Ashes Blow Away

The Questions They Ask

When she is five, she asks a question.

" Mommy, how did you and daddy meet?"

Katniss stops dead in her tracks, removing the wooden spoon from the soup and placing it next to her. She turns to her.

" Well, Everly. . . it was raining. And I was very hungry. And daddy fed me. He gave me some bread."

Everly knits her eyebrows together. " The same kind of bread we make?"

Katniss nods. " Yes."

" Then how do we still laugh at it?"

Katniss laughs at her childish manner. She stoops to her height and kisses her head of brown hair. " Everly Mellark, you are the silliest girl I know. It's not the same bread, sweetheart. Just the same recipe."

Everly smiles and nods. " Okay."

Katniss breaths a sigh of relief. It is over. For now.

_•_

When she is seven, she ask a question.

She comes in from school, skipping, and sits at the counter. " Mommy?"

" Yes, sweetie?" Katniss asks. River and she are skinning a rabbit. Out the corner of her eye, she sees Everly wrinkle her nose at it.

" What is the Hungry Games?"

Katniss stops, dead in her tracks, terror coursing through her. Slowly, she turns to River. " River, sweetheart, why don't you go pick some flowers for mommy? Huh? Stay right outside." She ushers him out the front door and then walks back to the sink, rinsing the blood from her hands.

" They're called the Hunger Games," Katniss deadpans. " The best I can tell you is that, once, a very, very long time ago, a bad man created them. He wasn't nice. He made them so that children would fight children."

" She said they died."

She turns away from the sink to look at her. " Who did, sweetheart?"

" My teacher," Everly mumbles, her bottom lip trembling.

Katniss bends down and kisses her forehead. " They did. A very long time ago. And it won't ever happen again."

" Promise?"

" I promise, Everly. I promise."

_•_

When he is six, he asks a question.

He has been studying her all day. And eventually, he sidles up to Katniss and asks to go to the woods.

So they do. As they walk through the woods, bows in hand, he turns and looks at her.

" Everly said you fought kids when you were younger."

Katniss stills. He walks a few paces in front of her and sits down. He is so serious, so serene. . . it is unnerving.

" I did," Katniss whispers, unsure how her nine-year-old son knows.

" Did you kill anyone?"

" No," she says, then sighs. " Well, it's complicated. I didn't want to be a part I it-"

" Did you kill anyone?"

" Yes. But he hurt my friend and I was very mad."

" Oh," he leaves it there. So Katniss pulls him into a hug and she doesn't let him out her sight for the rest of the day.

_•_

When she is ten, she asks a question.

Katniss locks Peeta in their bedroom. Slowly, she trudges down the stairs.