The Hunger Games - I'm Still Burning

Chapter 22

"Peeta, please don't make me do this."

"Katniss, you need to get outside or you'll turn into a hobbit. You can't avoid them forever."

This very conversation is the reason I had to leave the sanctuary of my home and take an aimless walk around District 12, Willow and her pushchair in tow. I haven't left the house in a week for fear of that inevitable awkward moment when I bump into Gale and Posie again. District 12 is big but not that big. The only place I would be certain to avoid them was my home and so that is where I stayed.

Until Peeta kicked me out and told me to get some fresh air.

I keep my eyes on Willow as I walk, avoiding eye contact from passers by. Her big, blue eyes stare back at me. Peeta's eyes. I smile, knowing that that part of Peeta will always be alive in her.

I peer through all the shop windows, admiring the displays and the sight of fully stocked shelves. Sometimes I feel as though I'm walking through a dream and that tomorrow I'll wake up and find the dishevelled District 12 from so many years ago. The boarded up shops, the hollow faces. The permanent smell of smoke that always rose from the Hob. It's a world away from what it is today.

And yet, I still had Prim then.

I steer Willow's pushchair into the nearest shop, looking for anything that might catch my eye and distract me. I sigh when I realise it's the book shop. I've never been much of a reader and all anybody seems to want to write about is The Hunger Games and war. As if we all really want to re-live the experience through the pages of a book.

I head to the children's section instead, hoping to find something for Willow. The bell on the shop door goes and I just have time to jump and hide behind a book case as I see who it is. Through the gap in the shelf, I watch as Posie makes her way over to a display on the other side of the room. Did she follow me in here? She picks up a book, inspecting it front and back. Maybe she is a reader. I roll my eyes; this is yet another way she is the opposite of me.

I slowly back up just as Willow lets out a happy gurgle. A very loud gurgle. Posie's head whips up at the sound and turns in my direction. I duck, hoping she hasn't seen me. But we're not the only people in this book shop.

"Katniss!"

A little body slams into the side of me, sending me sprawling into a rotating book stand. Books rain down on our heads as the stand smashes against the floor.

"LILY!" A mortified Naomi rounds the corner, yanking the little girl off me. Willow screams from the push chair, Posie stands awkwardly over me and the shop keeper glares at all of us.

I close my eyes and will the floor beneath me to open up and swallow me whole. But it doesn't and instead I laugh.

I laugh so hard at the absurdity of it all, I have to hold my sides. The adults all stare at me like I've lost my head, until Lily starts with the giggles and then I see Naomi trying to smother her own smile.

"Are you okay, Katniss?" Naomi asks, offering me her hand. I take it and she hauls me off the floor.

"I'm okay, just a bit taken by surprise," I giggle, getting Willow out of her pushchair to calm her.

Lily takes a more gentle approach and carefully wraps her arms around my legs. "Sorry, Katniss," she says, sweetly.

I crouch down to give her a proper hug but as soon as I'm down to her level, she only has eyes for Willow. She strokes her cheeks, her hair, showers her in kisses. I'm so enamoured watching the little display of affection between Willow and Lily that I almost forget that Posie is in the room.