Chapter 9
A rain of tears

Part two

The steady sound of the sewing machine filled the kitchen. Soup cooked gently on the stove and it was one of those rare peaceful moments in the Abernathy household. Helena steered the textile under the needle and her large stomach pressed out her own dress as she worked.

A content little humming came from under the table behind her. The fresh table cloth reached almost all the way down to the floor and the fabric flickered when a child's foot poked out before it quickly drew back in again.

Helena lifted her gaze when a shadow moved outside the window and she saw her husband as he bent over the rain barrel. He did so every day when he got home from work, ever since Haymitch was born. Washed off the worst, put on some fresh clothes so he could spend more time with his son.

"Where's my boy?" Dom asked the moment he opened the door and Haymitch scrambled out so fast he nearly pulled with him his mother's neatly set table.

"Here!" Haymitch shrieked and threw himself into his father's embrace. They laughed like maniacs, both of them as Dom swung him around in his arms. Helena didn't even turn her head. Almost five years had gotten her used to her two boys and the racket they were making.

"Again!" Haymitch shouted and Dom swung him around over and over until his own chuckles deteriorated into a fit of coughing. He put Haymitch down and the boy tumbled over, dizzy and giggling. Dom pressed his hankie against his mouth trying to stifle the coughs. Haymitch pulled himself up, grinning and tugging at his father's shirt tail.

"Again!"

Dom waved him off good-naturedly.

"'nother time, kid. Pull me… pull me a chair, will you, Haymitch?"

He did so and Dom slumped down on it, panting and wheezing. But he wiped his mouth with the hankie and smiled at Haymitch when the boy crawled up on his lap. Dom ruffled his hair and Haymitch had already begun searching through his pockets.

This was a common game in the Abernathy household and it didn't take Haymitch long to find what he was looking for.

"That's for you," Dom said. Haymitch held the round smooth gray stone on his palm. It glittered in the afternoon light. He stroked it against his cheek.

They were his most beloved treasures. His father had given him one every other day since he turned three. At night Haymitch kept them in a box by the kitchen sofa since his mother didn't want him to have them with him in bed.

It was grandpa Harold who built it. Each night pa lifted the wooden seat off the kitchen sofa revealing the soft beddings underneath. Before they tucked him in and turned the lights off, both he and ma sat with him for a while. Haymitch would then hold on to his father's large hand and talk nonstop. About what they would do on Sunday, about his little brother or sister. And school. Most of all school.

It was still a few months to go. Helena wanted to make him something new for his first day. Something else than his usual clothes made from Dom's hand-me-downs. A new shirt, a pair of trousers. Haymitch would get to choose the colors.

If they could save up enough money until then.

Haymitch always woke before anyone else in the family. But one sunny summer morning when breakfast was already on the table Haymitch burrowed down into his pillow and didn't want to get up. And it didn't take Helena long to find the first pox on his skin.

Dom moved out into the kitchen and their son was installed in their bed. The two of them had already had chicken pox but Haymitch had no fun days to come. Red spots covered him from head to toe and he whimpered and cried and kicked around the bed sheets when his mother wouldn't let him scratch. Greasy Sae came with a salve from the apothecary and Haymitch spend most of his days sticky and miserable, clutching his mother, disgruntled that her large stomach was so much in the way.

Seven days in though, the spots had scabbed over and Haymitch was almost back to normal. A little subdued maybe. By then Helena badly needed to make a visit to the Thornleys in town. The best would have been to leave Haymitch on the bed contentedly and with a book but with Sae not home and with no one else to look after him there was nothing else to do but get the boy dressed and bring him.

The market day was in full swing. Haymitch's pants pockets clinked with each step he took, filled as they were with some of his favorite rocks.

He hummed to himself and swung his free hand that wasn't holding ma's but when they reached the Thornley's door and he realized where they were going he resisted, just like Helena knew he would.

"Not dagon lady!"

"Don't call her that, Haymitch. She's not a dragon lady. And it won't take long." But Haymitch put his heels in and shook his head, as stubbornly as only Haymitch could be.

"No, no, no!"

Helena swallowed a sigh.

"Alright," she said. Market stalls had been put up all around the square and in the middle a group of children played, jumping rope and playing clap games. "Then you'll stay here with the other children where I can see you."

"Mm," said Haymitch and Helena let him loose, crossing her fingers he'd behave.

"I expected you here three days ago," Ruth said when she opened the door. Her daughter peered out behind her skirt. They were very alike Gertie and her mother. Same brown hair, snubbed noses and spotty skin.

Gertie eyed the sewing basket suspiciously. She hated it when Helena arrived since the clothes she made were usually for her. Sometimes she had fits of rage and threw herself on the floor kicking and screaming and boxing herself with her fists.

"Haymitch had the chicken pox," Helena said. "He's not contagious," she added but the woman had already ushered her daughter inside.

"I shouldn't have to wait," Ruth said. "Just because the Seam are spreading around diseases I shouldn't have to…"

Helena listened with very measured features. It was always the same. A rant always followed when she knocked on Thornley's door, about one thing or the other. "I'm so sick of those brats from the Seam!" was her favorite subject. That Helena might take offence didn't even seem to have crossed her mind.

But she was the only regular customer Helena could count on besides the Undersee's. And afterwards she could be almost mild. Helena got a feeling Ruth needed someone to talk to, even if it was just to pour out all of her bitterness. She was divorced. And to be devorced was all but unheard of in Twelve. Maybe that's why she was so angry all the time.

