Chapter 32: Rue's confirmation

[March/April2374AD – POV Timotheus Mellark]

After celebrating the Easter holidays on and around the Evergreen Farm, Rue had asked for spending a few quiet days just with me somewhere else, before her 'Konfirmation' on the following weekend was coming up, and I had managed to organize a trip into the mountains. A ranger helicraft flight had dropped us close to the camp where I had been about a year ago when I had first met Rue. The girl much appreciated getting this opportunity, which was kind of a 'memory hike'; we had spent a couple of days there, allowing Rue to relax, just with me and Rex. We had taken our time and arrived at the farm again on Saturday, just in time for lunch.

Getting back on Saturday noon was, according to Mrs. Jones, barely in time to get Rue properly prepared for the next day. However, the little girl was now in a good and relaxed mood, and she should be able to cope with the crowds of people she'd be in on her big day. Naturally, we had planned and prepared the celebration after the church service in a way to give her some space, and similar to the last birthday parties, the big barn had been set up for lunch later on, with a separate table on a small stage for Rue and only her very closest relatives and friends, specifically her grandparents, Ruth and me.

The church service on Sunday morning at 10:00 was a very big and festive one. A group of about a dozen children at the age of fourteen were going to be blessed together in the local church of Kirchheim. There had actually been a vote on that, and most parents had opted for having that special celebration done in German. The Lutheran denomination had, of course, started with Dr. Martin Luther in the 16th century, and running services in German language from time to time had become a tradition here, almost like the Catholic denomination, which had much fewer followers in Panem, had run masses in Latin for a long time. Almost all of the kids were reasonably fluent and had chosen German as first foreign language at school, too, except for Rue. In the area of District Eleven, where she came from, there was a significant community of Spanish speaking immigrants from South America and some other districts where this language was important, and consequently she had selected Spanish as her first foreign language. However, since she had been with her grandparents and had learned about the local ways, she had started to learn German as well, and she had also started to take lessons at her new school. Rue, being the very smart girl she was, picked it up quickly, and all of us Mellarks helped her with learning the language, too; at least in most of the eastern part of Panem, German was the common first foreign language to learn, primarily because the BARBÖ was by far our most important trade partner. Some Southern American countries were closer to us, but we actually had much less trade and contacts with them. Central America had become mostly uninhabitable after the climatic apocalypse, not only due to the rise of sea level, but also caused by excessively high temperatures; former countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, or Panama had ceased to exists as such.

The church was filled to the last seat, mostly by relatives and friends, but there were also some local citizens who just wanted to watch. Fortunately, the group of adolescents who were in the focus today had a separate seating area, and thus Rue did not have to feel too crowded. Prior to the sermon, Rue was getting baptized. Whereas all of the other young people to receive confirmation later had already been baptized as babies or toddlers, as was custom for Lutherans, Rue had grown up in a family without a specific religious belief and thus had not been baptized before; my sister Primrose was introduced to being her godmother, although getting a godmother was optional at this time. When Rue stood in front of the altar and started to get down on her knees, there was some murmuring in the church, and I could hear some people calling her cute and such. Indeed, Grandma Jones and my sister Primrose, who had offered to help, had outdone themselves, and Rue's hair was done in a very special way, covering her long ears. Together with her fine white dress she looked like an angel, and I felt my heart beating faster when Pastor Helmut – he had come over from Germany as a boy and kept his very German first name – used some drops of water to baptize Rue in the name of God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This little girl had an effect on me I failed to clearly understand, but I loved her like my sisters, and on this very special day I was so very proud of her.

After a few songs and the sermon each adolescent was called to the altar one after another, and the pastor said a few words and gave them individual blessings. Once again Rue stood out from the others; almost everybody else was at least one head taller then she was, and she kind of looked out of place, like she'd better be in elementary school than here. However, that did not matter, and of course almost everybody in the town knew about here and her real age. At the end of the service the pastor gave the final blessing to the community with the traditional words from the book Numeri (Numbers), chapter 6, verses 24-26:

"Der HERR segne dich und behüte dich; der HERR lasse sein Angesicht leuchten über dir und sei dir gnädig; der HERR hebe sein Angesicht über dich und gebe dir Frieden."

