Chapter 3: Meeting district 12 residents

Over the last few weeks I had collected quite some information about the residents in district 12, and I wanted to visit some of them to learn more about the area and the overall living conditions. Later on I would also want to look around in adjacent districts, but as my site was part of district 12, of course I wanted to start with my local environment. First on my list were the shops, almost exclusively located in the Merchant's Quarter. There was a bakery, a butchery, a shoe store, a couple of general stores, and of course the Mayor's residence; they also had a small railway station, mostly for supplying the merchants. Passenger trains were only scheduled for a few times a day. My site director, Haymitch Abernathy, had provided me with some initial information so that I roughly knew what to expect and where to go.

Early on a Monday morning I decided to first visit the bakery. Naturally, lots of people were there in the morning, and I had to wait a few minutes before it was my turn. While purchasing some bread and pastries, I asked to talk to the owner about some business, and a younger man, who looked to be in his mid to late teenage years, asked me to step outside of the shop soon. He introduced himself: "I am Peeta Mellark, one of the three sons of the house. My father owns the bakery, and he, my brothers, and myself work closely together. What can I do for you?"

I also introduced myself and asked: "As a part of my plans I want to experiment with farming in a way which best helps the needs of the residents. So, I am curious towards where you get wheat and rye, or rather the flour extracted from those from? Wouldn't you need a lot of flour for bread and pastries? What about the sugar you need?"

He looked down: "Sadly, we get the flour from other districts, and the price is way too high, as trading between districts is controlled by a Panem agency. Farmers in this district and around seem to have trouble growing reasonable wheat in this climate. I do not like this, because it prevents us from offering cheaper bread, and a lot of the Seam locals cannot afford to buy the normal bread. Sometimes I feel tempted to offer day old bread for free, but even if the proud Seam people accepted it, my mother would never allow that. About the sugar, this is imported from warmer regions south of Panem, and it is also not very cheap."

I understood and offered: "You know, the company I work for have bred different varieties of wheat and rye, and we're just starting to find out which ones can grow here on my fields. Would you be willing to test samples when we're ready and let us know which varieties are good or maybe not good for baking? If you do, I'll make sure that your bakery get first deliveries at reduced prices. In addition, I'd like to find out if sugar can be gained from sugar beets with sufficient quality."

Peeta looked up: "This sounds interesting, Mr. Sinterguth – please count me in!"

I confirmed: "Then we have a deal, and please call me Timotheus."

He smiled and said: "And I am Peeta to you."

My time at the butcher was shorter, but I had a nice chat with Rooba, learning that she got almost all of her meat from slaughterhouses in other districts, mainly district 10. She said: "For some reason, the meat I get is horrendously expensive and not affordable at least for Seam residents. We could get some meat from hunting, but hunting is illegal in Panem's public forests." Well, for a later time I would want to look into finding hunters for my forests, but I did not mention that just yet.

I also spent a little time at the shoe store and the general stores, but I did not have a specific business agreement in mind at this time, and thus I only I introduced myself. Later in the morning I rang the bell at the Mayor's office and gave him an overview on what I planned to do. Mr. Undersee, Mayor of District 12, turned out to be a very friendly and jovial person, and he was quite happy to hear about my plans in more details. He had of course been introduced to the general outlines before when I had purchased the ground and applied for special permissions for what I intended to do, but he was glad to get some updates, and I promised to keep him up to date on current events. He admitted: "I have always been unhappy about the way the Seam is set up and how little the city government is willing to do to change this; my own freedom to make decisions here is very limited, you know, as my work is controlled and supervised by the city council. For some reason, they consider the Seam just good enough to provide workers for the coal mines, and I suspect that Mr. Snow might have some influence on that. It is really good to see somebody doing something about it!" Before he let me go, he added: "My daughter Madge will probably also like a lot what you plan to do. Although she is still at school, she might be willing to help with some administrative work when she has a little time, and she could also serve as liaison between you and my office." I promised to consider that.

The next day was one of the few public holidays, and I had asked permission from Prim´s mother to claim her all day long and give me a tour through the area, specifically the Seam. Her mother had agreed, but insisted that I also took Gale and Rory Hawthorne with me for the tour. They were reluctant at first, but I promised to pay for whatever they wanted at the bakery. The Hawthorne family had also lost a man in the mining accident, and Mrs. Hawthorne, living not far from the Hawthorne residence, had to raise her four children alone. There was Gale, already 19 years old and working in the mines, Rory in Prim´s age, and the younger kids Vick and Posy. While we walked around, I noticed Rory keeping close to Prim, and a few times I thought I noticed him touching her when he thought nobody was looking. This looked to be quite innocent, but maybe there was more behind it; however, that was none of my business.

