Hunger Games 1

Chapter 7 Tribute Train (1)
Peeta and I froze, watching our senior try to get up on his slippery vomit.A strong stench of alcohol nearly made me spit out my dinner.Peeta and I exchanged glances.Obviously, Haymitch isn't worth mentioning, but there's one thing Effie Trinket is right about, once we're in the arena, he's all we have.Peeta and I seemed to make a silent agreement, and he and I each took Haymitch by the arm and pulled him up.

"Did I fall?" Haymitch asked. "It stinks." He wiped his nose with his hand and wiped the filth all over his face.

"Let's go back to your box," Peeta said, "and get you cleaned up."

We half dragged and half dragged him back to the box.We couldn't just put him on the embroidered sheets, so we dragged him straight into the tub, turned on the shower, and he was still groggy.

"Okay," Peeta said to me, "now I'll take care of him."

I'm really grateful for him saying that.Undressing Haymitch, washing his vomit out of his chest hair, and dragging him back to bed was the last thing I dreaded doing.Maybe Peeta was trying to impress him, once the game started it worked in his favor.But looking at Haymitch's current situation, he might not remember these things tomorrow.

"Okay," I said, "I'll get a Capitol to help in a moment." The train's number book has everyone's numbers, and it's their responsibility to cook for us, serve us, guard us, and take care of us. .

"No, I don't need them," Peeta said.

I nodded and walked to my box.I understand how Peeta feels.I don't want to see the Capitol either, but having them serve Haymitch might be a petty vengeance on them.So I wondered to myself why he insisted on taking care of Haymitch; and then it dawned on me that it was out of kindness, like being kind to me and giving me bread.

The thought made my heart tighten.A kind Peeta is more dangerous to me than a heartless Peeta.Because good people can always go deep into my heart and take root there.I can't let Peeta go inside me, at least not in the arena.So I decided that, from now on, I would have as little contact with the baker's son as possible.

When I got back to the compartment, the train was stopping for refueling at a platform, and I quickly opened the window, threw out the cookie that Papa Peeta had given me, and slammed the window shut.Never again, nothing of their father and son.

Unfortunately, the box of cookies was thrown on the ground and hit a cluster of dandelions by the railway track.I only had one look, but it was enough, it reminded me of that dandelion in the school playground years ago...

As soon as I looked away from Peeta Mylark's bruised face, I saw the dandelion, and I knew hope wasn't lost.I took it off carefully, ran home quickly, picked up a bucket, took Prim's hand, and ran to the "pasture".Yes, it's full of golden dandelions.After picking these we walked the fence about another mile until the barrels were full of dandelion flowers, stems and leaves.We munched on dandelion salad and leftover bread that night.

"Is there anything else?" Prim asked. "Can we find anything else to eat?"

"There's been plenty to eat," I assured her, "for as long as I can remember."

My mother has a book that I brought from the pharmacy earlier. The pages are made of old parchment, and there are pen drawings of various plants in it. The name of each plant, where you can pick it, and when it blooms are written in beautiful fonts. , has any medicinal value.Dad added a lot of items in the book, which plants are only edible and cannot cure diseases.Dandelion, pokeweed, wild onion, pine.Prim and I spent the rest of the night chewing on the book.

The next day, on the way home from school, I lingered for a long time by the "ranch", and finally mustered up the courage to slip under the fence.It was the first time I stood alone in this place, without the protection of Dad's bow and arrows.I found the bow and arrows my father had made for me out of a hollowed-out tree trunk.I probably did not walk more than twenty yards into the "pasture" that day.For a long time, I sat on the branch of an old oak tree, quietly waiting for the game to pass by.A few hours later, I got lucky and hit a rabbit.My father taught me before, and I also hit a few rabbits.But this rabbit was shot entirely by himself.

For the first time in months we had meat.The sight of the rabbit seemed to stir up something deep inside her, and she pulled herself together, skinned the rabbit, stewed the meat with the wild vegetables Prim had dug up, and then languished again and went back to bed.But after the stew was ready, we coaxed her to eat a big bowl.

