Chapter 4: Prologue 4 - The Hawthorne Farm
[September 2371 – January 2372 AD – POV Timotheus Mellark – District Twelve, Panem]
Months had passed since I had met Posy in the park, and my latest attempt to find a girlfriend had failed for an entirely different reason. Since a few years ago I had volunteered with the district rangers, kind of a nature police and guard force. We did not usually carry weapons, but we scouted the environment, both to protect nature from mankind where needed and to to find proper sites and areas for population and specific tasks. Some areas further out were still contaminated and either radiated by nuclear fallout or polluted by hazardous waste from generation prior to the dark times, and it was one of our tasks to map those areas. Doing that required us to spend quite some time outdoors, which suited me well. For the last few years I had been a junior ranger, and I liked it.
While being with the rangers I had met a young lady about my age, and she loved being outdoors as much as I did. Her name was Lydia, she was tall and gorgeous, with long blond hair, and I developed a little bit of a crush on her. When we were on a week long expedition together with others in September, she used the opportunity to talk to me when both of us ran a scouting mission together:
"Timotheus, you look at me like you've got a crush on me; is that right?"
The way I looked back at her probably told her all she needed to learn, and she smiled and continued:
"This is really cute, and I like you, too. However, while I like you as a partner, my interests in romance and love are different, and I better let you know right away about that so that the positions are clear. You see, I like other girls best – I am lesbian."
That had been that. I had been able to survive the situation, and fortunately she and I continued to be good friends and partners, but since that event my ambition to find a girlfriend had been significantly decreased. I had more or less given up, actually, and tried my best to focus on work and ranger activities, besides spending time with family.
What I had changed, though, was my appearance, though for other reasons. Being outdoors much I found that my glasses were not perfect; in particular when I walked in rain, my body was kept dry by proper clothes, but I was kind of missing wipers on the glasses. Fortunately, surgical eye correction was available, and a check found my eyes to be suitable for that. The correction worked very well, and since a few months ago my eyesight was perfect again without any correction.
The other change was about my muscles. I found that my stamina was good enough, and I was capable to doing full day hikes easily. However, my capability of carrying heavy weights was limited, and whenever we needed to carry large and heavy backpacks, for instance, my muscles started to hurt. Thus, last year I had started to work out, which I did in the gym we had in our home. That helped a lot, and I felt my muscles grow. My twin cousin had started to do something similar, and we both noticed that working out was a good thing for our tall and lanky bodies.
For Christmas this year, the traditional Sinterguth celebration was going to take place in Riesenwald in Bavaria. The Sinterguth clan alternated to have the party between their two main sites, and they always invited not only family and extended family, but also some employees. My family always enjoyed mingling with the Sinterguths, and I would be able to see my cousin again. Fortunately, we had an airport in our city by now, and although it did not have a huge number of connections, we managed to find suitable flights to München (Munich) airport; from there we would take the maglev north. In pre-war times, the largest German airport had been in Frankfurt am Main, but that had been flooded. Nowadays, Central Europe only maintained two large airports with many international destinations; München and Wien (Vienna). A handful of smaller airports offered flights to a few selected destinations, like Nürnberg with the private Sinterguth terminal.
A few days prior to Christmas the entire families were together at the large Sinterguth site in Riesenwald, not far from Erlangen. Our two mothers immediately started to chat with some of their friends, in particular the Heidecker family. Annabel Heidecker, best friend to our mothers, had originally had her family in the city of Chemnitz, but since the dark times they had left, as the infrastructure in Sachsen (Saxonia) had been mostly destroyed; the city grounds were high enough to not get flooded, but almost nobody lived around there any longer; with the much lower population, some regions had just been given up entirely. The family lived in Nürnberg nowadays.
Annabel and her husband Markus had three children, Esther, Simon, and Rebecka. Like our mothers, she had also insisted to name her kids after characters in the Holy Bible. Since we had been little children, we had always managed to get along real well with each other, and despite only seeing them once or twice year, we had a close bond and felt like siblings for each other. Our mothers had, as we knew, hoped that at least one of us might fall in love with one of the Heidecker girls, but that was not going to happen. Rather, we felt and got along like siblings.
The three Heidecker children, my twin cousin and I spent a lot of time with each other, and Christmas with them and family was real nice once again. As usual, there were some activities offered and planned around the holidays: there were plenty of opportunities to got for a short or long walk on the more pleasant days, and there was even a chance to go for a kayak ride in the cold Wiesent river, for those who dared to do that.
Back home, in early January, I got drawn into a winter exercise with the district rangers. A few years ago I had joined them as a junior ranger, and my promotion to full ranger was going to happen soon, if I was able to pass a few tests.
During this particular exercise, we, that is a few other candidates and I, had to pass a physical fitness course in an area close to the ranger headquarters first, followed by a long theoretical exam on the next day, and finally an orientation trip. I did not have much trouble with the first two parts, but the last one turned out to be quite interesting and challenging. We were grouped into pairs, placed into the back seat of ATVs with eyes covered, and senior rangers drove us to isolated locations somewhere out in the wilderness; from there we had to use the resources we had with us to get back to the headquarter building. They told us that this would take at least one full day in best conditions, but that is was not unusual for a pair to take three or four days or even longer, considering that we did have neither maps nor a compass with us. The idea of the test was to get along with minimal equipment.