Gale showed us most of the Seam houses, and most of them indeed looked like they needed repair to done extent. In general, houses and huts were kept reasonably clean, but apparently getting proper building material was either difficult or expensive or both. Gale further explained that most Seam men worked in the mines, but pay was not great – they worked there because there were few alternatives. Even the Seam residents who were smart enough for some other jobs were not usually hired by a merchant, due to century old prejudices. Most of them also were too poor to even attempt finding work in another district; besides, districts were specialized and did not have many opportunities for employees from other districts. To be honest, I found this specialization overdone, but Panem had some historical background, as I had heard.

Gale showed us part of the old fence at the forest border and lead us towards a lake not far behind. One could easily see that the forest was not really cultivated, but this was probably beneficial for game and fish. We could indeed see an abundance of tracks and footprints, and Gale admitted that he sometimes he used snares to catch some smaller animals, usually with great success, but that his job as coal miner left very little time for that 'hobby'.

Getting back from the forest we got to some kind of small market Gale explained to be 'The Hob'. Rather than buying something with money they did not have, people usually traded for other merchandise or for favors. For instance, a person knowledgeable in healing plants, like Mrs. Everdeen, could offer some free herbal medicine as payment for a few bowls of soup. The market was run by an older woman everybody called 'Greasy Sae'. I used the opportunity to buy lunch for everybody, and the market operator gladly did accept coins from me.

Further walking through the Seam, I asked my companions about a potential location for a herb garden. It would need to be easily accessible, get a decent amount of sunshine during the day, and ideally fenced in to keep animals out. Also, a water source needed to be accessible. After pondering this for a few minutes, Gale said he knew such a place and he guided us to a plot of about 500 square meters, located about halfway between the Everdeen and the Hawthorne residence. The place had a couple of smaller trees, lots of bushes and grass, and some remains of a fence around. A small creek passed right through the grounds, and the kids confirmed that this creek was never running dry throughout the year. Gale believed that this plot was owned by the town and I needed to ask the Mayor about ownership. As today was a public holiday, I'd have to do this on one of the following days.

For now, we had our tour mostly completed, and I lead my companions down to the Merchant's quarter with the Mellark bakery. Despite of the holiday, the bakery was open for a few hours, and I allowed all of my young friends to pick whatever they wanted. When I followed my companions back to the Seam, none of them was able to talk as they were all chewing happily. While observing that, I wondered if I should also think about setting up some kind of soup kitchen for the poor here in the Seam. Looking at some kids like Prim and Rory, I could not help noticing how skinny they were, and I suspected that the nourishment they received was lacking both in quantity and quality. I would have to talk to the Mayor about this at a later time, too.

Following up on my herb garden plans, a couple of days later I went to the town hall (which was for some reason called the 'Justice Hall' here) and inquired about the area I had found. The clerk confirmed that this was owned by the town, and I could purchase it if I wanted to. Naturally, I was happy to hear that and got the required paperwork started right away. It turned out that bureaucracy in the district could be surprisingly easy and quick once money was coming in, which did not really surprise me. They charged a little more than what I thought the small plot should cost, but I went ahead anyway.

When I walked back, I met Prim on her way home from school right next to my new plot, and told her: "Now I am the owner of this nice area of land, and as I mentioned before, I plan to start a small garden here. This is not going to be a place where I need to make profit, but more an experiment to find out what we can grow to actually help out the locals around. Prim, are you still in to work here?" Prim looked around and said: "Sure I am. But, while I know how to tend plants and herbs, I am unsure about cleaning up first. There are too many stones and pebbles here, and somebody obviously even dumped some trash.". And indeed, there was some work to do first before we could even start to think about starting with the plants. I replied: "Of course you are right. I will have somebody get this plot organized and cleaned up first, and later on we will see what we can do. Meanwhile, you can ask around and try to find a couple of other children who might want to work here".

A few days later, Mr. Brown started to get busy with a couple of his new farmhands, and they were working on removing some trash, rebuilding the fence around, plowing the soil, checking the creek's riverbed, and stuff like that. I was looking forward to seeing the herb garden started.