In My Life // [Dreamer+Josh]

In My Life // [Dreamer+Josh] Jun 12, 2015 13:29:50 GMT -5

Post by Baby Wessex d9b [earthling] on Jun 12, 2015 13:29:50 GMT -5

a note from the desk of

Mace Emberstatt

of District Ten

when you never thought that it could ever get this tough,
that's when you feel my kind of love

Some mornings were made for sleeping in. Mace kissed Julian's shoulder, willing the clock to slow, to allow them a few more moments of quiet. It wasn't silent; their homes were never silent with toddlers. But Reggie had taken Juliet and Mason out to the garden, which meant their screams were blunted by double pane glass. "I ain't movin'," he mumbled, voice still thick with sleep. "No matter what they want." He grinned through the lie, kissed the love of his life gently. Downstairs, the back door banged open. It was clear that Reggie had gotten tired of babysitting, and from the squelch-squelch of muddy steps, they would have company for their morning shower.

Mace snorted, the perfect little morning bubble bursting. He squeezed Julian's hand once, and then slipped out of bed in his pajamas to chase down their children. It took the better part of an hour to wash and redress them, and he was only just done with his own shower when the phone rang.

"It's your brother!" Regalia called up the stairs. Mace patted his growing stubble and groaned. It wouldn't be Icarus; he wasn't even sure his strange brother knew what a telephone was.

He dodged toys on the stairs to pick up the phone in the kitchen. "What do you want?" He asked by way of greeting.

Cygnus didn't miss a beat. "Ma's coming to visit you with some of the kids."

"What? Today? Why today?"

"Got somethin' to show ya."

Mace put his forehead to the wall. His adopted mother never left the community home, not even for the reapings. She sent the older kids with the younger to market. She had literally, in the last eleven years, never been to his mansion. "How long do I have?"

"An hour, maybe. She didn't want to give you time to flee."

"Yeah, like I could just hire a train out of here. You should have called me when they left."

"At sunrise? C'mon, Mace. I'm just the messenger."

He hung up, the phone clattering in its receiver. With nails in his stubble, he turned to Regalia and instructed her to prepare lunch for at least a handful of visitors. He moved around the house in a whirlwind, explaining to Julian as he cleaned each room that Ma had finally accepted their invitation to visit. Mason, who very nearly understood who Ma was, chased after Mace's ankles.

By the time the door rang, Mace had the house in a respectable semblance of order. Normally he didn't care. Normally he was the father of toddlers. But today, he was the son of Ma. "Welcome," he said gruffly as he opened the door. She stood on his porch, wizened but so familiar. Behind her, an array of teenagers and toddlers from the community home. Mace had no idea what to make of them; he knew the name of maybe three out of the dozen. He stepped aside to let them pass and threw a helpless glance at his husband.

In My Life // [Dreamer+Josh] Jun 16, 2015 18:08:19 GMT -5

Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2015 18:08:19 GMT -5

Narration
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Speach

Here they stand, waiting at the gate of the Victor’s Village to enter. You can still see the footprints from when the Peacekeepers originally stood watch over the gates. But they have long been of any use; since we tend to have some pretty long gaps between Victors that the Village has sometimes stood empty. Now we have the honor of holding 3 Victors in the deteriorating mansions. You can tell where the Victors, Mace and Julian, and Saffron reside, as the Capitol had the decency to fix up their two houses. If it wasn’t for Ma, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity. Apparently Mace had been inviting Ma and the rest of the Community Home residents for years, but no one has ever seen Ma outside of the House. She has never been seen at the Reapings, and usually sends the older kids out to the Market to get the necessary food and necessities. She always tells me after my shifts that she’s happy to have more time to be around the children. I think she was born to be a mother.

The only reason why I stand here after helping Ma walk across the District is because I’m her hired ranch hand. I work there every other day, with the exception of Sundays, that’s when I take a break from both of my ranches. I also tend to my family ranch, where I heard our family’s herd of lamb and horses. My ability to a horse both bare back and in saddle is what really got me the job at Ma’s in the first place. I take her horses out for their daily run and save one for that day for herding her gigantic herd of cows. She has about 100 or so cows which can be a lot to handle sometimes, but I always get the job done. I switch out the herd horse daily so that they all can get their exercise yet also get a day of rest. Her pasture is about 10 or 15 acres, I’m not too sure on the exact size. It’s one of the biggest because she runs the community home and not only has to give to the Capitol but to feed the numerous amount of children in her care. She’s nice for the most part, that is until one of her children shows blatant disrespect to her. That’s when you give Ma her space. After her cows have been tended to and are grazing in their pasture I trot on the horse over to the chicken coup that’s a bit closer by the house. Her coup is smaller, but it produces enough eggs to sustain the house. By now it’s usually early afternoon when I put the second load of food into the troughs for the pigs and throw the afternoon hay out into the field for the horses when I goes in for lunch. Ma feeds me just like any other of her children.

