Chapter 12: Free year dawning

[Winter 2260/2261 AD]

For the big celebration on Christmas Day of the year 2261 AD Peeta and Katniss suggested that we use Peeta՚s victor home. Katniss has already sent word before that her former victor home could be used for other purposes, and the mayor had found a large family to move in. Katniss belongings had been moved to the other home, as of course she lived together with Peeta now. The housing situation was much less critical as it used to be now anyway, as quite a few people had moved to Appacolia.

The mood was, naturally, much better than it had ever been in the years before. Finally, we lived in a free Panem, and we all appreciated that. Like we had been before, we were like one big family, with my father, Prim՚s mother and the Andersons as the eldest, we three Mellarks with our spouses and fiancées, and Lizzy, the Andersons՚ daughter. The Hawthornes were celebrating with other friends this year.

We talked a lot about the future of Panem, and everybody had some ideas about what they'd like to see and happen. Prim and Lizzy mentioned that some younger kids hoped that a free Panem also meant no more schools, but of course that was not going to be. Instead, schooling was going to be more balanced, and we had already started in our district to focus school lessons more on things which were more applicable to daily life. Rather than learning every detail of Panem՚s history, the kids learned about geography, climate, biology and such, and instead of coal mining basics, there was more about farming and household chores.

Prim and Lizzy were particularly happy about the plans to open the Capitol University for everybody; they were both apprentice healers and eager to learn the medical profession properly. We would have to see, though, to what extent the knowledge and experience they had already gained here would count: We had seen the main Capitol hospital restoring victors, who had been close to death after a game, to almost perfect health within a few days, and that was certainly an entire different level.

At the end of the day, though, our thoughts went back to ourselves and our families, and we were grateful to have each other and that there was nobody around to poison the atmosphere with evil comments like my mother had done so frequently years before. I had not heard from here for some time, and there were rumors that she had taken the first opportunity to move into another district. Yes, she was my mother, but based on what she had done, I really did not care any longer.

After the late lunch we all went for a walk outside, and we enjoyed the winter scenery with a few snowflakes coming down, and we were happy to meet other people and friends and seeing smiling and relaxed faces almost everywhere, even among those who used to be Seam.

For the night after our big meal on December 25th, Prim insisted that we, that is her and me, stay in the victor home to enjoy the amenities, and I gladly complied.

When we had finally retired to one of the guest rooms, Prim told we with a smirk:

"There is a reason I wanted us to be here, you know."

"Let me guess, the bed is softer than mine?"

"No, not that. It's the shower with the many knobs and the many different flavors of soap and shampoo."

"Okay, enjoy!"

"No, not like that. I insist that you come with me and wash my hair!"

"Prim, we can't do that!"

"Yes, we can. We will both wear swim pants, and we will do this!"

"Swim pants? I do not own any swim pants!"

"Yes, you do now. I had Katniss and Peeta bring some for us, and Peeta knows your size."

"But for a girl, pants are not enough, right?"

"Not normally, but just for the two of us, yes. You have seen my chest many times before, and I absolutely do not intend to hide it from you."

"Prim, do you know what you are doing?"

"Sure am, my love – I am getting my hair washed by you, and we will have a great time!"

I was not fully convinced about that, but felt utterly unable to resist the temptation. Prim did not give me a choice, either. She went into the bathroom and told me:

"I will will change in here and call you when I am done. If you're not in with me quickly when I call, I will get you!"

And she'd do that, too. Well, I'd better do as she wanted.

I changed into the swim pants she had provided for me, and fortunately it was not a real tight and small one either. A few minutes later she called, and I hurried to get into the bathroom. My lovely girlfriend was already inside the large shower area, and when I looked at her, my jaw dropped down and I probably started to drool. Yes, I had seen her nude chest multiple times before, but it had been mostly in the darkness of my bedroom. And yes, I had seen her in tight shorts and skirts before, but never in swim pants being that small. Did teenage girls actually wear such little things for swimming in public?

