WHY CRESSIDA TURNED REBEL
Chapter 4 Andromeda's Story
As the last sight of District 10 passed, Andromeda started crying and, clearly embarrassed by her tears, asked where she could be alone. Cressida showed her to her bedroom, and tried to distract her up by pointing out the luxuries. But Andromeda just buried her face in the bedcovers, and Cressida eventually gave up and went out. She found a spot in the video car where she could watch the girl's door and avoid Sam and Bunyan, both of whom got on her nerves. She was pleased to find to find that one of her earlier documentaries on a past Hunger Game was among the recordings available.
After several hours, however, Cressida was getting frustrated by the girl's self-isolation. Her bedroom had its own bathroom, so that she would not have to leave to relieve herself, but surely she would be getting hungry. Would it be proper for an escort to barge in on the girl? She didn't know; she wasn't a real escort but a substitute.
She finally ordered attendants to prepare two trays of food, and knocked on the door. "Andromeda? I've brought you something to eat. And we need to talk."
"Come in if you must," came the answer.
She opened the door. Andromeda was lying on the bed, in the same clothes she wore in the reaping ceremony, staring at the ceiling of the train car. Cressida had the attendants put the trays on the bed and depart.
"Please eat, Andromeda," urged Cressida. She was puzzled; she had heard that people in the Districts were underfed, both in quantity and quality of the food. But the food was tempting the girl. "You have to build up your strength, for the Games."
"What difference does it make? I'm not going to win."
"You CAN win, if we prepare properly. Do you know about sponsors?" Cressida asked.
"Yes. I saw the games where the sponsors sent a trident to Finnick Odair."
"I'm looking for a way for you to impress the sponsors. When I find it, I'll tell Caesar Flickermann, and he'll be sure to bring it up during the interview. But to do all that, I have to know more about you."
Andromeda shrugged, as if dubious that the idea would work. But she did sit up and start picking at her food, and Cressida finally felt free to start on her own meal. "What do you want to know?" the girl asked laconically.
"Everything. For example, why did your parents name you Andromeda?"
"I don't know; maybe they just liked the sound. Does it mean something to you?"
"There's an old story about a girl named Andromeda." Cressida had once studied records of Greek mythology, looking for ideas for future arenas. Plutarch was intrigued by one idea, about wandering in a Labyrinth, but many of the other stories stuck in Cressida's head. "Her parents had offended the gods – "
"Gods?"
"Um, powerful people who lived before the Dark Days. As punishment, the gods ordered the parents to sacrifice Andromeda to a sea monster."
"Did they?"
"Well, they tried. But a hero named Perseus saw her, chained naked to a rock at the seaside, and rescued her."
"Sounds like the Hunger Games. Punishing a girl for something a previous generation did. But I don't think a hero is going to come rescue me, naked or not. More likely to kill me in hopes of winning the Games."
That gave Cressida a start. It hadn't occurred to her that the fairy tale had any contemporary relevance. "It's NOT like the Hunger Games. Andromeda was helpless until Perseus came along. Whereas you have a chance to win, becoming rich and famous."
"I don't think the odds are in my favor."
Cressida tried to get the conversation back on track, asking for a chronological story of her life.
Andromeda was the daughter, an only child, of two workers at the official District Ranch. The parents were killed when she was four, trampled by racing cattle in a phenomenon which Andromeda called a STAMPEDE. She was placed in the "District Home" for a couple of years, but at the age of six was sent to do some chores in the Ranch, starting with feeding the animals.
As she spoke, Andromeda started to get bogged down in the minutia of life at the Home and the Ranch, stuff that would be meaningless to the Capitol. So Cressida changed tactics and asked for the low point and high point of her life so far.
The low point was an incident when she was twelve, and was being trained to herd calves. She and another tried to aim for the same calf. Andromeda was thrown from her horse and fell against a post of the corral, breaking several ribs. But the Ranch considered it a pure accident, thought Andromeda was a potentially valuable cowgirl, and paid for her recuperation in the Ranch's infirmary. Andromeda didn't say what would have happened to her if she had gotten blamed for the accident.
The high point was the incident Bunyan had already read about – the award of her own personal horse. It obviously meant a lot to her, but Cressida knew that it would mean nothing to the Capitol audience, and was starting to get discouraged at this interview. So was Andromeda, for a different reason.
"I thought if I did everything right, I'd be OK. But no, I've been reaped for the Hunger Games. I'm gonna die."
"You're not going to die! Think positive."
Maybe asking her to sum up her life had been a bad idea. Cressida changed the subject. She went around the room, pointing out the luxuries. Changes of clothes. The shower with all the options.
"For the next few days, you'll live in luxury. Not only better than the Districts, but better than most people in the Capitol."
Andromeda looked glum. "I suppose Sam really had the right idea. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we will die.
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She met Bunyan again in the records room. He was watching some old Hunger Game on the tapes, but did not seem overwhelmingly interested.
"Can I ask a question?" ventured Cressida.
"What is it?"
"Why do the two kids seem so well-fed? Not on luxury food, of course, but they're not hungry either."
He switched off the tape. "Subsistence. You don't feed somebody so little that they can't do their work. But the style of work varies from District to District. The biggest employer in District 10 is the Ranch, and it requires more brute strength than operating a machine in a District 8 factory or picking fruit in District 11. So the food allowance is higher. Brute strength is about the only advantage we have in the Games."
"How did your discussion with Sam go?"
"Basically I convinced them that his skill with fighting may help him win, IF he follows good advice otherwise. I think he'll be cooperative. Surly but cooperative. I think we can spin his aggression as a positive thing in a fight, and maybe even impress some sponsors. What about your girl?"
"She's convinced that she's going to lose. And I still haven't found a spin."
A thought seemed to strike Bunyan. "Her records say that she works at the Ranch and was rewarded for good work there. Does she know how to use a lasso?"
"A what?"
Bunyan rolled up his eyes. "Didn't you learn anything about the District's specialty before coming out here? A lasso is a way of roping something at a distance. If she can lasso an animal, then she can lasso a human being in the games, if she has rope. Particularly if the other tributes knows as little about it as you do."
Cressida ignored his contempt; she was too excited by sudden hope. The power of the emotion made her realize that she wanted Andromeda to be the victor, and not just out of professional pride as her escort. She wanted the girl to survive the Games.
TO BE CONTINUED