I have gotten to know a good handful of the elder children that are closer to my age. It’s easier for me to talk to them and relate to them. The children are always funny with some of the questions they ask “Mr. Caleb,” it was Ma’s idea for the youngin’s to call me that ‘it teaches them to be respectful’, whatever. Anyways to continue they often ask me questions such as “When will we be as big as you?” or “Mr. Caleb do you have a crush on Cecily? You sure do spend a lot of time with her.” Cecily is one of the older girls at the home whom I met at school. She has always been a kinder person and is very easy to talk to. We became quick friends there when we were 11 and it has only grown deeper since then. We getting together would only complicate things between us. We know too much about each other. I usually brush off that last question with a laugh and a simple “no she’s just my friend.” She also takes in children with mental disabilities, such as Asperger’s and Down syndrome, which is something that I have very little experience with. I tend to awkward when I’m not sure how to respond in social situations. I know and understand that they are children and some of them adults; they just have a different understanding and viewpoint of the world that I’m working on relating to. It’s a work in progress for me but Ma can see that I’m trying, and she encourages me to ask any questions that I may have. That makes things easier as a few of them are non-speaking.

They wanted to stay behind today as they enjoy the comfort and familiarity of the home which is understandable, so Cecily and one or two of the older children stayed behind. That’s not the only reason Cecily stayed behind though. About a year and a half ago she started to a guy at school who seemed decent enough. He was nice, he wasn’t mean to her, and he seemed to have good intentions. But they did everything together, and I mean everything. They would have gone to the bathroom together if they could. She started to lose herself in him, and it got to the point where she gave up everything she liked to be with him. I wasn’t too happy and I tried to intervene, but they just brushed me off saying that “I was just being jealous” and that “If I wanted to date her I should have asked sooner.” But I was just genuinely concerned for her. She wasn’t the Cecily I knew anymore. My parents understood where I was coming from but they said that I had to let her learn her lesson. Well apparently getting knocked up as a wake up for her. She was called out of school for health reason when her morning sickness started to show up. Ma wasn’t too happy about the matter. Especially since the boy suddenly became invisible and dead to the world.

She spent the last 9 months locked up in her room, I would bring her homework to the house every day and bring her the meals Ma made but it seemed that she just wanted to be alone. There were times where we would talk, I would tell her about the news going around at school, sometimes help her out with her homework, but for the most part, I would just sit by the window and read while she threw herself into the papers. It wasn’t too entirely awkward, but it definitely wasn’t the same as it used to be. I tried to get her to come out with me during my shifts, so that she could get some sort of sun, and she did sometimes, I think the fact that he left her and she was pregnant was getting her down. I tried to be there for her, but I don’t think that anything I could do would bring her back. When it got closer to delivery time she and Ma both decided that it wasn’t best for her to keep the child. That it would best if they were adopted to someone else. Cecily agreed, frankly I don’t think she wanted to keep the baby in the first place. The baby was healthy when it was born, a young girl named Coralee. She was breastfed for a couple of weeks but then Ma decided that it was time to move it to a better home that she had found. Cecily agreed, glad to be rid of the painful time that she had. Cora reminded her too much of the relationship.

Ma and Cecily asked if I would take the baby alongside Ma and I couldn’t say no, though I don’t think that I could ever say no to Cecily. And that is how I ended up in Victors Village, carrying a baby in one and helping Ma in the other. Now that I think of it, I actually don’t know Ma’s real name, everyone in the District just calls her Ma. We walk up to the front door, she is excited to see Mace again, but her face doesn’t betray her. The children are incredibly excited to see Mace as well, he is the very much sung about hero in the home and is inspiration to a lot of the children, including me.

I have an incredibly huge crush on the man, and it’s not in a man crush form either. I think that he is beautiful and mysterious, and the way he looks at Julian is so endearing. I’m pretty sure falling for a married man is usually looked down upon, yet I tend to keep it to myself. I usually keep most of my crushes to myself save some very close friends. I’m not a huge fan of people knowing about my personal life. We walk up to his door, hearing to commotion that you expect to hear when you already have multiple children living in one house. The excitement is buzzing all around us, even Coralee is moving around in her warm violet and yellow blanket. Ma knocks on the door and Mace Emberstatt gives her a gruffly “Welcome” as we stand on his porch. Ma ushers us into his home as he gives Julian a slight glance. I think we caught him off guard, as Ma caught some of us off guard. Most of us aren’t entirely sure what we’re doing here.

Mace closes the door behind us, our somewhat nicer clothes have attracted dirt as we trekked across the District, and my grey button up shirt manages to keep my white undershirt clean. I look around his lavish mansion, thinking about how most of us in Ten can never afford this type of lifestyle in their entire life. It would probably be best for Coralee to be in this type of environment. One that’s comfortable and probably safe for the most part. She’ll have food on the table, a comfortable bed to sleep in every night and hopefully lovely parents. I know she’ll be in a better place her than in the Community Home. I see Mace and Ma just finishing up their conversation so I head over to them.

“Hello Mr. Emberstatt it’s a pleasure to meet you.” My voice sounds a lot more confident than I feel. My nerves are going overboard; my body is tingling all over. I notice that Mace is looking down at the pure bundle of joy that is in my arms.

“Oh I’m sorry this is Coralee, she’s not mine.” I rush out that half of the sentence, my nerves showing. “Would you like to meet her?” I offer the bundle of blankets and baby to him, her arms reaching out to her and her blue eyes looking up at him.