INTERVIEW WITH THE MOCKINGJAY – Chapter 42
"The Seam really is a 'seam,'" Sam Horn says, pointing at the road before us, showing me a tri-dimensional view on his handheld computer. "It's a geological feature where two small fault lines smack into each other."
I am taking a break from days of interviews to do a feature story on District 12's ruin and recovery, and today Archer and I are focusing on the legendary Seam, where Katniss and her family lived before the rebellion.
All the homes and houses of this ramshackle community have been destroyed by the spasm of bombing that Coriolanus Snow inflicted upon the District, when he found he could not kill his teenage nemesis. It was really like a child throwing a tantrum at not being able to get the toy he or she wanted. Snow, of course, played the child, and Katniss the adult, which is kind of an interesting reversal of behaviors.
Sam stands next to me, wearing his trademark yellow helmet and huge brown beard. "There was a lot of debate in the community over whether or not this should all be plowed over, so that the District could move on, but others said it should be turned into some kind of memorial to the war and also to honor Katniss Everdeen. Where better to do it than where she lived?" he says.
"So what was the decision," I ask.
"The term is 'stabilized ruin,'" Sam says. "I had to look it up myself. It means that the ruins are stabilized from further collapse, but not restored or removed. People can come here and see the wreckage. Interpretive markers will explain what they are looking at."
"In other words," I say, "It's a tourist attraction."
"A lot of memorials are tourist attractions," Sam says. "Look at all the Hunger Games Arenas. However, this one will not be triumphant in tone."
I think about that for a long moment. "Yeah, it honors the victims, not glorifies winners," I say.
Archer drops down on one knee and takes a shot from the road of one of Horn's workers placing a little yellow flag marker in the ground, next to some bricks. "That'll tell our crew not to remove those bricks," Horn says.
The houses are in various states of destruction, with wreckage strewn about – stoves, broken china, tables, beds, kitchenware, even a battered TV set or two. However, there is no paper, no linens, and no food.
"You can imagine that weather took care of paper and linen, and animals and mold got rid of the food," Sam says. He points at a mass of springs lying on the ground. "We had to remove the mattress and burn it. It was full of insects."
He points at the road that runs in a straight line through the wreckage. "That's the actual Seam," he says. "You can see how the fault comes from one side and goes over the other."
"Would it cause an earthquake?" I ask.
"No, it's too small," he answers. I squat down and inspect the line in the center of the road, which looks like a lip covering the other side.
"Hey, Ace," I yell. "Get a shot of the actual Seam!" He looks up at me pointing, gives me a thumbs-up, and resumes photographing some workers surveying the area.
As I rise, I see a hoverplane land in the field nearby. It disgorges two armored troop carriers, thundering off its ramps, surrounded by heavily armed infantry. "What the fuck is this?" Sam asks. "Another coup?"
I shake my head. "No, Ron Davis got some reinforcements to guard the District perimeter. These guys must be part of them." I look around the wreckage of the Seam. "Which of these bricks was the Everdeen residence?" I ask Sam.
He points at a pile, which looks no different from any other collection of ruins – walls on the ground, wooden frames and furniture scattered randomly, a brick chimney standing in mute defiance.
"Ace, make sure we get the Everdeen home shot," I say to the photographer.
"Took care of it already, boss," he says.
"I'm going to talk briefly with the troops," I say to Sam. "I'll be back in a few."
Carefully avoiding the "stabilized ruins," I walk towards the soldiers, who are standing next to their wheeled Buffalos, getting a briefing from their CO.
His back to me, the CO says, in a familiar voice, "A lot of people back at base were saying, 'We're here to protect the Mockingjay.' That's bullshit. We're here to protect the whole District. These people have had a very hard time. Their District was destroyed from one end to the other. Now they're back in the coal mines, working under crappy conditions. So they're not going be too happy to see us. It's imperative that we show them respect. We're here to serve and protect. Got it?"
The troops yell back, "SIR, YES, SIR!"
"All right, that's what I like," the CO says.
"Nice speech," I say.
The CO turns around, and to our mutual surprise, it's my old nemesis from officer training, Bellamy. Back then, he was an arrogant little snot who had to be stomped down by Gus Lewis on more than a few occasions. After fighting a few battles, he lost his arrogance.
