The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

by Suzanne Collins

  What, indeed? “Just spending some time with my girl,” he answered.

  “I can hardly believe it.” Lucy Gray surveyed the Meadow. “Nothing since the reaping has seemed very real. And the Games were just a nightmare.”

  “For me, too,” he said. “But I want to hear what happened to you. Off camera.”

  They sat side by side, shoulders, ribs, hips pressed together, hands entwined, exchanging stories as they shared the ice water. Lucy Gray began with an account of the opening days of the Games, when she’d hidden with a progressively more rabid Jessup. “We kept moving from spot to spot in those tunnels. It’s like a maze down there. And poor Jessup getting sicker and crazier by the minute. That first night, we bedded down near the entrance. That was you, wasn’t it? Who came to move Marcus?”

  “It was me and Sejanus. He snuck in to . . . well, I’m not even sure what, to make some sort of statement. They sent me in to retrieve him,” Coriolanus explained.

  “Was it you killed Bobbin?” she asked quietly.

  He nodded. “Didn’t have a choice. And then three of the others tried to kill me.”

  Her face darkened. “I know. I could hear them boasting when they came back from the turnstiles. I thought you might be dead. Scared me, the thought of losing you. I didn’t draw breath until you sent in the water.”

  “Then you know what every moment was like for me,” Coriolanus said. “You were all I could think about.”

  “You, too.” She flexed her fingers. “I clutched that compact so hard you could see the imprint of the rose on my palm.”

  He caught her hand and kissed the palm. “I wanted so badly to help, and I felt so useless.”

  She caressed his cheek. “Oh, no. I could feel you looking out for me. With the water, and the food, and believe me, taking out Bobbin was major, even though I know it must have been awful for you. It sure was for me.” Lucy Gray admitted to three of her own kills. First Wovey, although that had not been targeted. She’d merely positioned a bottle of water with a few swallows and a bit of powder as if it had been dropped accidentally in the tunnels, and Wovey had been the one to find it. “I was gunning for Coral.” She claimed Reaper, whose puddle she’d poisoned, had contracted rabies when Jessup spat in his eye in the zoo. “So that was really a mercy killing. I spared him what Jessup went through. And taking out Treech with that viper was self-defense. Still not sure why those snakes loved me so. Not convinced it was my singing. Snakes don’t even hear well.”

  So he told her. About the lab, and Clemensia, and Dr. Gaul’s plan to release the snakes into the arena, and how he’d secretly dropped his handkerchief, his father’s handkerchief, into the tank so they could become accustomed to her scent. “But they found it, loaded with DNA from both of us.”

  “And that’s why you’re here? Not the rat poison in the compact?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “You covered beautifully for me on that one.”

  “Did my best.” She considered things for a minute. “Well, that’s it, then. I saved you from the fire, and you saved me from the snakes. We’re responsible for each other’s lives now.”

  “Are we?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she said. “You’re mine and I’m yours. It’s written in the stars.”

  “No escaping that.” He leaned over and kissed her, flushed with happiness, because although he did not believe in celestial writings, she did, and that would be enough to guarantee her loyalty. Not that his own loyalty was in question. If he hadn’t fallen in love with any of the girls in the Capitol, it was unlikely District 12 could offer much else in the way of temptation.

  A strange sensation at his neck called for attention, and he found Shamus sampling his collar. “Oh, hello. Can I help you, madam?”

  Lucy Gray laughed. “Happens you can, if you’ve a mind to. She needs milking.”

  “Milking. Hm. I’m not sure where to begin,” he said.

  “With a bucket. Up at the house.” She squirted a bit of ice water in Shamus’s direction, and the goat released the collar. Tearing the bag, she took out the last couple of cubes, popping one in Coriolanus’s mouth and one in her own. “Sure is nice to have ice this time of year. A luxury in summer and a curse in winter.”

  “Can’t you just ignore it?” asked Coriolanus.

  “Not around here. In January, our pipes froze, and we had to melt down ice chunks for water on the stove. For six people and a goat? You’d be surprised how much work that takes. It was better once the snow came; that melts pretty quick.” Lucy Gray took Shamus’s lead rope and picked up her guitar.

