Author Games: The Last Cannon

TASK EIGHT: Samus Kumamoto

The sound next to Natalie's room rose from a low whine to a wail. It was the middle of the night and usually Samantha was so asleep that a hurricane couldn't wake her. It was Sam's first Hunger Games and she wasn't accustomed to seeing such violent images on the television. Natalie couldn't take her anywhere without replays from recent kills being played out on the television. The morning was the worst and Natalie had learned quickly to avoid the town square between five and eight.

Still half asleep, Natalie slipped her old robe around her shoulders and padded over to her daughter's room. Even without a light, she could see the girl was sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Lately, Sam was either crying or screaming. It was normal for her age but no two year old should have to see a kid's guts being torn from their body.

"Sam, sweetie, it's okay. Mommy's here," Natalie whispered. She pulled her daughter into her lap, gently running her hand through Sam's thick hair. Sam curled into her mother's chest, her tiny little fists gripping her mother's shirt.

"I'm scared, Mommy," Sam whimpered. She started crying again. Natalie turned on the bedside lamp. Sam's big, brown eyes were ringed with red. Her little nose was pink and cheeks rosy red. Still, she'd never looked more like her father. Her hair was thick, black and straighter than an arrow. Her cheekbones were still sharp and visible through her childish thickness. Her eyes were the same shade of brown and her brows pulled together when she was angry or concerned. It was just like her father's habit, though she had no idea just how similar she was to a man she'd never met before.

Natalie smiled, kissing Sam's head. "Don't be scared, sweetie. Everything is okay."

The little girl pressed her cheek harder against her mother's shoulder and sniffled. Night-terrors always scared her to begin with but she always recovered rather quickly. It was another trait that her father gave her. Resilience. Sam tugged on a chunk of her mother's hair. "Story?"

"What would you like me to tell you?" Natalie asked. She stood up and laid her daughter back into bed. Sam curled around her ratty old teddy bear and popped her thumb into mouth. Already, she was growing tired again, the images of the day beginning to fade from her memory. Natalie pulled the blanket up and around Sam's shoulders. "How about the story of how Daddy and I met?"

"Yay!" Sam clapped her hands and giggled. She always loved the story, even though she couldn't really comprehend the whole thing.

Natalie laughed. "Okay. Settle down, sweetie." She helped Sam finish settling in before sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Once upon a time, your mommy and daddy met in school. We were both young, foolish and bored. But we both believed that love could be real and we both thought we found it in each other."

She remembered that day like it was yesterday. Samus Kumamoto had been the talk of the school that day. He'd announced he was dropping out to help his father at work. Normally, kids quit around sixteen so it shouldn't have been a surprise. But Samus was usually found with a book to his nose and more in his bag. No one ever thought such a smart boy would leave school to work on the boats. For a while, people thought it was a joke but by lunch, he was gone and he never went back.

He met Natalie on his way out the door. Absent of books and frown on his face, she hadn't recognized him. She instantly found him attractive. Dark brown eyes and hair were some of her weaknesses and Samus had a really nice smile. He'd smiled and said goodbye. She'd just nodded and let the door catch her backpack.

Later, Natalie learned that Samus's father worked alongside her dad. Samus became a much more familiar face. They began to talk and almost immediately found they were more alike than they originally thought. Samus was the first boy to actually find Natalie interesting and it was clear that she was the first girl to actually pay attention to him. On weekends, Natalie and Samus would spend hours dipping their feet into the water, joking around and throwing pieces of seaweed in each other's hair. Their fathers would yell at them to help out and reluctantly they would. Days were spent smiling around bulging fishnets and larger sailors. Eventually, they just became something more than friends.

Their first night together, Samus stole a fishing boat from the wharf and rowed three miles away from shore. He'd brought an awful old radio, along with a little basket of stale crackers and some tuna salad his mother made. It wasn't much but it was something. They ate every bite, giggling under the stars and listening to the water pushing the boat further from shore. Some cheesy love song played on the radio, something really old but Natalie found the instrumentals haunting. Samus scooped Natalie up in his arms and danced her carefully around the boat. As the song went on, he grew bolder and began to spin her. They fell into the water and laughed all the water from their lungs. Now, she didn't really remember the words but she could still hear the music whenever she heard him.

Two days later, they spent the night on the beach, listening to the stupid love song again. He kissed her and she kissed back. Like everyone said, one thing led to another. Afterward, they didn't really sleep at all. They spent all night talking, their whispers wasted in the sand. She never really heard him talking, then. She just heard his voice, watched his lips and ran her hands through his hair. Now, she wished she'd listened to him.

"Nine months later, your daddy gave me the best gift of all," Natalie whispered. She leaned over and kissed her daughter on the forehead. The little girl was fast asleep. "You."

Natalie's father got reassigned two months later and Natalie was unable to see Samus again. He forgot her and she spent the next two years trying to forget that she fell in love. It was hard though. She thought she'd lost every trace of him in the waves but he was right there in front of her. Her daughter was a painful reminder of what she lost. She missed him so much. Calling her daughter 'Sam' was the closest she could get to him.

Natalie slipped of Sam's room and slipped out the front door. She sat on the porch, listening to the sound of the ocean. She closed her eyes and played that song in her head again. She could see that place in the ocean, where the light shivered offshore through the tides of the ocean. She was dancing with him in the blue but everything was wrong. He wasn't here with her.

She'd been watching him in the games, rooting for him behind closed doors with her hands pressed to her mouth and her heart in her throat. It was hard to watching. He was gone before he went in but now he was spiraling further away from the boy she remembered. Occasionally, she could see fractures of who he was beneath the hard exterior he'd built but it was getting harder and harder. He couldn't feel was she was feeling. He only seemed to care about himself and he came back, she wasn't sure that there was anything she could do to get his attention.

"Please come home, Samus. I love you," she whispered. She walked back inside and watched her daughter sleep. She was ready for her daughter to meet him. And she was sure that he'd come back if he knew about her. "I promise you'll get to meet your daddy, Sam. He'll be here soon."