If Music Be The Food of Love, Play On {Shrimp}

The Hob was a place that – despite her feeling of hostility toward it – Ness was forced to visit often. It was unclean and constantly full of people from all walks of life, the majority of them dirty, and not ones that she wished to associate with if possible. So many, it seemed, knew of her and her mother’s condition, and how it had remained a constant factor for nearly a decade now, and would pose many a question. Had she shown signs of improving? Did her family need any help? Was Mrs. Stykes, still in fact, living? Although Ness knew perfectly well that the people of District Twelve meant well with their constant badgering, but each person that approached her, each question, it torn her apart.

For nine years, nine years she had worked, tirelessly, sometimes alone, and sometimes with the assistance of her sisters, to try and find a cure for what constantly plagued their mother, slowly sucking the life from every fibre of her being until she was left broken, and in no way the strong independent women Ness had to fight to remember. Hoping to regain that memory was the one thing that kept her going.

When the final reaping had passed, and she was set free from the constantly overhanging threat of the Hunger Games, Ness had known instantly that if they wanted to find their mother a cure, the meager coal miner's salary that their father brought in would not be enough. She she would need to begin working as well, in the only way she knew how.

Slowly, people had begun to hear that she was taking in the injured and the sick as patients, and eventually, Ness had developed a small circle of regular visitors. Although she never once asked for money, there were always the kindly few who, seeing the condition that Mrs. Stykes was in, would hand over a few coins, or a loaf of bread without a word, and it was with that money, Ness would visit the Hob.

Today, she had dragged Hilde along, so that perhaps they could divide the tasks and cut in half the time that was required to spend here. Hilde would purchase them some meat, while she would inquire about their mother’s medicine, shipped in from illegally from District Two. Ness had figured the entire outing would take no more than a half hour, and once she had secured the medication, it seemed as though it would be shorter still, if Hilde purchased the meat in a timely fashion.

However.

What Ness had never once counted on was a distraction. As she stood near the Hob’s entrance, clutching the package to her chest, the most beautiful sound suddenly cut through all the background noise of the people conversing, going about her business. Furrowing her brow, Ness concentrated, trying to pick out where it was, and more important, what it was that was making the sound. For several minutes, it continued on, and a deep sense of desperation embedded itself in Nessalyn’s chest. What was that? It was so beautiful, and so unlike anything she had ever heard before, that she had to find it.

Setting her jaw in determination, Ness pushed through the crowd, scanning it for the sound. When she passed a rather perplexed Hilde, headed in the opposite direction, she gestured for her to follow. “Ness!” she called, “Ness, where are you going?”

But Nessalyn was on a mission; one that could not be halted even to answer a simple question.

After what seemed an eternity of searching, however, all the pieces fell together. In one corner of the Hob, there was a boy, or a man, really, perhaps her age, playing some sort of...instrument. Ness had seen a picture of it once, somewhere, but could not for the life of her recall its name, nor if she had ever actually heard one before.

“Ness!”

Thoughts jolted again by Hilde’s voice, Ness turned, irritated. “What, Hilde?"

“What the hell are you doing? We have to go.”

“Yes, uh...yes, I know. Just...just one minute." Absolutely mesmerized by the music this boy was playing, Ness began moving toward him until she stood, still holding her paper bag, at a close enough distance so that words could be exchanged, and finally, when he paused, Ness exhaled, saying softly,

“Oh, you play beautifully."