everybody's watching [ semper ]

I need to take Red wherever I go (when I don’t have JR with me, that is) but taking her to the District Square isn’t the best idea. My hand clutches tightly to the only thing that connects me to her: a thin weathered rope. She’s pulling against it and I know she’s trying to get at the shop windows. I trace my fingertips along the brick walls, both feeling the texture and using the structure as a way for me to know where I am. I feel the rope go slack so I stop where I am, knowing that Red has found a window to her liking.

All around me I hear the typical sounds of the District Square: yelling, cows mooing, horses neighing, chickens squawking – basically everything that I’ve ever known to be District Ten. I take a deep breath and smell the dusty air, finding in it a familiar scent. My parents own livestock and though I’ve never actually seen them, I can tell the breeds apart by scent. Cows have a much gnarlier scent than horses do; it’s one of those things that just makes your nose scrunch up and then the gnats. Oh, those damn little bugs that always manage to fly into my face and up my nose or in my mouth or ears. I hate them. I’ve heard them called “no see ‘ums” and JR has told me that they’re nearly invisible because they’re so small. When he told me that I couldn’t help but just laugh a little. To me, everything is a “no see ‘um,” and here the “normal” people are freaking out over just one thing they can’t see.

The rope goes taut again and I follow where Red is pulling me to, still keeping my other hand on the wall beside me. My fingertips slide across the smooth, cool surface of glass and I suspect it is the window that caught Red’s attention. All I can wonder is what’s behind it. Maybe food? No, I can’t smell dough or anything sugary. Perhaps someone was behind the window? That could be it.

The rope in my hand suddenly goes taut and I find myself being dragged forward; Red lets out a little yip and then she lurches, causing the rope to jerk from my hand. Oh great. I hear her paws striking the dirt as she takes off and I come to a complete halt in the middle of the District Square, suddenly very terrified.

I don’t know where she’s gone off to; I don’t know where I am in relation to anything in the Square; I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. I bite my lip, trying to make sense of something – anything. I hear people walking by and talking but I don’t recognize any of the voices. Oh great.

I have to do something so I slowly start heading in the direction that Red tugged me in before I lost my grip, keeping my hand out to catch myself from running into anything, all the while calling out for the dog that acts as my eyes. ”Red?”