Peeta's condition steadily improves. His hair is slowly coming back in, and he wears a cap most days. My mother spends more and more time up in her room. Gale's phone is off the hook with calls from Paylor's administration. He's wanted back in 2, and I can tell he's delaying. Effie, however, seems to be settling in. She and Delly have redecorated their house. It is atrocious. I didn't know that many doilies could exist in one room, but I've learned they can. Effie tells me she is bringing elegance and refinement to our tiny little village. I think the her house looks like it vomited frills, but I just smile and nod. Peeta cannot stop laughing as he watches me "admire" the porcelain doll Effie ordered Delly from the Capitol. It's… breathtaking. Delly could take one of the vacant houses in Victor's Village, but I don't think she wants to be alone all the time. Effie spends most of her nights at Haymitch's anyways, so it works out well.

The summer burns on, and we decide to have a bonfire. Peeta is obsessed with making marshmallows for roasting. He tries to describe them to me, but I can't imagine how they wouldn't just melt into the fire. You can't put sugar on a stick, but he insists you can. "I just need to find the right gelling agent," he mutters as he flips through his family's books. It keeps him busy.

Johanna spends the day in the woods chopping trees. I don't think I've ever seen anyone wield an axe with with such proficiency and glee. I remember her burying an axe in Cashmere's chest. Did Cashmere know about the rebellion? Was she on the wrong side of things? Or was she just trying to survive? I shake my head and try not to focus on that. Johanna prattles on about the different types of wood and how best to make a fire. She chops felled logs as she looks for something dry and hard.

"Do you miss home, Johanna?"

"No," she says without even a thought. I smile a little. I'm selfish, I know that.

That night, we all gather behind Haymitch's house. Gale and Johanna are bickering about appropriate log placement. Johanna threatens to shove a branch where the sun doesn't shine if he doesn't leave her alone. He puffs his chest.

"Is that a threat?" Gale asks.

"It's a near certainty if you don't move your skinny ass away from my fire," she retorts, staring him down.

Soon the blaze is roaring. Peeta puts one of his marshmallows on a stick and is beaming with pride when it comes away from the fire golden brown. "My lady," he says, and offers me the confection. I pop it in my mouth, and it melts.

"This is divine," I say, and kiss him. Our fingers are sticky as they weave together, and I can feel the looks we are getting. I don't kiss Peeta in front of people, but right now I don't care. I smile into his mouth, and he sucks the sugar from my bottom lip.

"So you like it?" he asks.

"I like it," I say.

"You two are going to make me puke," Johanna says, and hurls a pine cone in our general vicinity. I scowl in her direction.

The marshmallows are very popular. Delly and Peeta camp out on the grass near the fire. She's eaten about five marshmallows, and now she sits cross-legged, chatting Peeta's ear off about a boy she's been flirting with at the Market. He grows watermelons, and I think I remember seeing him next to the woman who berated Thom. I zone out. Delly has grown on me, but I have a limited level of tolerance for the high-timbre of her voice that was exceeded minutes ago.

Peeta and I decided that tonight we are going to share the book. It was meant to be private, but this unusual group of people has become our family. I grab it from the porch and walk to the fire. I gather everyone's attention. As they face me, I look around the fire. Effie is whispering into Haymitch's ear. Delly is laughing at Peeta as he exaggerates the size of a watermelon he recently bought by stretching his arms around her. Johanna leans her back into Gale's chest. He rests his chin on top of her head. This may not be the family I pictured myself with, but the bonds forged in pain and suffering are as thick as blood.

I explain the book. Everyone gathers a little closer. I open it to a random page. Boggs. I read aloud. "Boggs had a sense of humor hidden under his carefully guarded exterior. His eyes were mischievous, and while he was the consummate rule-follower, he ultimately let his heart guide his actions. His selflessness and bravery were paralleled only by his devilish good looks, which he managed to mask behind an absolutely hideous but precise military haircut." I go on to read the stories recounted by Peeta and me. In the end, I pass the book around and they all look at the accompanying portrait. Gale clears his throat. I knew this one would be hard for him. We all sit around the fire and tell stories about Boggs. Haymitch recounts the time Boggs picked him up after he was released from the rehabilitation center. He assumed Boggs was only there because he was ordered to go, but when he arrived Boggs shook Haymitch's hand and looked him straight in the eye. It gave him some of his dignity back. Gale tells the story about how he broke Boggs's nose kicking him in the face, and how Boggs covered for him with Coin. Johanna recounts how Boggs pushed her to get through training. His faith in her never wavered.

We repeat for Rue, Mitchell, Seeder, Wiress, Madge, Portia, Chaff, Foxface, Darius, the Morphlings, Cinna, even nameless people - the old man in District 11, the red-headed Avox girl, the boy from the hospital in District 8. We spend hours on Prim and Finnick. With each, we share stories. We remember. We grieve. We move on to people not in the book. Delly talks about her mom. Johanna tells us that Poppy used to sneak in her bed at night and wake Johanna to warm her icicle feet. Effie remembers a cellmate who kept her sane during captivity, and how one day she woke up and the woman was gone. Effie is sure she was executed, but she's refused to ever find out definitively. She doesn't want to know. Gale tells a story of beating his dad in a snowball fight when he was seven. He realizes now he didn't actually defeat a full-grown man, but he remembers bragging about it all night to his mom. Recounting the blow-by-blow, the cunning moves that led to his father's defeat. Peeta just says, "I miss my mom." He doesn't elaborate more than that. We all know they had a complicated relationship and leave it alone. Haymitch tells us about one of the youngest tributes he had to mentor. He remembers finding her asleep in a train car with her thumb in her mouth. He drank himself to oblivion that night.

"When my husband sang, the birds stopped singing." My mother's voice floats on the night wind. We turn around and see her standing over us, tears welled in her eyes. I don't know how long she's been there, and we all sit quietly a moment. I take a breath, and sing for my mom. A song my dad taught me that I'd long forgotten.

When a man suffers loss of limb
A phantom is left in its place,
That stings and pains and tortures him
And makes the nights too long to face.

But now that you are gone, my love,
A phantom hand is holding mine.
A phantom hand is holding mine.

And now that you are gone, my love.
A phantom hand is holding mine.
A phantom hand's in mine.

I remember my dad singing that song to me in the woods. He grabbed my hands and spun me around until I begged him to stop. We fell to the ground, both dizzy, clasping hands and trying not to throw up. I feel my dad's hand in mine now, the ghost of what once was. I cross to my mom and hold her for a long time. We sway. I let the years of anger and resentment slip away. I whisper, "It's okay to go now, Mom. You don't have to stay."

The next morning, she is already gone when I wake up.