We grin at each other, and simultaneously shout, "What are you doing here?" Then, instead of a handshake, we fall into each other's arms.
Archer strolls over and says, "Another romance I don't know about?"
We turn to Archer, and I throw my arm around his shoulder. "This sorry piece of work is Frank Bellamy," I say to Archer. "He was the most annoying dictator when I was in officers' training and became the most decent guy after fighting the war. Bellamy, meet my photographer, Ace Archer."
"Archer, huh? Or you prefer Ace?" Bellamy asks.
"Ace," my photographer says.
"So where's Kae Lyn? And more importantly, Meredith? The last time I saw all three of you, let's see…you and Kae Lyn were heading back to your unit's headquarters, and Meredith was going forward," Bellamy says. "How did all that come out?"
"Well, Kae Lyn and I are working at the Times in the Capitol, where she usually does my photography. But for this assignment, they…what's the phrase you use, Ace?"
Archer grins. "They changed the batting order," he says.
"Thank you. He's here, Kae Lyn is not. She's back in the Capitol,"
"And Meredith?" Bellamy continues.
"You'll probably enjoy this…I found her right here. She's the District Business Administrator. We picked it up from where we left off, and we're going to get married."
"Congratulations!" Bellamy beams. "I have to go kiss the happy bride-to-be!"
Someone calls out to Bellamy from his men. "Excuse me, I've got to go…I have work to do."
He strides over to his men, responding to his first sergeant's request.
"I thought you said he was an asshole," Archer says quietly to me.
"He was," I answer back. "A stuffed shirt. Full of himself. He thought that because he said something, it was important. He was braver and smarter than everybody else was. Didn't get his uniform dirty. The war changed him. It did that to a lot of people, and not just wounds or death."
Archer nods somberly. He learned that point earlier.
My cell phone rings. It's Meredith, at her office. "When are you coming home tonight?" she asks, a touch briskly. Must be a fun meeting, I think.
"Around 5:30 or six," I say.
"Good, I'll see you then," she says. "I love you, fair man," she adds, warmer.
"I love you too, dark lady. And guess who's in town to command the troops defending us? Bellamy."
"Is he still the same jerk?" Meredith asks.
"No, he's still the same decent guy from your relief column," I answer.
"Good," Meredith says. "Invite him to dinner tonight. I'll invite Katniss and Peeta. He should know just who he's protecting and what the war was about."
"Sounds like she just gave you some orders," Archer says, when the call is done. "What's that phrase they use? The old ball and chain?" He bursts out laughing.
"I don't think it's as bad as that," I respond, before heading over to Bellamy to invite him to dinner.
Meredith is wearing suspenders, a t-shirt, and a kerchief over her head when I enter her home that evening. All have old paint stains on them. She hands me the controls for her vacuum cleaner. "You clean the living and dining rooms, and I'll take care of the outer bathroom," she says forcefully.
"And hello to you too," I say, stunned.
Then Meredith smiles, gives me a deep kiss, her tongue swirling into mine, and says, "Business before pleasure. We have guests coming this evening, and that means we have to do some cleaning."
"You don't rate cleaners?" I ask.
"We set this up too late in the day. Maya had gone home when you called, so I can't ask her to stop cooking her own dinner for her own family," Meredith answers. "It's all on us, fair man."
I smile. I'm actually used to this. After Mom died, with Dad out of the house doing his Peacekeeper duties, I had to do many domestic duties. Vacuuming a house, cleaning the bathroom, cooking meals…it's all pretty basic.
"I guess this is a foretaste of marriage," I say, forcing a smile.
"One thing I learned at home," Meredith says, "Marriage and families are work. Romance ends when you jump the broom, because now you have to live and work together."
I look down at the vacuum cleaner. "No broom?" I ask.
"Just the theory," Meredith says.
Lacking time, Meredith has called over to the Hob to do the cooking, demanding something top of the line. We get it…plates of what the Capitol calls "Italian food," which is pasta. Mountains of it.
By now, Meredith has changed from the suspenders and t-shirt into a checked shirt and blue jeans…as formal as the Business Administrator of District 12 can get. I know that she would very much like to dress more upscale, but neither of us have had the time to address that issue.
