Chapter 8: Come Back, O Summer
Back at the Abernathy place, Katniss forlornly moped about the yard. She began to sing a sad song:
The trees on the mountains are cold and bare / The summer jus' vanished and left them there / Like a false hearted lover, just like my own / Who made me love him, then left me alone
The coals on the hearth have turned grey and sere / The blue flame jus' vanished and left them there / Like a false hearted lover, jest like my own / Who made me love him, then left me alone
Come back o summer, come back blue flame / My heart wants warmin', my baby a name / Come back o lover if jus' fer a day / Turn bleak December once more into May
The road up ahead lies lonely and far / There's darkness around me and not even a star / To show me the way or lighten my heart / Come back o lover I fain would start
The poor baby fox lies all cold in his lair / His mama jus' vanished and left him there / Like a false hearted lover, jest like my own / Who made me love him, then left me alone
Come back o summer, come back blue flame / My heart wants warmin', my baby a name / Come back o lover if jus' fer a day / Turn bleak December once more into May
Come back o summer, come back blue flame / My heart wants warmin', my baby a name / Come back o lover if jus' fer a day / Turn bleak December once more into May
Come back! Come back! Come back!
Unbeknownst to her, Reverend Hawthorne had been listening to her singing almost the whole time. "That's mighty fine singing, Katniss."
Katniss jumped. "Who is it?" she called into the growing twilight.
"It's your friend, the preacher. That's a mighty sad song there. Do you always sing so pretty?"
Katniss looked away. "I sing to myself when I'm sad or lonesome. It keeps me company."
"Don't look like it'd do you much good," Hawthorne observed.
"My mama taught that song to me a long time ago." Katniss approached a now visible Hawthorne dangerously. "What do you want here, preacher Hawthorne?"
Hawthorne was busy tying his shoe on a tree stump. "This is what you might call a social visit. I'm here to talk to you about yer soul."
"There ain't nothing to say, so you're wasting your time!" Katniss shot back defiantly.
"You're a hard-headed one, Katniss. It's the devil in ye!"
"But I've been bathing in that creek all spring! And that tale of Peeta loving me up - it's a lie! Haymitch woulda killed him if he had!"
"I wish I could believe ya," Hawthorne sighed.
"Don't believe it! Don't believe it! But it's the truth!" Katniss blasted. She turned away towards the stoop. "And I'll tell ya something else. I ain't spent such a week as this. With all the things people said about me, and the men making dirty jokes about me. I've forgotten how to feel happy again. If I knew that this is what the rest of my life would be…"
"It's the sin in your heart that stirs ya!" Hawthorne insisted.
"It ain't! It ain't! It ain't!" Katniss screeched, pounding her fists furiously on Hawthorne's muscular chest before breaking down against him in tears. Hawthorne stood rigid where he was, until - with much self-resistance - he reluctantly put his arms around her. Katniss looked up into his face, frightened, before squirming away. Hawthorne made to go, but then felt the urge to do some opening up of his own. He admitted to Katniss that he was a lonely man and that he sometimes felt he needed a woman like other folk had. He sat down beside her on the porch steps, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"Will your uncle be home tonight?"
Katniss shook her head weakly. "No."
"Let's go inside."
"I'm so tired," Katniss admitted softly. "I just can't fight no more." She gave in and let Reverend Hawthorne carry her into the house….