I did not get a chance to think about that because she pulled my into the shower now and got the water going. Taking a nice shower had always been something I had enjoyed, and it was not much different here, but this time I wondered if I might not need a cold shower later. Again I got distracted; Prim got me to select a shampoo I liked, insisting that I was going to smell it at least as much as she would during the night, and then I had to rub it in. With our difference in size her head and hair were in a convenient position for me to touch, and at least focusing on washing her hair prevented me from watching the rest of her body too much.

That helped for five minutes only, though, and when her hair was done, I just needed to step back and admire this wonderful young body. She wore her widest smile when she saw what I was doing, and she turned herself around a few times, saying:

"So, do you like what you see?"

"Prim, I may like this way too much! Why are you tempting me like this?"

"It's not over yet. Now you are going to apply soap to my body!"

"Soap on your body? Everywhere?"

"Well, almost everywhere, you know!"

Due to her small size I had to kneel down for the most part, and I was sure that she immensely enjoyed my kneeling and the attention, specifically when I dedicated special time and effort on some specific parts of her body. When we had rinsed plenty, she looked up at me and said:

"I know exactly what this does to you, believe me. So, you stay here for some time to take care of yourself, and I will get comfortable in the bed now. When you are done, come join me, and I will have another surprise for you!"

"What do you mean, take care of myself?"

"Silly, you know exactly what I mean!"

"Oh" was everything I could reply, when I finally got it. Of course, the way she had looked at me and ogled my body, she had sure seen the bulge in my pants and knew what that implied.

She was gone a few moments later, taking a few towels with her, and I decided that I'd better follow her advice. If I joined her in the bed without getting some relief before, I would not be able to sleep, at least not right next to her.

I did need some time to calm down afterwards, and when I finally could climb into bed, Prim had one of the towels wrapped around her hair to avoid getting the pillow wet. I was a little bit curious about the surprise she had hinted at, but she did not tell. Eventually we could switch out the light, and she asked me:

"How did you like the shower together?"

I almost moaned and replied: "Prim, I like it enough to know that we cannot do this on a regular basis. You are too much for me!"

She giggled, and I was sure that she loved it.

"However," I added, "once we are married, I will want to make that a habit!"

"I hope so, my dear! But enough talking; you have earned a good kiss."

No objections here, of course. As usual, she was almost fully on top of me, and her mouth found mine quickly. It did not take long for me to forget everything around, and I barely noticed when something worked differently from our normal kissing. I had never dared to use my tongue, knowing that she had considered tongue kissing 'yucky' when we had talked about that years ago. Today, though, I suddenly felt her tongue on my lips, and before I really noticed what was happening, she tried to push it between my lips. I reacted by instinct and opened my mouth a little, and I got rewarded. Hormones and emotions took over and I stretched out my own tongue, and then time stood still for me and I fully lost myself in the feeling and my wonderful girl.

It seemed hours later but was probably only minutes when we both gasped for breath and looked at each other in the darkness. The almost full moon shone through the windows, so that we see could at least something, and I imagined that she was glowing from happiness.

Stupid me asked: "What was that?"

"That, my love, was the surprise!"

"Yep, surprise indeed. How did you come up with that idea?"

"You know, once I had caught Wheat and Leevy a few times doing what he called 'tonsil licking' and got him to explain, I asked my sister. Of course she claimed that I am too young to know, so that I asked Peeta, and he told me that I would want to try it with you. I believed him, and here we go."

"That simple? Not 'yucky' any longer?"

"I still think that it'd be very yucky with anybody else but you, but with you, it's … different. Actually, I want more – now!"

That I could do, and more talking could wait. What an evening! How long would I have to wait until I could finally marry my girl?

The new year started, and it was a very special one. We had celebrated until after midnight during the night before, New Year's Eve, that is Wheat and Leevy, Katniss and Peeta, my father, Prim and her mother, and myself. Staying up that late was a major challenge for us bakers. While I was not much into backing myself, I had inherited the family genes about being an early riser, and normally I went to bed early in the evenings to be fully awake early in the morning. Thus, during the evening, we Mellarks yawned a few times, and our girls and ladies need to keep us awake.

