haymitch

Not like this. He wanted it to be real.

Haymitch isn't thinking of arenas, but something else. "Johanna's back in the hospital."I assumed Johanna was fine, had passed her exam, but simply wasn't assigned to a sharp shooters' unit. She's wicked with a throwing axe but about average with a gun. "Is she hurt? What happened?""It was while she was on the Block. They try to ferret out a soldier's potential weakness. So they flooded the street, " says Haymitch.This doesn't help. Johanna can swim. At least, I seem to remember her swimming around some in the Quarter Quell. Not like Finnick, of course, but none of us are like Finnick. "So?""That's how they tortured her in the Capitol. Soaked her then used electric shocks," says Haymitch. "In the Block, she had some kind of flashback. Panicked, didn't know where she was. She's back under sedation." Finnick and I just stand there as if we've lost the ability to respond.I think of the way Johanna never showers. How she forced herself into the rain like it was acid that day. I had attributed her misery to morphling withdrawal. "You two should go see her. You're as close to friends as she's got," says Haymitch.That makes the whole thing worse. I don't really know what's between Johanna and Finnick, but I hardly know her. No family. No friends.Not so much as a token from District 7 to set beside her regulation clothes in her anonymous drawer.Nothing.

I thought he wanted it, anyway," I say. "Not like this," Haymitch says. "He wanted it to be real.

He wants as many victors as possible for the cameras to follow in the Capitol. Thinks it makes for better television.""Are you and Beetee going?" I ask."As many young and attractive victors as possible," Haymitch corrects himself. "So, no. We'll be here.

Finally, the intercom crackles and Hatmitch's acerbic laugh fills the studio. He contains himself just long enough to say, 'And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies.

He hates me more," says Peeta. "I don't think people in general are his sort of thing.

Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel. "You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know," Haymitch says.

You call that a kiss?

I know we promised Haymitch, we'd do exactly what they said, but I don't think he considered this angle.' 'Where is Haymitch, anyway? Isn't he supposed to protect us from this sort of thing?' says Peeta. 'With all that alcohol in him, it's probably not advisable to have him around an open flame,' I say.

People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!_ There__ dead silence on the set. It goes on. And on. Finally, the intercom crackles and Haymitch__ acerbic laugh fills the studio. He contains himself just long enough to say, __nd that, my friends, is how a revolution dies.

He could have had his choice of any woman in the district. And he chose solitude. Not solitude _ that sounds too peaceful. More like solitary confinement.