"I always wondered," I ask Bellamy, while picking at my salad, "What made you join the Rebellion? You never struck me as the rebellious type."
Bellamy, holding his fork, freezes. The pasta dangles in mid-air.
"Don't worry," I say. "It's not for the record. I'm not going to chop you up in the paper."
Bellamy exhales in relief. "I'm from the Capitol," he says.
"So is Archer, here," I say, pointing at the photographer, who bites on a meatball. "So was Gus Lewis. It seems to be more common than I thought."
Bellamy swallows his pasta, and then speaks. "It's hard to explain," he says. "I wasn't exactly a hard-core revolutionary. I didn't think deeply about what was going on. What I did think about was that I couldn't get very far in Panem."
"How was that?" I ask.
"Well, I worked in the department that shipped in food from the Districts," he says. "I was more than a clerk, but less than a policy-maker. I was a little bothered by the waste and corruption going on with food deliveries and at the same time, I had no chance of getting a promotion."
"Why was that," Katniss asks.
"Promotions were bought and sold," Bellamy says. "You had to purchase them."
"Was that legal?" Peeta asks.
"It varied from department to department," I say. "I guess the Department of Food Supply and Production had a promotion purchase procedure. In the Peacekeepers, it was a 'custom honored in the breach.'"
Meredith laughs. Everyone else stares at me. "Charlie means that the rule was broken more often than not. It's from Shakespeare," she says.
"The other thing was what was going on in the department," Bellamy continues. "There was so much corruption and waste. Like…we were supposed to provide 8,000 kilograms of butter to some event, at contract of $20,000 to procure the butter. Only we had to pay kickbacks to the delivery company, another to the department's purchasing officer, another to the department head's chief of staff, and another to the department head. So I did the math and told the department head that if I paid out all these bribes, I would lose money on the order.
"So he said to me, 'I understand. But why deliver the butter at all?' So I did the math again, and I couldn't believe it. He was right. If I paid the bribes, but never ordered nor delivered the butter, which saved the purchase and shipping costs, everybody would make money. It was ridiculous," Bellamy finishes.
He bangs his spoon against his plate. "So I left the room, went down the hall, and found a friend of mine who usually wore a Mockingjay pin under his lapel. He'd once asked me to join the rebellion, and I told him I wasn't sure. This time I said, 'Remember what you asked me? This time I'm sure. Sign me up.'
"I went to a meeting and this woman who was recruiting people thought I would make a great trainer of recruits because I had trained new staff members before the rebellion," Bellamy says, shaking his head. "Boy, was I wrong."
I grasp his hand. "You learned the hard way. Everybody does." He nods.
"The funny thing was," Bellamy says, "even though the war so awful, I felt like I had to stay in the Army after the war was done. So I did."
"A lot of people felt that way," I say. I find myself thinking about Cornbread, who was "stop-lossed," which led to his suicide, but I don't mention it.
"Obviously you watched us on TV. What did you think?" Katniss says to Bellamy. We are surprised to hear her open up to our guest about the Hunger Games.
"Well, everybody was riveted to the ending," Bellamy says. "Especially when you came home, and held up your hands together. We thought you two were the perfect couple. I was amazed by that."
"You didn't think we were acting?" Peeta says.
Bellamy twirls his fork in his food. "I'm not a drama critic. I couldn't tell that. What I did see was the District at the bottom suddenly put on top, and many people in the Capitol were extremely annoyed by that," he says.
"That included the late and unlamented Seneca Crane," Katniss says, coldly. She points her fork at me. "I picked that up from you."
"He was as evil as it gets," Meredith says. "Did anyone actually miss him?"
Bellamy shrugs. "I didn't watch it too closely. I'm pretty sure he didn't have a wife and children. They needed a scapegoat, someone to blame for the disaster," he says.
"They were outfought and outthought by a pair of teenagers from District 12," I say, trying to sound judgmental. "It was the ultimate embarrassment."
"And Seneca Crane paid the ultimate price," Meredith says, finishing up from me. "Nobody missed him then and even fewer people miss him now."
