"I'm Late! I'm Late!" {T&A; tea party/day6}

I didn’t know where to go after I left Fallon. It had been so difficult to let her body rest, not when it was so tempting to hold onto her forever. The Capitol would have had to pry my body off hers before I let go of my only true friend in the arena. But it wasn’t fair for her or her family or anyone in district 5 for me to be so selfish. She deserved a better resting place than the one offered in our nightmare. So I left her there with Lightning and let my feet carry me back to where it all started.

The ceiling that we were all dropped on to. That’s where I found her. The fragrance of the garden soaked in my mind as I wandered past it, remembering how Fallon had lost her district partner there, how she had drawn those lights, and how we found Lightning. He’s with her now. They’re together again. Words I would keep repeating inside my head, over and over until they started to blend. I had no capacity to think, no will to survive as I mindlessly kept walking through familiar paths.

I walked past the room that Fallon and I had fought the mutts and where I had drawn the koala carving that I remembered from a lifetime ago. It took every part of me not to break down into tears, and all I could do was keep my legs moving upward and upward and I’ll join you, Fallon. Musical notes started to floating with each step I took, my dreams becoming more of a reality as Fallon started to become more real to me once again. “Fa—Fallon?”

But it wasn’t Fallon sitting among the plants. It was a different girl, one who was very much alive and breathing. I stared at her and she stared back at me, neither of moving the air around us until she placed an axe on her lap. Maybe a few days ago, I would have taken it as a threat, but all I could stare as not-Fallon sat there, holding that axe oh so gently before putting it away. She kept making more gestures but nothing processed in my mind except the sound of running water. I have to drink. I should drink.

The taste of water was refreshing on my tongue as my body felt rejuvenated once more. My mind was starting to come back to me and for the first time, it felt like I could distinguish reality from memory. My hand brushed against Lorenzo’s token as I grabbed one of my crayons. I would have thought that the stench would have worn off as the days wore on, but its odor knocked me back again as I scrunched my nose. Touching the crayon to the ground, I drew the first thing that came to my mind: snow balls.

We didn’t have many white winters in district 11, but there had been one year when the ground had been covered by soft, white powder. It was the first time my brothers and I had laughed so hard, especially after Mama’s death. Crusader, Harbinger, Elidor, and I had been running around, forming our soft missiles as we aimed for each other’s face. As I was the youngest and smallest, I was the one who was hit the most. It’s all just a game after all. But what lay before me was not the soft powder counterpart that I had expected, but instead a cool, plastic version of my childhood. It was the Games in its personification, and it made me realize how dark the world had become. No more Fallon. No more light.

-insert more words-

I froze in my spot as I heard Salome’s voice magnified through the mansion. Anise looked at me expectedly, but I couldn’t bring myself to want to go. I knew I needed the rest and the food especially, but how was I supposed to see Salome again? She had turned against Fallon and I, even played a role on Fallon’s death, and I wasn’t ready to face her again. She was my district partner, but she was starting to feel less like home. Fallon had been more of home than Salome, and when she died, a part of my soul that yearned for home died too.

”You’ll have to see her eventually.”

I clenched my teeth at Anise’s words. She was right: I couldn’t avoid Salome even if I wanted to. With so few of us left in the arena, avoidance was unlikely. “You’re right. Let’s go down there.” As if on cue, my stomach grumbled in agreement. I looked at the contraption Anise pulled out, something that resembled a large folded paper crane. That’s supposed to hold the both of us? But I was starting to trust Anise more and I grabbed the other half. We both counted at the same time and we leaped from the window and joined the feast.


[Tamron attends the tea party]
[Tamron eats pastry]
[Tamron drinks black tea]
[Tamron receives party favor (color changing: yellow to green crayon]
[Tamron draws snow balls with big foot feet crayon]