Chapter Twenty: DIY Family
What is Time?
Alexa Dobio, District Seven Female
When I finally left my house for good, I looked back upon my brief stay and wondered why the heck I didn't leave sooner.
The trouble started way back, before I was even born. My father had always wanted a boy, and instead got me. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's never a good combination.
Not to mention, our personalities clashed a lot, to say the least. He always wanted me to be some "prim and proper lady" crap that made no sense to me. Ultimately, it meant that I was always expected to sit still in some frilly dress for most of the day, and do housework whenever I wasn't sitting still. His attitude towards women (including my mom) was at least three hundred years out of date, and that's being conservative.
However, I didn't fit whatever stereotype my father wanted me to be. I'm too twitchy and hyperactive to sit still for hours on end. Housework, while not the worst thing in the world by any stretch of the imagination, got really repetitive, really fast. The clothes I was forced to wear made me feel far more like a doll than a person. I flat-out refused to stay inside all the time like he wanted to.
And, most importantly, I hated the Capitol. How utterly unlike him.
Okay, maybe I wasn't being one hundred percent fair on that one. I took a lot of influence from my friend Maisie on that one, considering that her, along with her social group, despise the Capitol with every fiber of their being. While they always disliked the Capitol, the real tipping point came exactly five years ago.
It's the main reason I got out of here, and let's just say it's a long story.
Back when we were younger and a little more carefree, Maisie had a good friend named Sepia. She always came along with us on our little adventures, whenever I could sneak out of the house. This wasn't often, making every experience with her one to remember.
Our whole world changed when Sepia's sixteen-year-old sister, Mahogany, was Reaped for the 90th Hunger Games.
Unsurprisingly, Sepia experienced quite the burst of emotions after watching her sister get taken away. First sadness (she refused to come out of her room for days) and then rage (we could hear her screeching nonsense and hurling stuff at the walls for a while).
We looked on in terror as the fateful day drew closer, taking note of every little detail, even if we didn't want to. She scored a six in training. In her interview, she hinted at a romantic relationship with her moody, supposedly-nuts District partner, Tinder. We ate, slept, and breathed the Hunger Games that year, silently hoping, wishing, praying. Sepia paid the closest attention out of all of us (once she came out of her room) even if she was terrified of her sister's fate.
She still wanted to see the Bloodbath. Even though Mahogany was almost certainly going to die in it, she wanted to cheer her on until the end. As I looked at the frenzied expression on her face, I seriously wondered whether or not she'd be able to take it if her sister got killed.
But she didn't get killed that day, instead managing to escape into the maze of tunnels the arena was set in. And as the days dragged on, she became part of a dwindling group of tributes as we all hoped for a miracle to help her escape the arena alive.
And then, nine days and fifteen deaths in, a miracle happened.
The Gamemakers were getting bored of one specific tribute (I don't remember her name) so they decided to collapse the tunnel she was hiding in to off her quickly. However, that tunnel was much higher up than most of the others, and the resulting debris wound up causing other tunnels to also collapse. The same process repeated over and over again until almost every tunnel, save for a few at the very top, turned into nothing more than a pile of rubble. The Games had been unintentionally cut short, and all but one tribute had to be dug out from the gigantic mound of debris so their bodies could be sent home.
Mahogany, by sheer luck, was that one tribute. She'd been camped out in the highest tunnel in the arena for days, likely figuring that the Careers wouldn't look up there for a while. Although she was relatively unscathed by the carnage that occurred right at the end of the Games, erasing the screams of the dying tributes from her mind completely would be impossible.
Us, being young, naive eight-year-olds, assumed Mahogany would come back after the little ceremony they did for her, and life would go back to what could be perceived as normal. But we could not have been more wrong.
It took her three months to finally make her way back to District 7. And when she did, it was obvious she was a wreck of her former self. She had been bubbly and outgoing before being sent in, but now, she was constantly crying, didn't even bother getting out of bed on some days, and hardly ever left the confines of her room. Even with Mahogany, plus her family, getting settled into a gigantic mansion in the Victor's Village that dwarfed every other building I'd seen in my life, she just wasn't the same, and she wasn't happy, either.
It was easy enough to figure out why. When she was forced along on her "Victory Tour," she was showered with hate in multiple Districts, especially the Career Districts. She'd had to watch the recap of her Games a week after she was airlifted out of the arena, amplifying the horrible memories she had of the place that much further. And, once I got an answer as to what the word "prostitution" meant, it only became more obvious.
In other words, even when someone wins the Hunger Games, they still lose, no matter how much money and fame they get. Some things, you can never get back. And after seeing Mahogany come back home, I'm pretty confident your mental state is one of them.
However, even after Mahogany came home, my parents wouldn't shut up about how incredible the Capitol was and that we should be grateful for their support and whatever other stupid excuses they had. Eventually, after one too many nights where I was hit and sent to bed without dinner as punishment, I'd had enough. So, I got out of there, and I didn't look back.
Thankfully, Maisie's parents were kind enough to take me in. They told me, "Well, we already have seven kids. One more isn't really going to make a difference," after Maisie figured out what had happened.
So, right now everyone's cleaning the house, and I'm doing my share of it, even if it gives me unpleasant flashbacks to my time back home.
"Thanks for the lift, Maisie," I say, getting off her shoulders. Maisie's house has a lot of high ceilings, so right now we're trying to clean all the spiderwebs out of the corners. (It's harder than it looks- I don't know if these spiders are some kind of mutants the Capitol had left over from their weird experiments during the Dark Days, but the webs are really sticky and unnaturally thick.)