"What did folks in the Capitol think about our homecoming?" Katniss asks. "We were trying to put on that show, as you probably know."
"Well, nobody knew about Gale at the time, so most people took it at face value," Bellamy says. "We were just making bets on when you two would get married and have kids. It was a massive follow-on to the Hunger Games betting. Caesar Flickerman had experts on pregnancy and fertilization on his talk show to help us figure out when you two were likely to conceive and how."
Katniss shakes her head in astonishment. "I was trying to avoid any mention of the Games after that," she says.
I shoot Meredith a quick look. We don't have to say it to each other – we can read each other's thoughts – but it has more to do with Katniss's difficult choice of lovers and her sexual inexperience than anything else.
"I don't think the Capitol's residents cared about Katniss as a potential wife and mother, and how well she would do in either role," Meredith says. "Just what were the odds."
Peeta digs at his sausages. "Can we stop talking about the Hunger Games?" he asks. "They were far too real."
Dead silence over the table for a long moment. Good idea, I think.
"How are you enjoying front-line leadership," I ask Bellamy.
"Well, I'm better suited for it than training," he answers. "After I got into combat, I realized that there are aspects to basic training that I was not mentally or emotionally equipped to handle. I found that I didn't like treating trainees like dirt, unfit to share my space. That whole hazing routine repulsed me. I saw the point of making basic training extremely tough to generate unquestioning obedience, but I didn't want to be part of that atmosphere of ridicule and punishment."
"One time my training partner said we should have our company do 10-count body builders, and you probably remember them," he continues.
Meredith and I look at each other, roll our eyes, and shake our heads. We remember them. It was a single physical evolution that included squat thrusts and push-ups. We did them more times than I care to remember.
Bellamy continues, "So we did, and I realized I had gone up to 17. We were only supposed to do 10. After conferring with my partner, we had the recruits do them in reverse, so that when they were done, they were back at 'zero.'
"My fellow drill instructor and I thought it was pretty hilarious at the time, and after we were done, we followed the procedure Gus Lewis laid down – leave the recruits alone for an hour to recuperate, while we went down to the barracks office to laugh our heads off.
"Next day a doctor came to see us and told us that three recruits had blown out their hamstrings from the exercises, and what the fuck did we think we were doing…Gus Lewis wanted to see us. He got in our faces over that stunt. That's when I knew I could never teach 'basic training,'" Bellamy finishes.
He looks straight at Meredith and I. "This was before we met at the bridge," he says. "I told Gus that I wanted out – immediately – from the training programs. He agreed, and sent me to fight."
"What happened to the other guy?" I ask.
"He didn't even get asked. He was sent to fight. And he got killed in his first battle." Bellamy pauses. "He got killed by his own men. They were guys he'd trained, and they had a lot of resentment."
Now Meredith and I shoot each other horrified looks. This was something we had never encountered in our separate wars.
"This guy must have been a definitive jerk," I say.
"He was a few bricks short of a load," Bellamy says, nodding. "It was the first and only time we worked together…like I said, the stunt was his idea."
"Can we put an end to these war stories?" Peeta asks.
Once again, there is a silence in the room, broken only by Meredith's ticking wall clock.
"I'm sorry," I say, leaning over to hold Peeta's hand. "You're right. How about we talk about your bakery line? I hear it's extremely popular in the Capitol."
"They can't get enough of it," Bellamy says, grasping the point. "People line up at the outlet store for your food. There's not enough to go around."
"That's because the trains that leave our District still carry coal," Katniss says, irritated. "We still send miners like my father down to the bottom of mines and pits to pull up the stuff, without any change."
Meredith bristles at that. "Katniss, you have to know that the district's miners are far better paid, enjoy much better working conditions, and if they're not living in new homes, they will be soon."
"Doesn't bring my father back," she snaps back. "Or end the coal business here. If miners aren't dying in explosions, they get something my mother called 'black lung.'"
"That's going to change," Bellamy says. "Beetee and some of the bigger scientists and engineers held a press conference a few days ago to announce a breakthrough on power supply. Apparently, Beetee deciphered Nikola Tesla's detailed notes and plans for a wireless power transmitter, which he actually built hundreds of years ago. He says that by the end of next year, all of Panem will be able to launch a wireless power system that will eliminate the need for most fossil fuels."
