Kaldur'ahm. Why? Why him? Of all people why did it have to be him? My fearful thoughts turned to this, all the while Kaldur'ahm walked up to the stage, which seemed to take an eternity.
Everyone in District Twelve knew about Kaldur'ahm, and if they didn't, it was because they were either dead or unborn when he first got here.
I say got here as in he was not born in District Twelve. Kaldur'ahm and his parents came to our District a little over seven years ago from District Four, the fishing district. Normally someone moving from one district to another is no big deal.
But when someone from an upper district moves to a lower district, especially Twelve, it was usually because they didn't have a choice. Or their right mind.
And if this didn't get Kaldur'ahm attention, his good looks definitely did. His skin was a milk chocolate, his eyes were light green, his hair was white blonde and close-cropped to his head, and, for reasons unknown in District Twelve, dark tattoos snaking down his arms, like a lot of the people from District Four. If I actually bothered to pay attention to boys, this might be the reason why Kaldur'ahm stuck out in my mind.
I know I wish it was.
Five years earlier, in the dead of winter in the district, the hunting and gathering hadn't gone so great. Mostly because there wasn't anything worth hunting or gathering alive or wandering about the Meadow in winter.
Jade and I were starving, Jade even more so because she insisted I eat what little we did have, taking only the smallest portions for herself. We were walking skeletons, our bones all but cutting through our skin, a little more of our strength leaving us each day.
I knew of Kaldur'ahm around school, but I had never actually spoken to him. To tell the truth I rarely bother to speak to anyone who doesn't know what it feels like to go to bed hungry, though Bette is one of the few exceptions. To me he was just the strange, quiet, new (in the mind of everyone, even now Kaldur'ahm and his family were considered new to District Twelve) boy whose mother and father opened a bakery when they arrived and sometimes traded squirrels or other meats with Jade and I.
On a certain day (I've made it a point not to remember exactly), I was walking home through the snow from school. All that day I had nodded off in my classes. Everyone knew what this meant. The teacher let me stay inside while the others ran out for lunch and recess. Dick and his brothers Jason, Tim, and Damian had all managed to slip half of their lunches into my desk (I still don't see how they possibly could have). They slipped them in and ran out so I couldn't refuse them, as I did with Bette when she came in to offer half of hers.
Even with that bit of food I was weak. I was fighting against the snow drifts, feeling the cold seep in through my ragged winter coat. Finally, I sat down at the base of a withered half-dead tree, thinking I could rest for a bit.
When I opened my eyes again, it was almost dark, and I was cold all the way through, half buried in snow. I vaguely regsitered that there were lights in the distance. And I could not have cared anyless. I thought, I hope if anyone sees my body they'll know to take it to Jade. And then I heard it. A soft, thump thump sound that a normal person might have missed. The sound of something soft hitting the snow.
I looked up and I saw it. Or rather them. Two loaves of bread sitting in the snow.
I'm a little more alert now, looking around for something, someone, anyone. And I see him alright. Kaldur'ahm, standing on his porch. Apparently I'm just outside the bakery, above which Kaldur'ahm and his parents live.
He locked eyes with me for just a few moments before he turned around and went back inside. I thought about running after him, thought about pounding on the door until he opened it and throwing the bread at him, telling him we don't need any help.
In District Twelve, nothing is ever free, whatever anyone might say. Don't take anything free because you will be expected to pay it back. Someday, somehow, my father's words swirl around in my brain. He drilled that into us, his daughters, as hard as he could without actually beating it into us, knowing the kind of "favors" that could be asked for from young, beautiful women.
But it smells so good, I think. Surely this little act wouldn't merit any favor, and if it does it can't be a very big one.
Jade was so relieved to see me by the time I got home that she believed me right off when I told her that I stole the bread. If she had learned about Kaldur'ahm's charity she would have returned it herself.
All of this is swimming through my head by the time Kaldur'ahm walks up to the stage. Queen Bee told us, "Shake hands now." His hands were solid and warm. I was expecting them to be much softer. His eyes were warm too, very warm, to the point that I had to look away.
I can't do this I thought. I can't just kill this boy. Then I remembered, Hey there will be twenty four of us. You might not have to.
Of course it's not like my chances at anything have been so hot lately.
See that lonely box down there? Fill it up with reviews to give it some company.