Right at midnight, we had stepped outside, and Mayor Undersee had someone set off a small firework on the city square, which we watched together with most other citizens. It was nothing compared to the fireworks display in the Capitol which we had seen on the screen once or twice, but it was ours and in our district.

The mayor delivered a very short speech from a small podium, and we retired to our beds knowing that this was finally going to be a year of peace and, hopefully, prosperity and happiness. In addition to looking forward to a year of peace and freedom, we were very happy that everyone of us had a very special person to be close to. And indeed, I could not imagine a better way to begin a new year than by cuddling up to my wonderful Prim in bed and forget about time and potential worries while kissing her and hugging her tightly.

In the second week of January my work time in Appacolia started. There was a small temporary town office there, and an administration expert from Europe ran it together with a few of Mayor Undersee՚s staff. Madge Undersee and Darius were coming with me as well; Madge was going to learn the administration business and Darius was going to lead the small peacekeeper force in the new city. Naturally, Madge and I were going to spend much time with each other, and when I had mentioned that to Primrose before, she had smiled and told me:

"That's good! Madge is quite capable, I believe, and you might learn from each other. I am glad that she will be there as well."

"So, you are not afraid that she will be too close to me or so?"

"No, not at all. Why should I? You are mine, we both know it, and Madge knows as well."

That was my girl. No hint of unwarranted jealousy, just plain trust.

"If it were some other girl, though, I might have some concerns, but Madge is a good one, and I trust her, too."

Okay, at least some concerns in general.

When Madge, Darius and I arrived in the new city, rooms in a small boarding house had been reserved for us. It was not a hotel by any means, but the rooms were clean and nice, we had a small bathroom with a shower attached to each, and we got breakfast and supper on each day. There were not many options for other meals yet, and that was one of the things to be improved. The boarding house was quite new and had what they called a 'central heating', with water heated in the basement and lead to radiators in the rooms. This was nice in winter, but we'd have to see how temperatures worked out in summer.

City planing was in full progress. Since Prim and I had been in district six for the conferences and information exchange there, I had presented the options for public transportation to a committee in the district. The mayor and most other had like the concept, and while there also had been a few voices saying that this might to not flexible enough, the decision had been to prepare a network of tram lines, like the transport experts had suggested. Of course, not all of the lines were going to be built right away, but the main streets in the city were planed to be wide enough for some greenery, that is grass, bushes, flowers and smaller trees, and some space for the tram lines in the center. We had received some books on available tram concepts from District Six during our last visit; a few of those were designed in Panem, but the majority were designed in Europe; the representatives from there had ensured us that they'd help us to get the production started in Six quite soon.

As we not only had to cover urban areas but also wanted to have the option to connect small towns which were likely to emerge around the city sooner or later, we selected a tram type which was well suited for the city, but could also reach higher speeds to cover medium distances outside.

Recently, a group of farmers and other people from Europe, all of them Lutherans, had joined with interested people in Panem and asked for permission to use an area of land north of Appacolia which we had designated for agriculture. They had plans to found a small town with a church in the center, like old German traditions as I was told, and there were going to be farms all around. The new town was going to be called 'Kirchheim' ('church home'), emphasizing the fact that were all firmly believing Christians and the church and their believe was going to be a central element in their lives and their homes. As the majority of the people spoke German as native language, they wanted to uphold that language, and signs and services in the new town were supposed to be bilingual.

We decided that we'd use that town, as it was the largest such concept yet, to build a rural tram line, covering not just short distances in the city, but something like 20km outside. Standard tram speed in the city was going to be not more than 60km/h, but outside it could go to max. 120km/h. The line would have to cross a medium sized river, but that gave us an opportunity to plan and execute bridge building as well. This versatile tram was one to be license manufactured in District Six soon, and I had recently learned that a couple of other districts were going to use it as well, so that availability was not going to be an issue. As a matter of fact, delivery of the first such trams was expected to happen later in the same year.