We all look at each other. "Well, that will end District 12's role as coal supplier to Panem," I say.
"And what will it do after that?" Meredith asks. "We will still need jobs."
"I was told that we have to provide armed escorts for an economic team that is coming to assess the District's minerals, pastureland, and water table," Bellamy says. "The government wants to do a comprehensive review of the District, so the transition from a coal-based economy to a non-coal economy will be…if you pardon the pun…seamless."
The pun works. Even Katniss smiles as she eats some pasta.
After Bellamy leaves in his scout car, the five of us stand on Meredith's front steps. "You want to do some more?" I ask Katniss and Peeta. "We have everything here."
"I just need to get my camera," Archer says.
Peeta and Katniss look at each other. "Might as well," Katniss says.
We all regroup in Meredith's living room, taking up comfortable sofas and chairs, pumpkin pie slices on plates, while Archer sets up his camera.
"I guess the next major item was the Victory Tour, six months later," I say.
"I was trying to forget the Tour would ever happen," Katniss says. "I didn't want to see Effie Trinket, the new prep team, the reporters, or the faces of the families whose children I'd killed."
"What were you doing?" I ask.
"Well, we had money now, lived in the Victor's Village, and could buy fresh meat at the store. However, Gale was in the mines, so I had to go hunting to supplement his food supply," Katniss says.
I am sitting close to her, so I don't miss a word. She touches me with her right hand. "I need you to make a note of this…there are good reasons why I am so angry about the coal mines," she says.
"I know they took your father," I say. "You don't have to repeat them."
"Yes, but now I had the fear they would take Gale. He was down there, in the foul air, at the seam, endangering his life. When I was in school, they'd take us down into the mines once a year to show us our future. The trips made me anxious and twice I was so sick from it that my mother kept me home," Katniss says.
I nod my head solemnly. I have taken time to the bottom of a mine and do a feature piece on the miners.
I look at Meredith and smile at her, and quote Fluellen from Shakespeare's Henry V. Act 3, Scene 2:
"To the mines? Tell you the duke it is not so good to come to the mines, for, look you, the mines is not according to the disciplines of the war. The concavities of it is not sufficient, for, look you, th' athversary, you may discuss unto the duke, look you, is digt himself four yard under the countermines. By Cheshu, I think he will plow up all if there is not better directions."
Katniss, Peeta, and Archer stare at me uncomprehendingly.
"I'll translate," Meredith says. "To the tunnels? Tell the duke it is not good to come to the tunnels because, see, the tunnels are not according to the strategy of war. The hollowness of them is not sufficient, because, see, you may discuss it with the duke, see, the enemy has dug himself four yards under the tunnels. By Jesus, I think he will dig it all up if there are not better orders."
"The English are digging tunnels under the French positions at Harfleur, and Captain Fluellen is warning the Duke of Gloucester that it's not a good idea for him to inspect the mines, as they are dangerous," I say. "In that war, mines were shallow tunnels dug under enemy entrenchments, and they'd place explosives under the entrenchments to destroy them."
"The only problem was that the enemy could dig his own tunnels and set off his own explosives," Meredith says.
"I see," Katniss says.
"The play is very popular in the Army," I say. "I'll spare you the rest."
Katniss nods.
"So you were helping Gale out," I continue.
"He wouldn't take a penny. Or the meat. I dropped off the game when he wasn't at home. He worked 12-hour days." Katniss shrugs. "Going out and hunting game for Gale was the only thing that kept me from going crazy."
"Getting into a familiar routine always helps," Meredith says.
"So was using my home," Katniss answers. "My mother and Prim were living in our house in the Victor's Village, but if I died for whatever reason, they'd get tossed out of it and have to live in our old home. So I used it to change my clothes. Formal clothes to hunting gear and back."
"Did you miss living in that home?" I ask.
"I kind of mourned it. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in. Now I was rich and famous, and hated by the Capitol's authorities. And Prim's cat Buttercup was still living there," Katniss says. "I hated that cat. I still hate that cat."
"But you still have that cat," Meredith says, smiling.