They kept to themselves, Ruth and Gertie, but she liked the baker and his wife, or at least approved of them because Helena saw them often enough in the bakery. Not a surprise really. Kinder people than the Mellark's were hard to come by. And their goods were first class.

Gertie always stood close to the door then, in her brand-new dress and nibbled on the tip of her thumb, not quite sucking on it and when Mrs. Mellark saw it she always told her son to go and say hi to her.

Graham was just two years older than Haymitch but he'd always been big for his age. He never talked much but he was a kind soul, just like his parents. He trudged over to Gertie when his mother told him to. And then the pair of them stood there next to each other, until Ruth was done with her purchases.

They agreed on a new time to take the measurements and bid each other good morning. Helena shifted her weight to her other foot, rubbing her hand against her back. But she hadn't more than turned from Ruth's house when she heard a loud shriek. A shriek she recognized.

On the ground in a cloud of dust, Haymitch rolled around with one of the other children. Both he and the girl screamed and hit each other everywhere they could. The other children, frightened and alarmed stood around them and one girl cried with her hand pressed to her face.

Just when Helena and another running woman reach their children the girl with flying blonde hair pressed Haymitch into the dirt. She sat on him and both of them hit their fists on the other wherever they could.

"Maysilee!" Mrs Donner pulled the girl up just when Helena pulled her son up. They still tried to kick each other and she kept him away from Maysilee. They were covered in dirt and grazes. And the other girl, the sister, cried more than ever.

"What is this, Haymitch!?"

"She took my rock!" Haymitch yelled and angry tears ran down his pox covered face.

"I didn't!" Maysilee pushed her long blonde hair from her eyes and mouth furiously, her face all red. "I just looked at it!"

"Mine! Mine!" Haymitch stomped his foot on the ground. "Stoopid!"

"Haymitch, that's enough of that," Helena said and Haymitch silenced but he rubbed his wet cheeks angrily, making them even dirtier.

Helena and Mrs Donner pulled their children towards the sweetshop. Haymitch, Maysilee and Leonore who sobbed uncontrollably, holding on to her mother's hand.

In the apartment above they washed off their fighters. Haymitch glared at Maysilee who glared right back while their mother's put band aids on elbows and knees. Leonore, seeing her sister wasn't in any immediate danger had stopped crying. She watched Haymitch curiously.

"Hi," she said.

"Hm," said Haymitch but after a look from his mother he muttered,

"Hello."

"I have a birdie, Maysilee have a birdie too."

"Why don't you show him Pip and Flip," their mother said. Leonore nodded eagerly and took her sister's hand.

Haymitch watched them disappear into the next room. His face was still dark but the curiosity won over and he followed them.

Mrs. Donner pulled out a chair for Helena and set the kettle to boil. The canaries sang and twittered in the next room and they heard their children's voices and most of all Leonore when she eagerly presented the birds.

"They grow up so fast," Mrs. Donner said when she poured tea into their cups. Her long hair was tied back in a bun. Helena remembered her at school, always smiling always surrounded by a group of friends. It was her father's sweetshop and she had never been short on suitors before she became Mrs Donner.

"They're around the same age, aren't they?"

"He'll start school in September," Helena said.

"The girls too." She blew on her tea and took a sip. "I've been meaning to talk to you. Mrs. Undersee told me what excellent work you did on Ollie's school clothes…"

xXx

And as sunny as anyone could ever wish for, the first day arrived. For Haymitch, for Maysilee and Leonore and all the other five year olds. Haymitch came to school washed and combed and dressed in a sky blue shirt.

Pa was in the mines and ma had to be home with his two day old brother. But grandpa Harold was there. He and all the other parents and relatives lined the walls. Haymitch was shown into a bench just behind the Donner girls and when the boy sought him out his grandfather gave him a hint of a wink and Haymitch smiled, a little less nervous.

"You're growing like weed, Haymitch," pa said when they were all seated at the dinner table. Ma and pa and Haymitch and grandpa Harold. And baby Amadeus. Haymitch carried out the moses basket for ma to put him in so he wouldn't feel left out.

"Soon you're gonna want to borrow my shaving kit, won't you?" Dom said and Haymitch grinned, mouth full of stew.

"I don't have a beard!"

"You sure?" Dom said and reached out to feel his chin.

But before he could, a spasm of bone rattling coughs ripped through his body and he tipped the water jug over when he pressed his hand against his mouth. A sea of water flowed over the table before Helena could snatch it. Amadeus wailed, Haymitch patted him and tears tilted down Dom's bright red face. When he lowered the hankie to try and draw a breath it was covered in black mucus.

"You have to see the doctor," Helena said. That was when they were in bed and both the boys were sleeping.

"Helena…"

"That's what he's here for," she said. "It's his job to take care of the coal miners."

"You know what'd happen. He'll just say I'm not fit to work."

"You can't go on like this!" she said, fighting to keep her voice down so she wouldn't wake the children.

"There're four of us now."

"We'll talk to pa. Maybe the woodshop …"

"They haven't had an apprentice in almost six years now. You think the master's gonna want a 30 year old hand-me-down coal miner?"

Amadeus whimpered in his crib and Helena pulled the covers from the bed. She didn't look at Dom.

"Don't worry about me, Len," he said when she put the baby to her chest and the whimpers stopped. "I'll be fine."

He watched her back as she fed their child and even though neither of them said it they were both thinking it.

Dom would be fine, because he had to be.

to be continued…

Author's note: I'm really enjoying writing this timeline and a tiny happy clueless Haymitch with his family still alive.

I hope you enjoyed reading. What did you think? Did you recognize all the canon characters? Remember reviews are love and always appreciated and it really help me to update faster. :)