Chapter 15: Rue's 13th birthday

Spring had turned into summer, and we followed the medical advice about Rue spending more time with me. Usually she slept over at my home one or two nights on the weekends, and we saw each other occasionally during the week, including the traditional Wednesday afternoons with Rue and Prim coming right after school. Sometimes we went to church together on Sundays, and I introduced Rue to some parishioners of 'Our Savior Lutheran Church', which was located a few kilometers down the road towards the city. Rue liked that a lot, and although her parents were not members of a church, Rue was allowed to attend Sunday School. Contrary to school, mobbing and bullying there was quite under control, and she even made a few new friends.

Rue's thirteenth birthday was getting close now, and I had started to reflect on what I could get her as special present. Last year I had taken Prim and her to the zoo, and now I was sitting together with Prim to plan a nice surprise for Rue's birthday again this year.

"We could go to the Botanical Garden" I suggested. "Last year I had thought about that already, and you could come with us as well as Wiress."

Prim nodded and also made a suggestion: "You could also invite us to an amusement park. None of us have ever been, because it's expensive, and I have heard that this can be lots of fun!"

"Yes", I commented, "but we do not know at all if Rue likes roller coasters and such – what if she gets sick?"

Prim understood: "Maybe we should check with Rue's parents and find out if they have a good idea?"

I agreed, and I used the next opportunity to ask them. They smiled, and Mrs. Madison had an idea indeed: "Rue has mentioned a few times that the teddy bear she uses to cuddle in bed is so small, and I have a feeling that she would love to get a real large one, and such a stuffed animal might also help her with sleeping – is that something you would like to take care of?"

Indeed I liked that idea a lot and thus smiled and confirmed: "Yes, it is, for sure – thank you for the advice, Mrs. Madison!"

I thought about the idea with the amusement park as well. While Rue and other kids might not be fans of wild roller coasters – as a matter of fact, most children in the district probably never had a chance to ride any at all – maybe we could pick a park which also had tame and easy rides, so that everybody could go for what they preferred? Actually, I was thinking about a summer team event for my employees and families, and this time I planned to make it a surprise for Prim as well. Of course, strictly spoken, Prim was not an employee of mine, but Katniss was, and Prim was part of her family.

While also looking for large teddy bears in the internet, I searched for amusement parks in the area, and soon I found one which had a mix of various rides, with the majority of them suitable for children of various ages and not being extreme. I had not been there yet, but there was a friend of mine who had, and I called him to get some details. As I was very happy about what I heard, I talked to Haymitch about setting up a company team event for employees and families, also including business partners like Peeta Mellark and his father. We were going to order a bus to get us there and back, and everybody was getting free admission and lunch and drinks. We were planing to spend the entire day there, and I picked a day which had a fireworks display in the evening after extra long opening hours. Of course the park had lots of rest areas and picnic benches for those who needed a break. Haymitch was tasked to write the invitations, as we needed to know at least roughly how many would want to come.

While Haymitch started the invitations, for a day about a week after Rue's birthday and of course on a school holiday, I got back to the teddy bear issue. I had a specific idea and did not really find what I was looking for in shops in Panem. I had a vague idea that it would be good for Rue to have a bed companion which was able to detect when she had a nightmare and start moving when she did, hopefully getting a chance to wake her up. I was not sure if something like that existed, but with the progress in robotics it should. Finally I contacted one my cousins at home and told him what I was looking for. He replied that yes, they had something in this direction, but more in a human shaped doll rather a teddy bear. Listening to my idea he said that a large teddy bear with such capabilities was actually not a bad idea and probably more suitable for children. He promised to talk to some people in the lab and see what they could do in the couple of months left; he would get back to me in a few weeks.

For the next few days I was quite busy checking progress on the site. The biomass plant was going to be extended, and an expert had come from my family site to experiment with the settings to make it more efficient and reduce the amount of waste produced. The battery storage was enlarged, and we used old car batteries for that, which we could get very cheaply. Another variation of a wind generator was installed, and more solar panels rigged. Also, we were digging a couple of more power lines into the ground towards both the Seam and the district's merchant area. Wiress was getting involved a lot in issues related to electrical stuff and was frequently giving helpful advice. Last but not least Mr. Brown continued testing different kinds of grain for the bakery, also based on the detailed feedback we had received from the Mellarks.

One Wednesday I came back home and must have looked a little tired. Prim was just finishing her homework and was about to leave, and she said with some concern: "Timotheus, you look tired today. Maybe you are working too much and need some rest?"

I smiled and told her: "As a matter of fact, I have a team event planned soon, including families. As Katniss' sister, you are invited, too, and Katniss should have received an invitation."

Prim jumped up and down with excitement: "Sounds great – what are we going to do?"

I smirked: "This is a surprise, even for nosy blonde girls!"

She pretended to be offended, but soon laughed again and left for home.

Soon I started to get replies from employees telling me if they wanted to attend or not. Most of them wanted, specifically as I was giving that day off for everybody, but some declined for various reasons I was not privy to. Katniss was going to come together with Peeta and Prim, and I heard later that Katniss did not really want to, but Peeta talked her into it.

