METANOIA ↝ THE HUNGER GAMES [1]

[1]

Aspen Darrow thanked the last customer who exited the small furniture shop with a friendly smile, bidding the gentleman goodnight one last time before flipping the sign so it read Closed. As she locked the front door of the shop, beginning to go about the daily closing routine, she finally heard the bustling sound of a buzzsaw cease before her father appeared from his workshop in the back room. Tomer Darrow's eye goggles were pushed up on his forehead, and the man was covered in sawdust as he began to attempt to shake it from his clothes after a long day of crafting for the shop.

"How'd we do tonight?" Tomer asked, crossing to the desk where the Darrow family kept the shop's cash box.

"Not too bad," Aspen assured her father with a grin. "Mrs. Lynch finally came back for that clock she's been eyeing for days."

When he was twenty years old, Tomer Darrow inherited the family's furniture shop from his father, who had managed to keep it in the family business ever since District Seven's inception following the end of the Dark Days. While it was still a small, family run store, it was beloved by many of District Seven's residents, always wanting more of Tomer's next creations whenever they could afford something extra for their homes, and it allowed the family to maintain a comfortable, yet modest living in the center of town.

"Ah, I knew she'd be back sooner or later." he proclaimed, locking the box away in their safe and making sure everything was set for the night. "Come on. It's almost time for supper."

Aspen followed her father out of the back door of the shop and into the crisp evening air, ripe with the chatter of birds fluttering about and the voices of the lumberjacks walking home from the forests of District Seven after a long day's work. She surveyed the ones around her, trying to make out their faces in the dim light of sundown for her sister and brother-in-law, but she concluded that they must have already passed to get to the local nanny's to pick up their son, Jack.

"Beautiful night tonight," Tomer noted, gesturing for Aspen to look at the woods directly to their right, where the day's last rays of sunlight were beginning to slip behind the trees. "I swear I'll never get used to sunsets this time of year."

Aspen smiled as they reached the log cabin at the end of the lane, and Aspen could see the lights on in the window, alerting that the rest of her family was already home for the evening. As she pulled open the front door, she was instantly met with the smell of stew her sister Ivy Lyndon was cooking on the stove while Ivy's husband Grover stood over a cutting board, slicing up a loaf of bread from the local bakery.

"Welcome home, you two!" Ivy greeted her sister and father as they walked in the door. "How was everything today?"

"Auntie Aspen!" Jack bellowed, jumping off his chair in the kitchen and barreling over to where the young girl stood in the doorway, jumping into her arms.

"Hi, you!" Aspen exclaimed to her nephew, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she held him propped on her hip. "Today went well." she explained to Ivy, waltzing over to her cutting board and stealing a small piece of a carrot and popping it into her mouth with a devilish grin, and her sister elbowed her lightly in the ribs.

"Don't spoil your appetite," Ivy scolded her, gesturing for Aspen to step away from the food. "supper's almost ready. Go get yourself cleaned up and you can help set the table."

"Yes, ma'am," Aspen said with a sigh, setting Jack down and wandering into the bathroom to wash her hands in the washbasin. 

By the time Aspen re-emerged from the bathroom, Ivy had finished cooking the stew and was pouring the contents into the five bowls laid out next to the stove before carrying each of them over to the dinner table. Aspen pulled open the drawer and retrieved the silverware, dispersing it around the table at each of the five seats. Tomer was the first to take his usual seat at the head of the table, with Ivy and Grover on one side and Aspen and Jack seated on the other. 

"Alright, dig in," Ivy announced to the rest of the family, and Aspen wasted no time in grabbing her fork and taking a bite of stew.

"So, how did work go for the two of you?" Tomer asked the Lyndon family, picking up his own fork and digging into his dinner.

"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary." Grover said with a shrug. "It's that time of year again. A few of the lumberjacks making bets on which kids they think will be reaped this year."

"Well, two more years and we'll have a few years of relief before we have to worry about that again." Tomer said with a small frown, his eyes flickering over at Aspen and Jack briefly before looking back at Grover, and Aspen bit down on her lower lip nervously.

"When will it ever end?" Ivy asked, shaking her head. "You would think that after seventy-three years, now, the Capitol would be satisfied with the Districts repaying them for the Dark Days."

"But it's all about remembrance now." Grover reminded her. "Why would they stop when they have complete control over all of us? Every year, everyone has to pay the price for this event that happened years before any of us were even born. Friends and families of tributes lost. The entire district mourns. And we'll keep paying the price long after we're all dead."

"All except for the Victors who manage to prevail." Aspen pointed out. "They seem to get a life of luxury after all that's said and done."

"Oh, come on, Aspen, nobody ever actually wins the Hunger Games." Ivy protested. "Sure, you get a nice house in the Victors' Village and a hefty check from the Capitol once a month, but could you imagine? You're forced to return to the Games every year, training tributes that most likely aren't making it back home with you. What part about any of that shows Victors as winners?"

"If I may change the subject," their father cut in, eager to steer the topic of conversation away from the Hunger Games the night before the annual reaping when Aspen still had this year of eligibility left, "Jack, how was your day today?"

"Today, Mrs. Green started teaching us The Valley Song." Jack said proudly.

"Well, can you sing us The Valley Song?" Aspen asked him, looking down at her nephew with a big smile.

Jack looked around at his surrounding family members, suddenly growing nervous. "No!"

The family chuckled for a bit before returning to their stew, reluctant to return to their earlier conversation. By the time Aspen had finished her dinner, she had volunteered to wash the dishes, and proceeded to bring the empty bowls to the kitchen sink to begin cleanup.

"We're heading off to bed." Ivy announced to Aspen as soon as the younger Darrow girl had finished washing the dishes. "Try to get some sleep tonight, okay?"

"I'll try my hardest," Aspen offered with a shrug, "but it's always hard on this night."

"It's going to be fine." Ivy assured her, like she did every year. "You've never taken out tesserae, your name's only in there seven times. Seven's a big district, Aspen. The odds are more in your favor than most."

Ivy pulled her younger sister into a fiercely tight hug, holding her close. Aspen hugged her sister back, a bit of the worry that had been aching at Aspen for the past week in anticipation of the reaping beginning to edge away, and she began to feel safe again, if only for that moment.

"Get some sleep." Ivy said again, letting go of Aspen. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Aspen nodded, giving her sister a smile as Ivy disappeared into the bedroom she shared with Grover and Jack. "tomorrow."