Tonight Is My Appraisal {Mayor Spark Oneshot Series}

After the end of the first day in the arena, one of my daughters, Joule, approached me. She was clearly able to see the stress that I was under, approaching me in the Mayor's office. It was still strange to me, having an office and a different home while in the position of mayor. Everything was so new and so different that it was almost as if nothing at all were the same anymore. I still had most of my children with me, though, and that meant a lot to me. That was at least still the same, for the most part.

Bolts and Florence were gone, though, and that would always leave a couple of emotional scars upon my heart, never to heal. Two of my own children were dead, and nothing could be done about it.

I wondered how the family of Myrcella Hudson felt. Their daughter was dead. She had been killed in the arena by one of Three's tributes, and she'd never come home alive again. Surely they felt the same pain I had felt when I lost my two children who had been chosen for the Games.

Joule spoke to me, her mother, a look of concern on her usually rather gentle-featured face.

"Mother?" she asked. "Do you need someone to talk to? I know it's really tough now, for you, being mayor. Surely you have to pay a lot more attention to the Games, and that sounds painful if you ask me..." She trailed off for a moment before continuing to speak to me. "I'm here for you, if you need to talk."

My dear daughter Joule had grown so much since her brother, my son, Bolts Spark, was chosen for the Games all those years ago. It felt like ages now, yet it also felt like yesterday, which I suppose may not make much sense to most people, but to me, it does. I looked to Joule and presented her with a weak smile crossing my lips.

"Thank you, Joule," I said to my daughter, seeing myself in her eyes. I could remember when I was her age. Although, when I was her age, I hadn't experienced nearly as much pain as she had.

"If you want to come in and talk, I'd actually really appreciate it," I told her, gesturing to one of the plush chairs in the room. 'Things are tough right now," I explained.

Then, for about an hour or so, my daughter and I simply spoke with one another, starting with her helping me try to relax from the stress of my mayoral duties and the stress of coping with the Games. After that, we simply reminisced about her siblings who had now gone, remembering all the clever inventions that Bolts made, and the playful mind of Florence.

We both missed them so much, and I knew then that, although Myrcella's family was surely feeling pain right now, having lost their daughter to death's grasp, and although that pain would never entirely go away, they could at least find some happier memories, somewhere in there, even if they couldn't get themselves to focus on them right now. Surely they'd think about them later, even if it were years down the road.