Mrs. Madison told me that both she and her husband did not really like big events, and if I would mind just taking Rue and Wiress and giving them both a day to rest; I suspected that they were still bothered by Rue's nightmares and gladly accepted, and I also offered to keep Rue at my home for the night after.

My housekeeper family all planned to come and so did Annie and Finnick. Those two were fully recovered, and they had moved into a house on my site earlier in the year. Since early spring they were spending much time at the big lake I wanted to use as upper level basin for my big hydro storage plant, trying to figure out how it could best be used.

A few weeks prior to the planned event I had a god overview on who would come, and Haymitch started to order a bus and pre-book the proper amount of tickets to the park.

Rue's 13th birthday was today, I recalled when waking up. I wondered who else was invited, as I knew that Rue did not have many friends, but I was happy to know that at least the Madisons were living in a decent house now. Fortunately, my present for Rue – a prototype teddy bear with some special features, about as tall as Rue herself – had been delivered from my cousin a few days earlier, and I was quite curious to find out how Rue might like it. The day was a school day, so that the celebration was planned to happen in the afternoon at the Madison residence. Nothing special was planned, just a table with tea, coffee, juice, and cakes (from the Mellark bakery of course). I had volunteered to pick up Rue and Prim from school, and I was there just in time to see two very excited young girls running out and jumping towards the parking area. They both hugged me and I said "Happy Birthday, and a good start into your teenage years!" to Rue; I got them into the car and we drove to the Madison house.

Besides the Madison family, Prim's mother was already here; she had helped with preparations. Wiress and Monica would join later after school, and a few other children from my other employees had arrived as well. After we had helped ourselves to cake and drinks, Rue started to unpack her presents. Prim and Mrs. Everdeen had got her a set of ointments for her skin and a set of beautiful flowers from the herb garden, and from her own parents she got a new school pack and a couple of dresses and skirts. Finally Rue started to work on the huge box which held my present, and she could not really guess what might require such a big packing. I had spent some additional effort to pack the teddy bear in multiple layers, and now I had quite some fun watching Rue removing layer after layer until she could finally grasp what was inside. I had suggested before that Prim take some pictures with her camera, and she caught Rue' expression when she finally saw the bear, big doe eyes and dropped jaw and all. When she had finally grasped what it was, she jumped into my lap and hugged me tightly: "Thank so much – the teddy bear looks so adorable!"

I smiled and told her: "Yes, I agree that it does. By the way, it has some special features and can be programmed. For instance, it can feel when you move in your sleep, potentially due to having a bad dream, and it can also make some limited movements, mostly with the arms and paws. You can program and recharge via a USB connector."

Mrs. Madison looked at me and asked: "How did you get something like that? I did not know that something like this even existed!", and even Wiress was quite impressed.

I replied: "This is a prototype from my family's company, and it is not yet available in stores, but maybe it will in a couple of years."

Rue had jumped back from my lap, placed the teddy bear on a chair – not without some effort, as the bear's weight was about 33kg – and placed herself in the bear's lap. As I had charged the toy before and done some basic programming, the teddy bear slowly rotated its arms around Rue and touched her back, moving the paws up and down slowly. Rue had closed her yes and did not notice at first that it was the bear petting her back and rather assumed that some of us was doing that, until Prim asked her: "Do you like the bear stroking your back?"

Rue suddenly had her eyes wide open and saw what was going on. Apparently she was having a hard time finding proper words: "Wow … this is nice!"

A few minutes later Rue asked: "What's his name, by the way?"

I answered: "There is no name yet – you can select a proper one."

Right away Rue smiled and informed us: "Okay, I will call the teddy bear 'Timmy', or maybe 'Little Timmy', I think".

Prim laughed: "How can you call a teddy bear which is almost larger than you are 'Little'?"

Mr. and Mrs. Madison looked a me and happily said: "Thank you very much for that, Mr. Sinterguth. You could not have selected any better present, and you have certainly made her day."

I smiled and replied: "You are very much welcome, and I get enough reward by seeing your daughter happy."

Turning back to Rue I added: "Once you got used to your new friend, you may want to get some help programming it. I could imagine that Wiress would be quite happy helping you with that. As it is a prototype, there is no full instruction manual included, but once you connect to a PC or mobile device, you will find some on-screen guidelines."

Well, it certainly turned out that Rue had a new best friend, and she was like glued to the bear's lap for the next few hours. To check how the new friendship had developed, I checked back with her a few days later, and she very happily told me that she slept so much better next to the bear in her bed, or rather, she sheepishly admitted, sometimes right on the bear. She had found out that the teddy actually sensed sometimes when she was waking up or having a nightmare or anxiety attack and reacted by moving arms and paws and stroking and soothing her, adding some low frequency humming, which she had already grown to like and which helped her to relax again. I was glad to hear that and was very happy for her.

After a couple of more busy weeks on the site the big day for the amusement park visit was there, and I got up in the morning feeling excited. Looking out of the window I saw a few dark clouds, but the weather forecast had promised that no rain was likely to fall, and the sun should be able to drive away the clouds around noon time.