The blessing concluded the service, and with accompanied by music from the organ, the pastor slowly walked the center aisle to the backdoor, with the young confirmands following him, in rows of two side by side. I was having the aisle seat, and when Rue was about to pass me and looking at me for a moment, I noticed that an adolescent boy who was just one row in front of me stuck his leg out, and less than a second later Rue tripped. She would have been down on the ground and maybe hurt herself on the hard stone floor if I had not reacted very quickly and caught her; rather than falling to the ground she fell right into my arms. She had not even noticed what had happened, and I was quick to release her again so that the small procession could continue. I was not sure how many people had observed the incident, but I could see that the adult man next to the boy who had tripped Rue smirked and seemed to approve; I did not like that, but I had to accept that there were probably some people at least who did not like Rue. I had heard rumors about a few people believing that a girl who looked like Rue could not be 'normal', whatever that implied, and that it was not all right to allow her into the church community. Fortunately, there were, as far as I knew, only very few people who openly shared this opinion, and Mr. Jones and I had talked to the pastor about that. There was not much we could do about it, though; this was a free country, and opinions could be shared and discussed openly.

The group of young people stood in a group now outside of the church building, under one of the large chestnut trees, and pictures were taken. This did not take long, and soon the boys and girls were free to go and meet their families and friends. Rue first rushed into her grandmother's arms, and I could see that she was trembling. We did not waste much time and walked to the parking area to get into our cars and drive to the farm; only once we had arrived there I asked Rue:

"Did you notice what had happened when you tripped?"

"No, not really; probably just the shoes I was wearing; I am not used to shoes with heels at all. I'd have preferred no heels at all, but Grandma insisted, although it was difficult enough to find shoes with even moderate heels in my size. I will probably never understand why some ladies actually seem to like wearing shoes with high heels. Anyway, I guess I was lucky that I tripped next to you."

"Oh, it wasn't she shoes; a boy put his foot in your way deliberately."

Rue's grandparents had not seen that, and they looked at me in astonishment. I confirmed that and described the boy, and Mr. Jones nodded:

"All right, yes, I understand. That's one of the Taylor family sons, and they have been among those few fighting against Rue being accepted into our church community."

"Taylor? Oh yes, Richard Taylor was in my confirmation group, and he made some remarks in this direction from time to time. There was not much what he could really do, as nobody else shared his opinion about me. But he is not a nice boy at all, and I always tried to keep my distance. Once or twice he wanted to threaten me or so, but I always had friends with me defending and protecting me."

"Yes, and the father tried to start a petition in the church council to banish Rue, but almost nobody in the council backed him on that."

"But why are they doing that?" I wanted to know. "What is their problem with Rue?"

"Son," Rue's grandfather replied, and I actually liked when he called me that, "some people are not tolerant at all and dislike everything and everybody who isn't like them. It's kind of racism, I believe, and they probably just dislike Rue because she is different."

"But, everybody is different in some way!"

"Sure, but few are so obviously different as Rue is, not only by color of skin."

"I thought that racism is a thing of the past only…"

"For almost everybody, yes, it is, and believe me, very few people agree to the Taylors' view, fortunately."

"Even in a society like ours, Mr. Mellark," Mrs. Jones chimed in, "there are always some people who like to cause trouble, and we can feel blessed that it's only very few, not like until the first half of the 20th century, when people with dark skin were discriminated against in general."

Oh yes, indeed, I had read about that time, and it had been part of history lessons at school; people like Martin Luther King had helped to finally get real equal rights for all people independent of skin color, after decades and even centuries of discrimination, not only on this continent.

Soon it was time to move to the barn, and the interior had been nicely prepared by the employees on the farm and by the caterers, the latter one of course sent by the Mellark bakery. As for the last birthday celebration, there was a small elevated platform for Rue and her closest family and friends, and only her grandparents, Ruth and I were up there. I actually felt a little bit out of place, as the celebration was about Rue and not me, but she insisted to have me right next to her, and when the buffet was opened, she asked me to bring food for her. I knew what kind of food she liked and gladly obliged, and I was back with a plate for me and one for her and we started to eat, I felt her hand moving over to me under the table a few times, searching for my hand and pressing it. Maybe she needed that to stay calm?