I was paired up with Ben, one of the other junior rangers I got along with quite well, and we were both happy about the selection; at least we knew that we'd make a reasonable team and work with each other rather than against each other. We were both looking forward to doing our best together and pass the test.
The weather was, fortunately, tolerable this time of the year. We were in late January, but while there was snow in the hills and mountains, the lower elevations were still bare, and the Appacolia city region rarely got snow anyway. During the exercise, daytime temperatures between ten and fifteen degrees were expected, and during the night we might have about five; not a problem with our bedrolls. We did not have tents, though, so that we'd have to rely on finding nice spots to sleep in, specifically if there was going to be some rain.
We had been dropped off in the late morning on a cloudy day, and close to the end of the day we were still not sure where we were exactly. Occasionally we could see a few mountain peaks in the distance, and together with the directions provided by the movement of the sun, we had a vague idea a least and found agreement on the direction to pursue, For one night, at least, we'd have to find a proper place for a camp, and we used the last two hours of daylight to search. The place we did find was not the very best, but at least decent. It was a gap between rocks and partially covered, and while it might not fully protect us from rain – which seemed unlikely to fall soon – we were able to barricade the entrance to so that larger animals like bears would not be able to get in, at least not easily and not without creating a lot of noise; that allowed both of us to sleep rather than stand guard.
We had enough food for two or three days, so that we did not have to rush and find something in addition; rather, after breakfast on the next day, we discussed options to find our way, and when we saw an isolated large tree on a small hill in early afternoon, after our lunch break, Ben volunteered to climb up as high as he could. He was gone soon, and once he was down again, he reported with some excitement that he had seen a few buildings which looked like a farm not far from us. That was our next target, and we marched off in the indicated direction. Naturally, it took us some time to get there, as progress though the forest without any path was slow and tedious, but finally, with dusk setting in, we stepped out from the tree coverage and found ourselves at the border of a field. Carefully we stepped around it and got to a small square, and on one side there was some kind of barn. That looked good, and we hoped that somewhere on the premises there would be some human people we could ask where we were; asking was permitted.
At this time, though, we got distracted by an odd smell, and I thought that I smelled smoke like from a small fire or so. Ben and I looked around, and when we got around a corner, we saw a small pen attached to the barn, with brick walls on two sides, the barn wall on the third, and some wire fence on the one closest to us. The fence had a gate, which was closed, and inside the enclosure there was an area of about ten square meters, mostly covered with straw. Seeing what was inside was difficult, as daylight was already mostly gone, but a small lantern provide illumination.
A goat was standing in the far corner, and a girl of about seven or eight years was on the ground, resting or even sleeping. The lantern which shed some light was not standing properly, but on the side, and the open light had just started to set the straw on fire, which had created the first traces of smoke we had smelled. Right when we realized what was happening here, the girl woke up, saw the fire, and started to scream. Unfortunately, the fire was between her and the gate, and she did not dare to walk or jump across.
Ben and I got active, and while I tried to open the gate, my companion looked around for tools to help. The fence gate was old and a little bit rusty, but when I pulled with all my strength, it opened wide. Ben had found a couple of long wooden sticks, and we used the sticks to push the burning straw to the side and towards the brick walls, thus opening a small corridor for the girl to use in order to get out. She insisted to take the goat with her, which took additional time, as said goat was somewhat reluctant to recognize the passable corridor as safe. Eventually they both got out, though, and once we made sure that the girl was unhurt, we tried our best to keep the fire from spreading.
Fortunately, by now somebody seemed to have realized that something was amiss, and a farm vehicle was approaching, with two adults in it. We did not bother to greet each other, but I just pointed towards the fire and the girl; the two others found a garden hose attached to a faucet nearby, and soon water from the hose managed to extinguish the fire.
Once the urgent tasks were done, Ben and I introduced ourselves, and at least the ranger uniforms we wore gave us credibility. In addition the girl confirmed our story, and she told the others that we had helped her and the goat to get out. The two adults introduced themselves as Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne and one of his farm hands, and they had just missed the young girl, Lucy, and started to look for her.
Now, the name Hawthorne rang a bell, and I remembered the young girl, Posy, from the park. The hand staid back to make sure that the fire was really out, and Nathaniel guided us to the main farmhouse. The least they could do, he explained, was to provide a proper dinner and a guest room, which we both accepted.
At dinner we met more of the Hawthorne family, and one of the older boys shouted out to us:
"Hey, Timotheus Mellark, right?"
"Hello to you, too, Rory Hawthorne!"
