Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.
Mothers
A/N: Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mother, even though she'll never read this and has no idea what I do on my computer. She's still the best.
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Gale catches a lightening bug between his hands. He opens his little fists just enough to peek in at it, sees it glowing in the dark confines of his hands before running back to his mother sitting on the rickety front porch.
"Look," he holds it out to her, opening his fingers enough for her to see it resting in his palms. It's enormous.
Rory immediately tries to eat it and it flies away.
"Bad Rory," Gale scolds him.
His mother sigh, "Gale, he's only a baby. He doesn't know any better."
Rory certainly knows he likes the floating, glowing light. He laughs and claps as it escapes its captors, up into the sky above their head.
He's been teething, taking up more of his and Gale's mother's time. Gale just wants a moment with her, like they'd had before the baby came along.
Flopping down in frustration at his lost bug, and his increasingly small time with his mother, Gale leans into her. "When dad comes home can he hold Rory so you can help me catch bugs for my jar?"
She shifts Rory, who has started chewing his fist, and gives Gale a kiss in his hair. "Don't you want dad to help you?"
Normally he would, but catching lightening bugs has always been something he and his mother did. This was his first jar of the year. The glowing bugs had only just reemerged, so he at least wants to capture them with her this time. His dad can do it next time.
"No," Gale juts his lower lip out. "I want you."
She chuckles, "Well with a face like that, how can I say no?"
Gale almost sticks his tongue out at Rory, but his luck the brat would probably reach out and grab it.
Settling in by his mother, Gale picks up his jar and waits, a little less than patiently, squirming every few minutes. He squints into the distance and listens for the booming laughter that accompanies the returning miners.
When his dad gets home, Gale will have his mother all to himself. At least for a few minutes. Maybe they'll be able to catch the giant lightening bug again.
Rory might have gotten the lion's share of the day with their mother, but Gale thinks there's still hope for a good end to the day.
As long as his dad holds the baby and doesn't feed him the bugs.
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Madge sits on her porch, wiggles her legs out in front of her as she and her mother watch the lightening bugs burn in and out of existence in the yard.
"They're like lanterns, aren't they, love?" Her mother smiles out at the dancing lights in the dark.
She's had a good day, been out of bed and downstairs with Madge since before noon. No headaches, no fits of tears, she'd even managed to take Madge to Poppa's candy shop without getting lost.
It's been a good day.
Madge nods, smiles up at her mother. She wishes everyday could go this well for them. Tomorrow, though, Madge knows isn't guaranteed to be this uneventful, so she leans into her mother's side and tries to enjoy this rare moment without worrying about the bad day that the next sunrise will surely bring.
"I can catch you one," her mother tells her suddenly.
"No, momma, I don' wanna hur' them." Madge quickly shakes her head, feels her ponytail slowly dissolve with the force.
Her mother just smiles, stands and takes a few delicate steps into the soft grass. She reaches out and cups her hands, one of the small flickering lights floats right in and she closes her hands around it, brings it down to her face to inspect.
Curious and worried, Madge runs out to her, begins chewing her lip when her mother lowers her cupped hands down and opens them.
The lightening bug is the biggest Madge has ever seen. It stays resting in her mother's palms for a few seconds before realizing it's being freed. It flies off, up past Madge's smiling face, into the increasingly dark night sky.
Her mother laughs, tells Madge to wave goodbye to it.
"He'll visit us again," she sighs.
Madge doubts that. Small things have very short lives, her father had taught her that. Her mother's bug will be dead before it can ever visit them again.
Instead of telling her mother about the life cycles of bugs, their short lives and nonexistent manners as far as visits go; Madge just wraps her arms around her mother's legs and gives them a tight squeeze.
She may not get another good day, but she's still going to enjoy this one.
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Gale collapses next to Madge and watches as Glen puts another lightening bug in his jar. It's been a good day, but a long one and Madge hears him groan next to her, pops his neck.
She wishes she could go out and play with Glen like she had. As soon as the baby is born, Madge thinks, she'll be back out in the yard with her son.
Madge rubs her belly and grimaces. "I think she wants to get out to play with her brother. She keeps kicking me in the ribs."
"Maybe she wants to eat them," Gale offers. "That's what Rory use to do."
Her face pulls back in a grimace, then she starts laughing. "That explains a lot about him."
Clearly her husband had let his brother ingest too much of whatever makes the bugs glow and it had poisoned his brain.
Before they can discuss ways to keep their second child from following in Uncle Rory's bug eating footsteps, Glen bounces over, roughly shaking his glowing jar at them.
"Look!"
Madge bites her lip and hopes they haven't all been jiggled to death. "Glen, honey, don't shake them. You'll hurt them."
His face falls and he holds the jar up and squints in. "I'm sorry bugs."
Taking the jar from him, Gale smiles. Each and every bug is still flickering on and off apparently.
"I think they survived, but be careful with them," he tells Glen as he hands the glowing jar back.
Glen settles in between them, starts counting the softly glowing lights in his jar and telling Madge's stomach about what each of his new 'pets' is doing.
She combs her fingers through his dark hair, he's got a little grass stuck in it, and smiles as she listens to his colorful tales of what each of his bugs is named and what each of them wants to tell the new baby.
Slowly, his chatter fades, is replaced by the soft noises of sleep.
Madge watches as Gale carefully picks him up. Then she lifts her arms, wiggles her fingers at him. "Help."
He grins. "Completely helpless without me, aren't you?"
She shoots him her sternest glare. "Just wait until I'm not pregnant anymore."
Gale chuckles, pulls her to her slightly swollen feet, and gives her a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm terrified."
He had better be.
As soon as the baby is born she'll catch lightening bugs with her son and then get her teasing husband back.
And that will be a very good day.