I had asked all participants to arrive at the big parking area on my site no later than 8:00 in the morning; with the bus ride taking about 45 minutes, we wanted to be there in time for the park opening at 9:00. It turned out that the bus was barely large enough to get all of us in, and there were only a couple of seats left unfilled. Everybody had great fun during the drive, and eventually we arrived at the park ten minutes before opening. Some of us used the opportunity to go to the restroom, and right at 9:00 am I got to the cashier, and we could get all of us in. The park was nicely designed, with a lot of trees, partially hiding some attractions. Morning temperatures were mild and not yet hot, and we soon decided to split up, as some younger people wanted to go right to the big roller coasters, whereas others preferred the less violent rides. Rue and Prim decided to hang out with me, and Monica Miller joined us as well.

Walking towards one side of the park, I guided the girls to a moderate roller coaster called "Plohseidon", and we could get right into a car. For the first ride I had Monica beside me and Rue was sitting next to Prim. The ride was nice for a start and not violent at all, and we all found that we could get more of that, so that we got in for a second ride. Prim asked: "This is fun! Are there more roller coasters around?"

I smiled and replied: "Sure are. Let's go!"

Close to the center of the park I knew that they had an indoor coaster, and I went straight to this one. After entering the building, we had to walk through some dark passages, possibly to get our eyes used to the dark. Spooky music could be heard, and while we waited for the next train to arrive, an animated story was shown on the other side of the track about some Red Indian and ghosts. Soon the car arrived and we got in. This ride was a little faster than the previous one, but the girls had fun. Once we had taken the ride three times in a row I asked if they were up for the big wooden roller coaster "El Toro", and Rue replied: "Maybe we can look at it first?". We got on a bench to look, and the girl's jaws dropped a little bit when they saw how fast the cars of that ride went. Rue and Monica decided to sit it out, but Prim took the ride with me two times and had great fun. Once done with that I took the kids to a relaxing part, the "Vulkan" floats, gently moving in a small lake and passing animated dinosaur representations.

At lunch time we all met at one of the park's self service restaurants, where an area was reserved for us outside. Everybody could have what they wanted, and soon the talking was replaced by chewing, although some of the kids managed to do both at the same time. A group of adults decided to sit there for some more time, to enjoy the sunshine and talk, but the kids and most younger adults were soon ready to hit the rides again.

Annie and Finnick came with Wiress and asked which kids wanted to go for a water slide, and lots of children jumped up. I took Prim's camera and volunteered to take pictures, and they ran towards the one in the center of the park, where one embarked into some kind of hollow log, which was first pulled upwards and later sliding down a long and steep slope. I found a good observation place and prepared the camera by switching into video mode; five minutes later the first log with our kids arrived and I recorded a small video with them sliding down and screaming.

Soon after Annie and Finnick came out again with kids trailing them, and most of them were partially wet. Rue and Prim beamed, and Rue jumped into my arms right away: "Tim, that was so much fun – I want to go again – come with me, please?"

I laughed: "Rue, you are getting me all wet!"

Rue smiled: "Okay, then it does not matter that you might get more wet by coming!"

I could not defy this logic, handed the camera back to Prim, and went with Rue to line up for the ride again. Three of the other kids were also coming again, and soon we stepped into one of the hollow logs, with me at the back, Rue in right front of me, and the others in the front part. Rue was almost vibrating with all of the fun she was having, and she insisted that I put my arms around her and hold her tightly.

The park also had another water ride, this one with round cars/boats sliding down some kind of rapids, and it was called "Curse of Teutates", related to a Gallic theme. Eight of us could sit in a boat, and quite a few of our group went to check it out. Prim and Rue and I were in one boat together with Annie and Finnick and a few others, and we first enjoyed the view when the boat was pulled upwards. Then the ride down started, and we found that the boat was starting to rotate. The rotation was slow at first, but started to accelerate; quite soon we found ourselves like in a round-about, and some of the girls started to scream from excitement. Just when I thought that this was getting almost too much for fun and some of the girls might throw up from motion sickness, the rapids abated out into clear water towards the exit, and the rotation slowed down again. When getting out of the boat a minute later, both Prim and Rue staggered and seemed to be unable to walk straight; they were clearly feeling giddy from the fast rotation before, and I held both of them steady with my arms while getting out of the place. However, a few minutes later they had recovered and wanted to go again. Clearly they had fun.

Later on, after many more rides and lots of fun, all of us were gathering around a small lake to prepare for watching the fireworks. As expected, Rue soon moved close to me and ended up in my lap, and she was quite in awe watching the show. When the fireworks display was finally completed and everybody was applauding, Rue leaned her head into my chest, and said, looking up at me with her big doe eyes: "Tim, I am having so much fun today – thank you. But the very best is being with you. Can you be my boyfriend, please?"

I did not have an immediate answer for that question, and the only reply I was able to stutter out was that I needed to think about it, though for other reasons than Rue might suspect.

[Author's Note: I used the general layout and some attraction types and names from a German amusement park called "Freizeitpark Plohn" - this is one of my favorites in real life. About the programmable teddy bear, I do not know if something like that really exists, but I could imagine this to be helpful as therapy for abused children and such.]