Katniss shakes her head. "Can't get rid of her," she says. "So my life went on like this. I'd drop off meat for Gale's mother Hazelle. Her husband was killed in the same explosion that killed my father, leaving her with three boys and a baby due any day. I had then and still have enormous respect for her."
"You said that her main source of income was Gale taking tons of tesserae and being a tremendous hunter," I say. "I'm sure it was a tremendous benefit to them."
"It also meant Gale's brothers would never have to take Tesserae," Katniss added. I decide to put the fates of Gale's family members for a later date – I want to focus on Katniss's story.
"So now we come to when you were getting ready for the Victory Tour. Show time was at noon," I say. "That day you had a ton of cash, and you went to the Hob, I think?"
"I did. And I bought three bottles of white liquor from a one-armed woman named Ripper, who had lost that arm in a mine accident, but somehow found a way to stay alive," Katniss says.
"What…or who…was the liquor for?" I ask.
"Haymitch," Katniss says. "By now, he was surly, violent, and drunk."
"He would really go nuts if there was no liquor available," Peeta says. "So we kept him pacified."
"I ran into our Head Peacekeeper while I was buying the liquor," Katniss says.
"Who was that," I ask. "I might know him."
"Cray. A hard drinker," Katniss responds.
I smile slightly. "One of my father's golfing buddies before the Rebellion. He was a pretty hard drinker himself," I say.
"Second only to Haymitch," Katniss snaps back. "And he had the nerve to tell me that I was buying too strong a drink. I told her my mother used it in medicine. He said it would kill anything." She shakes her head.
"Cray owed his promotions to loyalty, corruption, and obedience," I say. "He wasn't the toughest or smartest Peacekeeper around, but he was the kind of guy who would do what he was told with a fair amount of efficiency. There was nothing personal about his viciousness. It was just a job. Nothing between his ears."
Peeta nods. "Yeah, that sums him up."
"Then I met with my favorite Peacekeeper, Darius, who was in his 20s, who did not throw his weight around," Katniss says.
"I think he had a crush on you," Peeta says to Katniss.
"That wouldn't surprise me," Meredith says.
"Keep that off the transcript," I say to Archer.
Katniss chuckles. "He just said I should look better for the trip…wear a ribbon in my hair." She pauses. "Did you know him?"
"I'd have to ask my father, but I don't think so. They were ranks and generations apart," I say.
I go back to Katniss. "Looks like you were getting a lot of support and sympathy that day," I say.
"Everybody wanted to wish me well," she says.
"Then you did…what?" I continue.
"Went to Haymitch's place," she sighs. She found a house that stank of liquor, vomit, boiled cabbage, burned meat, rodent droppings, and urine. "I had to fill a basin with icy cold water and pour it on his head to wake him up."
"Then I arrived with freshly-baked bread to feed Haymitch, and instead find all this," Peeta says. He describes washing a filthy knife in the liquor and cutting slices of bread for Haymitch to eat.
"I didn't eat it," Katniss says.
"Did you say so?" Archer asks, curious.
She looks at him steadily. "All our conversations were formal after the cameras stopped," Katniss answers.
Cold as ice, I think.
"We had Haymitch take a bath, and then we both went out," Peeta says. "To our separate homes. It was snowing. I won't forget that."
"I came home to find my mother annoyed that my snow and mud-covered shoes were messy and might mess up the floors she had cleaned," Katniss says. "Then I saw this man behind her in tailored suit and surgically perfected features. He had to be from the Capitol."
"I thought they wouldn't be there until noon. At first, I thought Cinna and the prep team were there to get me ready. Or it was more instructions for the tour, you know, how to wave my arms properly or something like that. What to say."
"Seems logical," I say.
"But my mother looked so pale, and a man in a suit didn't seem right," Katniss says. "So I looked at the Capitol man, and he said three words. 'Go right in.' He meant the living room. So I went right in. You'll never believe who was sitting in our best chair."
Long silence in the room. We're having a lot of those, I think. Well, one woe doth tread upon another's heel, so quickly do they follow.
"Who was sitting in your best chair?" I finally ask.
"President Coriolanus Snow," Katniss answers, trying to stay calm. However, I can see her shudder.
"You're right," Archer says. "I don't believe it."