too."

A few days later I got a chance to mention my brother's gift to Mayor Undersee, and I started the conversation by showing him some of the pieces Wheat had crafted, including some small wooden tools, a few plates, and other stuff.

"I know that they probably have some experts over in District Seven for crafting from wood," I explained, "but we rarely get any products from them anyway. Lots of Seam houses have poor and not enough furniture, and due to the long work hours in the mines, the coal miners lack the time to do something about it."

"True" the mayor admitted.

"If we had a person focusing on crafting from wood," I continued, "maybe some of them could trade for products they need."

"Tell you what," Mayor Undersee stated, "I do not think that we can get permission to establish a new trade here. However, if your brother still continues to work in the bakery officially, I will not mind him spending some of his time on that crafting business, and I will advise the peacekeepers that this is legitimate. For later, we may have to find a way proving the need to have such a business to the Capitol."

"I think that this is good enough for now – thank you, sir."

At the end of the day I went home to tell Wheat about the mayor's statement and he commented on that:

"Yes, I think that this will do for now, thank you. Maybe I can make some money from selling high quality products to Merchants, and trade lower quality products to Seam residents. Let's see how it goes."

Temperatures dropped further, gusty winds blew, and the leaves started to fall down from the trees. My 21st birthday was coming up, and I found Prim oddly silent, not even asking if I wanted something special. A few days ahead of time I nonetheless told her:

"Prim, about my upcoming birthday, may I ask something from you?"

"Oh yes, sure, what is it?"

"I would like you to stay over on the day before so that I can wake up together with you, even as it is in the middle of the week. I will make sure that you get to school on time, of course."

"I would like that, too, and I do not think that Mum will mind."

As agreed Prim came over in the afternoon prior to my birthday, and our whole family spent time with her eating, playing a few games, and talking, until time for bed came up. I felt very lucky to have her with me again, and I happily cuddled with my girlfriend once we were done with our bathroom chores. As usual when we were together in bed, we fell asleep in each other's arms.

As it was my habit, I woke up early the next morning, long before the sun came up on this November day. I still found Prim in my arms, and enjoyed watching and feeling her until we needed to get up so that she could have breakfast and go to school. I woke her up with a tender kiss, and she smiled at me and wished me "Happy Birthday!", kissing me back.

To my surprise she got up and left the room in her nightgown – she looked so totally cute and adorable in that! – coming back with Peeta and a big package a few minutes later. Prim explained:

"Peeta and I have worked together to get a present for you. This is kind of a very personal present, and can you please open it here without the others seeing it for now?"

I was really getting curious now. I had noticed that, during summer, Prim had spent more time with Peeta than usual, and considering the shape of the large package I suspected that they might have done some painting together. I hurried to unwrap the gift and found a painting indeed. Getting it closer to the light and looking at it I found myself speechless for the moment. The painting showed Prim from head to toes, apparently standing in our meadow, with individual sun rays piercing the clouds and illuminating part of her body and her tanned skin. She was only dressed in a short pleated skirt and topless, but her long hair, which was usually caught in braids, covered most of her chest area. She wore her special smile which was normally reserved for me, and her expression was somewhere between cute and seductive, although the latter might have been more my imagination. Peeta, who had obviously painted that, had captured the environment perfectly well, including single strands of her hair and a few primrose flowers on her head and ears. Her bare feet were shown partially covered by grass, and one of her hands held a potted primrose flower with a tiny bumble bee as well. A few birds were even shown in the background, and one could easily imagine them singing. The painting was perfect, and Peeta must have spent quite some effort on it.

I found myself sitting down on my bed and gaping, until Prim asked:

"So, do you like it?"

I finally found my voice again and told her:

"Like it? No, I don't like it, I love it! This is perfect! Thank you so much, both of you!"

I gave both of them a tight hug and told Peeta:

"My dear brother, this is really great. I think if you wanted to do something else but baking and the Capitol allowed it, you might be able to make a lot of money with painting."

"I might," he replied, "but I still prefer baking. However, I have been asked by a few people already to do special paintings, and my next task will be to sit with Madge Undersee, for a painting the mayor wants to have in his study."

We needed to get down to breakfast now, and once done, I walked Prim to school, heading to the Justice Building for work afterwards. I got some more presents in the evening when my friends came over, but nothing was even close to the very special gift I had received in the morning. The painting got a special place on my wall, across from the bed, so that I could always see it when getting up in the morning.

[Author's Notes: I am not sure, but I believe that the Panem trains are similar to a maglev (magnetic levitation), propelled by electromagnetic forces rather than wheel driven. I hope that you like my description of the birthday painting!

BTW: I am about to publish a new Hunger Games story, taking place in a time a century after this one; the title is "Timotheus and his girls". There will be many references to the Hunger Games in general and to this story here in particular. I hope that some of my faithful readers will also like it. I may not be able to continue publishing for both stories and my Skyrim story on a weekly basis, though, and I intend to change to a biweekly schedule for the time being.]