"No problem," she replies before walking with me to the next hall so we can repeat the process again.
On the way there, we run into Jaimy and Jessy, Maisie's three-year-old twin siblings, who are clearly in hot pursuit of something. Based on the sheer number of them I've seen in the yard this week, I'm guessing it has to be a squirrel or a chipmunk or something like that.
Whatever. I have to focus on my own task right now.
After twenty minutes of that, I actually have to run over to the river near our house and soak my hands in it, because all the spiderwebs that have gotten stuck to my hands won't come off no matter how hard I pull at them.
By the time I finish the trip there and back, everything seems to have wrapped up. Maisie's dad is bringing in a big bucket of something that I'd guess is water. Her mother is just sitting on the grass, staring up at the sky. I'd assume she's watching the sun go down, but you never know. Everyone else is doing something random, whether it be trying to climb one of the smaller trees in the backyard (what Maisie's six-year-old brother, Donovan, is doing) or just kind of wandering around (like what everyone else is doing).
However, a few minutes later, Maisie's dad yells, "Dinner!" As soon as he does, everyone stampedes towards the door, wanting to actually be able to eat something before all the food is gone.
This time, though, that isn't going to be a problem. Over the course of the past few minutes, Maisie's dad has made a big plate filled with pancakes made out of tesserae grain. (Say what you want about the grain being really weird and inferior to the Capitol's grain, but that doesn't mean you can't make good things with it.) All of them are covered in tree sap (yes, tree sap, not syrup) and stacked in a teetering pile that threatens to topple over.
He's still making more as we all dig in. Sure, tesserae grain is precious, but the date that we get it this month is the day after tomorrow. Sure, tomorrow's the Reaping, meaning some poor soul won't be able to get any, but wasn't that the point when they invented the thing?
Once everyone is finally, finally full, Maisie's dad makes one more batch for himself, scarfs it down, and then wanders into the big bedroom to pass out. Jaimy, Jessy, and Donovan, the youngest of Maisie's siblings, follow shortly after.
As for the rest of us, it's getting dark, but it hasn't quite reached the status of true night yet. Thus, there's still time for us to do things, as long as they don't require electricity, of course. (It always cuts out at night. I never understand why.)
So, Maisie proposes a pretty good suggestion to us all. "Why don't we just head into the woods? Sure, it's nighttime, but compared to the Reapings, nothing's scary anymore, right?"
I definitely agree. So do Mara, Jason, and Ferry, Maisie's other siblings, who are thirteen, ten, and eight, respectively. We would ask Maisie's parents if it's OK if we go, but they're already asleep. I'm assuming they won't mind too much.
"Should we leave a note?" I want to make sure Maisie's parents know where we've gone in case they wake up for some reason.
"If I can find paper, I'll do it," Jason replies. It doesn't take long. Considering our industry is wood, paper is one of the few products we have no shortages of here. Ever. Even if a lot of it goes to the Capitol. And it shows, as in less than half a minute, he comes up with a piece of the stuff and something to write with, scrawls "WILL BE BACK SOON" on said paper in messy letters, and sliding it under the door leading to the bedroom Maisie's parents are currently asleep in.
As soon as he gives the "all clear," we run like heck, out into the woods where peace awaits.
It's a good thing that's there's relatively few clouds tonight.
It's hard enough to see in the woods as is, without moonlight we'd be walking through pitch black. We stay on the beaten path for a while, stumbling our way forward, tripping over roots every once in a while, occasionally stopping to pick flowers. However, about half a mile in, we break off the path, heading into the actual woods.
Except for the crickets, we're the only things making noise in here. Luckily, the Peacekeepers don't patrol the woods at night- they mostly stick to the shops in the town square, which are notorious thief magnets. Otherwise, we'd probably all be dead.
A few hundred meters later, we find a place that we've visited in the past- a partially downed tree that's definitely uprooted, but is being supported by its canopy in such a way that it isn't quite flat. It has a thick enough trunk and a low enough angle of incline that anyone can make it at least fifteen feet off the ground if they don't mind heights, and it's not something that the lumberjacks have gotten to yet, thankfully.
Ferry climbs on first and starts up. Then Jason. As soon as we're all on top of the thick trunk, we precariously inch our way up, a little bit at a time, using the little bit of moonlight penetrating the trees around us to see. After a couple of minutes, we manage to get reasonably high, to a place where the moonlight is much brighter.
Once we're all up there, we look up, making sure not to let go of our handholds. It's looking to be a beautiful night- not a cloud can be seen, anywhere. Dozens of stars dot the sky, and a pale moon hovers overhead. It's an incredible sight. One that's worth leaving the house this late.
After a few serene minutes have passed, I turn to Maisie. "Maisie?"
She slowly rotates her body so she can face me without falling off the tree, and says, "Yes, Alexa?"
"This is awesome. I wish every night was like this."
She smiles, and responds with, "Me, too."
Eventually, we're going to have to go back to the house, and I'll have to go to sleep and prepare for the Reapings tomorrow.
But, for now, all I want to do is enjoy the view. And I only have one thought going through my mind right now.
If only there was a way to make this moment last forever.
Author's Notes:
-I know, I know, I know. I've been moving at a glacial pace for the past few chapters. Trust me when I say this, though: It may take a long time, but I will see this story through to the end. This isn't going to remain unfinished.
-Thanks to Tiger Outsider for Alexa.
-Next up is the D11M, also by Tiger Outsider. Then, we have the D10F and the D9M/D9M.
-Only three pre-Reapings Chapters to go! We're almost there!
-See you next chapter!