During one of the first weekends home Prim looked very excited when she picked me up from the train, and when we had found a nice place to sit together, she spilled the news:

"Rye, do you recall our time in District Six together?"

"Of course I do, my love."

"And do you also remember why I was there?"

"It was about plants, right, and wasn't there some discussion about that dangerous drug, too?"

"Indeed, the morphling. We had all received some morphling plants and samples, and we were encouraged to check local plants in our districts which might interact with the plant extract and the drug. Now, guess what?"

"Hm, you forgot about it?"

"No, silly! Of course not! But I found a plant which grows in the forest, and powder made from this plant interacts with the morphling in a strange way. When I found out about it, I sent samples from the forest plant to Six. They had also received promising samples from other districts, and I learned a few days ago that they managed to create an antidote to morphling, which has extract from the plant I found as one of its ingredients. Isn't that great?"

"Congratulations, my love! Indeed that's great, not only because you contributed, but because the addicts may get a chance now."

"Yes, that's indeed good, and it was also a nice experience to contribute to a task where people from different districts were involved. I can't wait until the interviewing team from the Capitol comes here!"

"Do you know when that's going to happen, my love?"

"Not yet, but definitely in this school year; that's what we were told."

A couple of weeks later Peeta and Dad arrived in Appacolia in the middle of the week; they were now seriously scouting for a proper location to build the new bakery on. Fortunately, the city had been planned with lots of room to spare so far, and some central locations were still available. Many citizens preferred to live a little outside of the city center anyway, and Peeta and Dad had something to think about:

"Now, we sure need to have a bakery close to the city center, as this is the place where demand will be the highest. The question is if we want to do all of the baking there as well."

"Where else would you bake?" I asked.

"We could have the main bakery somewhere on the periphery," Peeta explained, "and have most of the food delivered to the stores from there."

"Of, you are thinking about more than one place to sell food?"

"Long term we are, yes. Besides, there is another reason. According to what we have learned, the city center is supposed to be mostly for pedestrians only. Access with vehicles will be restricted, and getting the baking materials there plus delivering food to the stores from there may be difficult."

"I believe that we better set up the main bakery somewhere on the periphery," Dad chimed in, "with easy access for vehicles both to deliver baking materials and transport food to the stores, and have the store in the center just as a sales place, with fresh bread delivered from the main site several times a day."

"Of course we may have to hire a few more people for all of that" Peeta continued. "I have already gathered some information, and there are a few people with baking and sales skills supposed to arrive from Europe soon. I plan to hire some of them. Fortunately, with my financial resources as a victor, we can easily go ahead with all of that. Katniss will also invest some of her money; this is a family endeavor after all."

That was a good point. Normally, investing that much might have been challenging from a financial point of view, but now the family had some reserves, and in addition, Peeta had quite a reputation as well, which would help to get customers.

"We are also thinking about offering some additional food than just bread and cake" Dad mentioned.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well, son, you mentioned a few times that there are very few options to get lunch in Appacolia."

"Oh yes, indeed, but you are not planing to open a restaurant, are you?"

"No, we do not; we better leave this to others. But, we intend to sell some snacks, like sandwiches and such, some of them hot. We will see how this is accepted and save some room to expand, maybe with some seating or tables to stand around."

"That sounds like a very good idea" I had to agree. "Will you be able to do all of that on your own?"

"Well, as I said before, we will have to hire a few more people, and I know two at least already who might fit quite well. Starting all of that will require effort, but I am looking forward to it; it is going to be like an adventure, and a good one, too."

When I looked at my father's face, I noticed that he looked better than he had looked for years. The long years of an unhappy marriage and the excitement and worries of the last two Hunger Games had left their traces, but one could see that he was a much happier man now. Of course, Mabel Everdeen might also be a reason for that.

[Author's Notes: The situation with Rye and Prim together gets very hot; can they manage to keep their promise and wait until their wedding? When is this going to happen? I need to warn Prim to not invalidate my 'T' rating, I guess ;-)

There are actually a couple of cities in Germany called 'Kirchheim' – this is an authentic name for a city.]