drapetomonia - the overwhelming urge to run away.
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When Junia Beaumont, her brother and their classmates get a last assignment before the end of the school year, she doesn't know just how quickly things will change for her.
Who would have thought t...
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11. grief, sorrow and anger
In the evening, Junia and Cas force themselves out of bed to have dinner.
Their stomachs are empty, they're parched, but eating and drinking is hard. The memories of what happened in the afternoon are still fresh. The only reason they eat anything at all is because they're with each other. Since they slept through the dinner Max had with their parents, they took whatever was left and retreated back to the safety of Junia's bedroom.
It's eerily quiet, their discomfort palpable. Thankfully, it's not lamb or anything of the sorts that they would have had in the afternoon. The baked potatoes are a welcome treat, filled with bacon, sour cream, chives and cheese on top. After washing everything down with water and having a bit of vanilla pudding for dessert — even though Cas ended up putting it aside halfway through and gave the rest to his sister — they're stuffed.
At around 8:30, Cas somehow managed to get a hold of himself. That, or he's simply trying to push away anything that might remind him of the day's events, so he goes through his bag until he finds the little piece of paper that he scribbled the oatmeal cookie recipe that Sheaf talked about on. It surprises Junia when she finds him standing at the oven without a single glass of posca next to him.
Maybe he's trying not to resort to more unhealthy behaviors for today after the amount of cigarettes he smoked, but Junia assumes it must be because Max is helping him. His presence, his chattering, it's all distracting his big brother from what he saw today.
As much as Max knows how to get on their nerves, the fact that he's also just a little boy helps immensely. He's innocent to the extent someone born after the war can be. It's in moment like these that she understands why her mother tends to favor him, though it's likely unintentional.
Max is completely untouched by the harsh reality of the war and the dark days. It's a privilege, one he's not even aware of, and it's not even that he has a sunny disposition; he's just a child.
The Capitol tries to remind its citizens of the war at every possible opportunity but due to his age, it's hard for him to connect to it. He knows it happened, he knows his own family suffered, but he wasn't there. Therefore, it doesn't affect him directly.
Ignorance can be bliss sometimes. But even Junia knows he's not as dense as he seems to be sometimes.
Meanwhile, she has other plans. While her brothers are chatting about whatever nonsense comes to Max' mind, she decides to give Sejanus a call. She wants to check up on him for various reasons. At noon, it was only supposed to be about Marcus, but now she's also concerned for his mental state, too. After all, Sejanus seemed surprisingly composed. At least compared to her.