The woods became our saviour, and every day I walked a little more into them.It was tough at first, but I was determined to support my family no matter what.I steal eggs from bird nests, catch fish with nets, sometimes shoot squirrels and rabbits, whatever, and I dig all kinds of weeds that are everywhere.Be careful when digging wild vegetables, some are edible, while others can kill you with just one bite.When digging wild vegetables, we checked carefully and repeatedly according to Dad's pictures, and the wild vegetables we ate were all safe.

At the slightest sign of danger—a howl in the distance, the crackling of branches—I would run back to the fence.Slowly, I ventured up the trees to escape the dingoes that were constantly on the lookout for prey.Bears and leopards hide deep in the woods, maybe they don't like the smoky smell of our area.

On May [-]th, I went to the courthouse to sign for food stamps and hauled home my first batch of food and oil in Prim's toy car.On the [-]th of every month, I go to get it once.Of course, the hunting didn't stop.There was not enough food to eat, and other things had to be bought, such as soap, milk, and needles and thread.Except for what I had to eat, I took everything else to the market to exchange.At first, I was scared without my father, but everyone respected my father and accepted me.Prey is prey, no matter who catches it.I also took the prey to the back door of rich people to sell. I tried my best to recall the methods my father taught me, and I also learned a few new tricks myself.The butcher only buys rabbits, not squirrels.The bakery owner loved squirrels, and when his wife wasn't around, he traded for one after another.The chief of police loves wild turkeys, and the mayor has a soft spot for strawberries.

One year at the end of summer, I was bathing in the pond, and inadvertently saw the plants growing around me, with tall stems, arrow-like leaves, and white flowers with three petals.I knelt in the water, dug out its roots with my fingertips in the soft mud.The little pale blue stalk doesn't look like a potato, but it tastes exactly the same. "Katniss!" (Katniss is the name of an aquatic plant in Indian language. - Translator's Note) I shouted.My name is based on this plant.I seem to hear my father's witty voice saying in my ear: "As long as you can find yourself, you won't starve to death." All the stems on the water surface were picked up.That night, we ate fish and katenis root until we were full.It was the first time in a month that we had enough to eat.

Gradually, my mother's spirit recovered and returned to us.She started cleaning the house, cooking, and storing the food I brought back for the winter.People often trade things with us and pay us for medicines.One day, I finally heard her singing.

Mom was well, and Prim couldn't be happier.But I just watched with cold eyes, waiting for her to leave us again.I don't trust her.I harbored a hatred for her deep in my heart, hated her fragility, her indifference, and her abandonment of us for a month.

Prim forgave her, but I drifted away from her, built a wall in my heart, restrained myself from relying on her psychologically, and the relationship between me and my mother was completely different from before.

Now I am going to die, and this situation will not change one bit.I yelled at her in court today, but I also told her I love her.Perhaps, this will even out.

I stared blankly at the window, hoping to open it again, but I didn't know what would happen if I opened the window at such a fast speed.In the distance, I vaguely saw the lights of another jurisdiction, is it the Seventh District?or District Ten?I have no idea.I think of the millions of people who are getting ready for bed right now.I thought of my own home again, with the shutters closed.What are they doing, Mom and Prim?Are they eating fish stew and strawberries?Or maybe the food was left on the plate, not moving at all?Are they watching that old battery-running TV leaning against the wall, watching the tapes of the Today show?They will surely still cry.Can mom hold on this time, hold on for Prim?Or could she have given up and left the burden of the real world to Prim, who would carry it on her frail shoulders?

Prim will be sleeping with her mother again tonight.It gave me so much relief to think that there was that dirty, skinny cat with Prim, and if she cried, it would snuggle up and crawl under her arms and curl up in her arms. , until she calmed down and fell asleep.I'm so glad I didn't drown it in the first place.

Thinking of my family, I feel lonely at this time.The day is too long.Are Gail and I the blackberries we ate together this morning?It seems to be a matter of a previous life.It seemed to me that I had a long dream, a dream that became more and more terrifying.Maybe, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I would go back to District [-], where I lived.

I must have all kinds of pajamas in the closet, but I just took off my top and pants and went to bed in my underwear.The bed sheets are soft silk fabrics, and the fluffy duvet warms up the body quickly.

(End of this chapter)