Nor Ever A Drop To Drink {Light & K!ah}
Aug 17, 2014 21:07:05 GMT -5
Post by Loki on Aug 17, 2014 21:07:05 GMT -5
I don't go home (not that it was ever much of a home) anymore; I pretty much live out of my uncle's boatwright shop; in his little office there is a cot with a thick wool blanket and a small heater for when it's cold - more or less everything I need, and a hundred times better than going where that evil bitch that calls herself my mother lives. I also work here, as Uncle Aryth's apprentice, which means he is teaching me all about boat repair and building. Uncle has no children (or wife) of his own, so someday, this business will be mine.
I take my work seriously, but I like my free time, too. Mainly, free time is after the boatwright's closes: at dark, or, on some nights, early because my uncle likes to have women over - he lives in the small apartment over the shop.
What I like to do is go go walking and just think. Being out after curfew means I have to be careful, but here is a fact about peacekeepers that most of District 4 knows: sand gets inside those tight white armored uniforms and turns into a real misery, so they avoid patrolling the beach unless there is a report of pirates or smugglers, or they have some other good reason. Walking under the pier, or along the shoreline is usually safe, and that is what I do at night. I can daydream about what I want my life to be like, or, what a perfect life would be like.
Sometimes I think about maybe being a pirate, or a smuggler, though, realistically, I wouldn't abandon my uncle like that. Other nights I take out the dinghy and float in the waves for hours under the twinkling stars far far above in the black midnight; it isn't the safest thing to do, that or my late-night swims, but I really do excel at both those things.
But tonight I am just walking, and refusing to think about my problems by fantasizing about being a great pirate king who leads District 4 and the rest of Panem in another, this time successful, rebellion. I am a great rebel, at least in my head. In the privacy of my own thoughts I call the Capitol, fishing quotas, peacekeepers, the Treaty, the Games, and the President the vilest words I know. Words I hardly use in my daily life, not unless I accidentally whack myself with a hammer or something. And, of course, I don't dare ever speak such treasonous things aloud, or I'd end up with my tongue cut out, or worse. I am free to think whatever I like, though.
Under the pier it's dark, and damp, and most folks would need a lantern or a flashlight, but me, I'm all right with just the moon shining in through the slats between the boards. I come out before one of the docks, and sit down with my back against a piling, looking up at the moon and stars.