There was a lot of activity in the barn during noon and early afternoon, and everybody wanted to talk to Rue for a few minutes at least. Fortunately for Rue, most of the guests were classmates, and as the celebration was not also about Ruth, the number of guests was much smaller compared to the birthday party Ruth and Rue had had together last year and probably would have together again this year. However, there also some families from the town and some other farms, good friends of the Jones. Close to the end of the celebration I noticed that the girl looked a little bit uneasy, and Rue was probably getting to the limit of her abilities with so many people around, even with the separation of the platform. When the official part was over and most of the guests had left, Rue asked me if I wanted to go for a walk with her, and naturally I agreed. For some time we walked in silence, and eventually Rue came up with a topic she was apparently worried about:

"Timotheus, would you like to talk to me about my future a bit, please?"

"Your future? Of course, but what do you mean?"

"Well, you know that I am on track to graduate from high school mid of next year, same a Primrose, right?"

"Yes, I am aware of that. Actually, I have already started to wonder if you already have plans for your life after school."

"That's what I wanted to talk about. I have some ideas and dreams, but they are not really feasible, I am afraid."

"What kind of ideas and dreams?"

"I am not sure if I should talk about this, but I dream of finding a good university where I can really learn and do something useful. School is not bad at all, but just too basic and easy. I yearn for finding a task which challenges my mind, but that's not going to work out."

"And why not, Rue?"

"Tim, I have spoken with Primrose, as her aim is to go to Capitol University. If she continues to have top grades, she is likely to receive a scholarship, and besides, your family is rich enough to support her, too. But the main point is that Primrose is a self-reliant young lady, and she will easily cope in a foreign city without close family support. I might qualify for a scholarship, too, but with me being a minor, they will want to put me into some kind of supervised boarding school, sharing rooms with others, and this will just not work for me. I'd have anxiety attacks all of the time."

"Oh, good point. But I see – a minor will not be allowed to rent an apartment on her own, even if she had the money to do so."

"Yes, exactly. Above and beyond that, while I'd need a place of my own, I'd also go crazy if I did not have a dear person close to me, and there are not many options for that, not at all."

While saying that she looked directly at me, and I replied:

"No, I don't believe that your grandparents would want to move away from the farm to be with you and enable you to attend a top grade university somewhere else; that would not work for them at all. I could imagine that it might work if Ruth could go with you, but you'd still need an adult person."

Rue looked back at me and nodded, and I got the feeling that I had somehow misunderstood her, but she did not elaborate.

"So, at this time," Rue continued, "I may just bridge that time by doing something else, and attend university once I am not a minor any longer. Still, even then, the scholarship might not cover an own apartment."

"For that part, do not worry. I know that your grandparents are not rich people, but if you need some additional money for your studies, my family will cover that. My mother loves you like her own daughter, as you know."

"Thank you, and yes, that will help. Still, I will have to cover two years doing something else. In theory, I guess, I could do some studying on my own and stay here in the farm, which is a nice environment."

"Hm, let me think about that, too. Maybe there is a way out. If there was a way for you to attend university right after school, is there a specific one you'd favor? I mean, knowing you, I would not be surprised that you might be overqualified even for a normal university, like the local one in Appacolia."

"No, I have not really pondered that yet" Rue admitted. "I have not spent any time thinking about details while knowing that it will not work anyway."

I did have something in my mind I was not quite ready to talk about yet. Based on the conversation we had just had, though, I decided that I needed to pick up on that. I knew very well that Rue was not just smart, but highly intelligent, and her grandparents had shared some of the school reports with me. She probably deserved to get into one of the country's top universities, and according to my knowledge, the top ones in Panem were the Capitol University and the one in District Sixteen; another option would be the one in München in the BARBÖ, but that would be even further away from home.

[Author's Notes: In the Lutheran church, 'Konfirmation' is a big event, indeed. I also assume that, even in an almost ideal society, variations of racism will always be there, albeit on a very limited scale.]