Garden of Eden

Chapter 24

Haymitch wakes me up so that he can get a little sleep himself.

As he lies back on the grass, I sit up from where I had been sleeping. I sit with my legs bent in front of me, my elbows resting on my knees, and my hands twirling around the small hunting knife I procured from that psychotic tribute from District 8.

The full moon illuminates the entire clearing in a wash of pale light.

Rustling in the nearby bushes has me on edge until I see a small white rabbit bound out of it. I'm reminded of the little rabbit that had led me to safety back when the volcano erupted. I smile, then, keeping a close eye on it until it disappears into the woods. As the last of its hind legs and tail goes out of view, I am also reminded of the white rabbit with the pocket watch from Alice in Wonderland. My mother, being a fan of Lewis Carroll, would read that story to Meredith and me when we were a great deal younger. I was always fond of that book and enjoyed many of the quotes found in it.

Soon bored of twisting the knife around, I place it back in its sheath strapped to my thigh. Then I stare back up at the night sky.

I try to indentify all the constellations that Haymitch had shown me, but can only find about half of them. Eventually giving up, I try to come up with my own. With this, I am able to find a ladle, a scorpion, a turtle, a penguin, and even a centaur.

Amazed, I go on staring, watching as the stars slowly vanish one-by-one. As the stars fade, the sun is there to slowly take its place.

I run my fingers absentmindedly through my hair. Vaguely I feel something in it, something small; almost minuscule. Bringing my hand down towards eye level, I see that there is dry blood in my hair.

Probably from when the squirrels were scratching at my head.

I go about running my fingers through my hair, trying to get the dry blood and dirt out of it. Then I go back go staring at the vanishing stars.

With dawn fast approaching, I decide that Haymitch would want to be woken.

As I reach over and begin shaking him awake a trembling deep in the ground causes me to fall. I end up falling forwards, sprawled on top of Haymitch.

He wakes with a grunt.

I turn my head to see him looking back at me. "There are other ways of waking me, you know," Haymitch says. "Or have you fallen for me already?" he continues with a cocky grin.

Cheeks burning hot, I quickly get off him.

"The ground suddenly shook as I was waking you up," I explain.

Right around then, there is another shaking of the ground.

Haymitch sits up and frowns. "It could be another volcanic eruption."

My stomach drops at the possibility.

"All the more reason to start moving as soon as possible," he continues.

With that, we eat some hog meat and half a mint cookie before packing up our things.

We exit the clearing and enter back into the woods.

There is still some pre-morning mist shrouding the woods in mystery as we walk through the trees at the edge of the clearing.

As we move along through the woods I can't help but think about the erupting volcano.

Like it is doing now, the ground had shook hours prior to the eruption. Back then I couldn't understand it, simply chalking it up to an earthquake. Now, as I begin thinking about it, all the pieces start to fit together and it all starts making a lot of sense.