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20
Life and Death
Is it possible to be too happy? Too content with life just the way it is?
When I was released from the health center I still had to spend a lot of time in bed so my ribs could heal. Everyday Finnick came to see me, so much so he didn't even knock anymore. Sometimes I would make him read to me or we'd work on complex knots and make nets. One day, just to mix things up, I turned on the television to the music channel and watched Finnick give Echo dance lessons. Stephen came up and watched for a while, offering pieces of encouragement when she got lost.
"Ah, right foot Echo," Finnick corrected her with a grin. They'd been on this same step for ten minutes now. She stomped in frustration, so Stephen swept fully into the room with his hand held out daintily. Fin caught on and bowed to him graciously, extending his own hand.
"May I have this dance?"
Stephen wrinkled his nose and copied a Capitol woman's accent perfectly, "Why, yes, I would love to, you handsome thing you."
The two looked so funny together, embraced and swirling around the room with broad, graceful movements. I had to clench my jaw as tightly as I could to stop myself from laughing too much. They performed the step Echo had been trying to master easily, and finished with Finnick dipping Stephen so low, his hair nearly brushed the ground. Echo and I clapped and cheered, completely delighted with the performance.
At night sometimes Finnick would appease Pearl and go home, but more often than not he would stay with me and play with my hair until I fell asleep. I felt safer when he was there, stronger even. Not to mention completely and irrevocably happy. Every morning that I'd wake up to find him passed out next to me, I couldn't help but wonder how on earth someone so beautiful could want someone like me. One day he woke first, so when I opened my eyes I was surprised to see his staring back at me.
"What?"
"I like how you look when you sleep," he told me, tapping my nose with his finger, "You look like you're floating."
Whatever that means.
"I don't like it Annie," Pearl told me one day after he left, "You two spending the night together all the time is a recipe for bad news."
I rolled my eyes, "We're not doing anything Pearl, we're just sleeping."
"Yeah, that's what you say now."
"Look," I pleaded, "It's different. I don't want to explain why but just trust me, you don't have to worry about that."
She stared at me for a moment and then sighed, "Fine. But you better be telling the truth. I'm the only one around here that should be carrying a baby."
I laughed, "Yeah, I guess...wait."
A slow smile crept across her lips and she nodded, confirming my thoughts, "Stephen and I are pregnant."
I shouted for joy and planted a kiss right on her cheek, squeezing her tightly with my arms. My life just kept getting better and better.
When I was finally allowed to leave the house, the first thing I did was find Finnick and drag him to the beach. If there was one thing I missed more than anything else, it was swimming. But now that the walls were down between us, I didn't have to hold back. When we were underwater, his bronze hair looked like coppery fire, and now if I wanted to reach out and touch it, I could. And he'd smile when I did and tap my nose with his finger. The best part was that it had been several months and the Capitol hadn't called once. He said they probably found someone new to replace him. It seemed my whole life was floating in some sort of bliss cloud that I couldn't come down from.