It was the boy who had finally taken over Posy after I had found her, and the same one who was sweet on my sister Primrose, if I remembered correctly. Nathaniel explained what had happened, and right away we found ourselves being the guests of honor. Over dinner we got some insight into the family and the site. The farm had been owned by the family for some generations already, and at this time there was Grandma Hawthorne, who occupied the seat at the table head and was the clear head of the family, her three sons Gale, Nathaniel, and Robert, their wives and their offspring. In total, there about twenty people plus a maid and a few farm hands. While most of the kids lived here and felt more like brothers and sisters than cousins, only Nathaniel, the middle brother, worked on the farm, whereas the other two and some of the older kids found work somewhere else. Gale senior and Gale junior, for instance, were both rangers and following that family tradition, and while I had met them a few times, I had never had the chance to work together with them. As their ancestor had been the founder of the District Rangers, together with his wife Johanna, they were something like a legend. Robert, the youngest, worked at various mines in the area. He seemed to have quite some expertise in minerals and gemstones, and he was sometimes needed in mines close by, sometimes in those farther away in the mountains. According to what I heard, Robert would not mind to also work on the farm and be close to his kids, but the farm was not big and profitable enough to support so many people, and thus he had had to find a good job in another area of work. They did not have much of a choice, and their kids graduating from school mostly had to search for an occupation outside of the farm, too, even if they liked farm work.
Naming the oldest son Gale was a tradition in their family, as we learned, and they had been flexible enough to have the second oldest son run the farm rather than the oldest, because he had a gift for it, whereas Gale senior as the oldest had the ranger genes. Robert also had the farming gift, but the farm simply was not large enough for both of them, and they lacked the funds to extend it. Nathaniel even admitted that they'd like to invest in more modern technologies, but could not afford that; having so many children took its toll, but that was something they did not regret at all.
Naturally, there was a lot to talk about, and after the shock of the fire before, Lucy also told us why she had been in the pen. Her goat had become sick, and she wanted to be close to her and comfort her. Even though she had not been allowed to take a lantern all on her own, she had disobeyed that rule, and when she had been down on the ground, resting a little bit, an incautious movement of her legs had made the lantern fall top the side. Fortunately, Ben and I had arrived right at this time.
In the next morning we got a wonderful and rich breakfast served, and afterwards two of the Hawthornes guided us to the start of a dirt road which led, as they assured us, directly to the ranger headquarters building, almost 15 km away. Gale junior was with us, and he explained that he was using that road to get there when he was on duty, using a motorcycle most of the time.
We took our leave and started to follow the narrow road, and indeed, with one brief break we arrived at our target before noon. A senior ranger was waiting there, and he registered our time, telling us that we were neither the first nor the last group. We got some time to rest, and then we were requested to write a report of what we had done and how we had done certain things.
A few days later Ben and I learned that we had passed our final tests, and from that day on we were full rangers. For me, the timing was perfect, as I was soon going to receive my graduation papers from university as well. My professor had liked my diploma thesis, and he had tried to convince me to stay and work with him. While that was a tempting offer, I knew that I preferred to be outdoors a lot, and I had been planing to spend much more time with the rangers. However, the university together with the city's mayor and the rangers had created a position for a person working for all three organizations, spending lots of times outdoors, collaborating with the university, and advising the city council on energy generation and storage topics. With growing population specifically the capacity for the latter turned out to be insufficient, and this needed to be changed. Finding proper locations for something like pumped storage hydro power stations, potential places where geothermal energy could be harvested, and more was going to be more important, and they offered the joint position to me. The decision was quickly made on my side, and I happily accepted.
Once the agreement was reached, I decided to celebrate the occasion by going to an animal shelter in Appacolia. I had visited that place a couple of times, as this was part of the ranger education; the animals in the shelter, mostly dogs, provided a good opportunity to learn how to deal with animals, and while a dog was of course different from a wild animal, somebody who had a problem with dogs and cats in the shelter was likely to also not get along with wild animals. During my last visit I had seen a dog and lost my heart to him; they were not sure if he was a pure breed or not, but they told me that he was most likely a 'Berner Sennenhund' ('Bernese mountain dog'); he was only a few months old and already quite large, apparently going to grow into a massive animal. I was warned about that, and they told me that a big dog like this would need a lot of exercise and lots of food, but with my ranger work that should be all right. I checked with my superiors, and they suggested right away to register the dog and myself for the special ranger search and rescue training. They lacked enough dogs there, and I was more than welcome to join the next course. Naturally there was no guarantee that we'd pass, but it would be worth the effort to try. I also asked my parents and siblings if it was going to be all right to have a dog in the house at some times, and they suggested to build a doghouse outside, too. Thus, the decision was made; I picked up 'Rex', that's what I called him, and a new phase of my life was about to begin.
[Author's Notes: I once watched a movie where something similar happened, with a girl cuddling with a goat or so, and the lantern gets kicked over by accident, sets the straw on fire, and the girl is trapped because the gate locked itself, with no easy way to open from inside. In the movie, Grandpa comes along at the last moment to save both girl and goat.
In this story all units are metric, and temperature values are in 'degree Celsius', Centigrades.]