  “I got it.” Coriolanus reached for the instrument. Then he wondered if she trusted him with it.

  Lucy Gray easily handed it over. “Not as nice as the one Pluribus loaned us, but it pays for our keep. Only thing is, we’re running low on strings, and the homemade ones don’t cut it. Do you think, if I wrote to him, he could send me a few? I bet he has some leftover from when he ran his club. I can pay. I’ve still got most of the money Dean Highbottom gave me.”

  Coriolanus stopped in his tracks. “Dean Highbottom? Dean Highbottom gave you money?”

  “He did, but it was kind of on the quiet. First, he apologized for what I’d been through, then he stuffed a wad of cash into my pocket. Glad to have it. The Covey didn’t perform while I was gone. Too shook up over losing me,” she said. “Anyway, I can pay for those strings if he’s of a mind to help.”

  Coriolanus promised to ask in his next letter, but the news of Dean Highbottom’s covert generosity threw him. Why would evil incarnate help his girlfriend? Respect? Pity? Guilt? Morphling-induced whimsy? He mulled it over as they made their way to her front porch, where she hitched Shamus to a post.

  “Come on in. Meet the family.” Lucy Gray took his hand and led him to the door. “How’s Tigris? I sure wish I could’ve thanked her in person for the soap and my dress. Now that I’m home, I mean to send her a letter, and maybe a song if I come up with something good enough.”

  “She’d like that,” said Coriolanus. “Things aren’t going so well at home.”

  “I’m sure they miss you. Is it more than that?” she asked.

  Before he could answer, they’d entered the house. It consisted of one large, open room and what seemed to be a sleeping area up in a loft. Along the back, a coal stove, a sink, a shelf of dishware, and an ancient refrigerator designated the kitchen. A rack of costumes lined the right wall, their collection of instruments the left. An old television with an oversized antenna that branched out like antlers, rigged with twisted pieces of aluminum foil, sat on a crate. Other than some chairs and a table, the place was bare of furniture.

  Tam Amber leaned back in one of the chairs, holding his mandolin on his lap but not playing. Clerk Carmine hung his head off the loft, gazing unhappily at Barb Azure and Maude Ivory, who seemed to have worked herself into a state of indignation. At the sight of them, she shot across the floor and started pulling Lucy Gray toward the window that looked out over the backyard. “Lucy Gray, he’s making trouble again!”

  “You let him in?” Lucy Gray asked, seeming to know who she meant.

  “No. Said he just wanted the rest of his stuff. We threw it out back,” said Barb Azure, her arms crossed in disapproval.

  “So, what’s the problem?” Lucy Gray spoke calmly, but Coriolanus could feel her grip tighten.

  “That,” said Barb Azure, nodding out the back window.

  Still in tow, Coriolanus followed Lucy Gray and looked into the backyard. Maude Ivory wriggled in between them. “Sejanus is supposed to be helping me with the nuts.”

  Billy Taupe knelt on the ground, a pile of clothes and a few books beside him. He was talking rapidly as he scraped out some kind of picture in the dirt. Periodically, he’d gesture, pointing this way and that. Across from him, down on one knee, Sejanus listened intently, nodding in understanding and o
ccasionally throwing in a question. While the sight of Billy Taupe in what he now considered his territory annoyed him, Coriolanus did not see much cause for concern. He could not imagine what he and Sejanus had to discuss. Perhaps they’d found some mutual grievance — like how their families didn’t understand them — to whine about?

  “Are you worried about Sejanus? He’s fine. He talks to anybody.” Coriolanus tried but failed to make out Billy Taupe’s picture in the dirt. “What’s he drawing?”

  “Looks like he’s giving some sort of directions,” said Barb Azure, relieving him of the guitar. “And if I’m right, your friend needs to go home.”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Lucy Gray started to release Coriolanus’s hand, but he hung on. “Thanks, but you don’t have to deal with all my baggage.”

  “It’s in the stars, I guess,” Coriolanus said with a smile. It was time anyway that he confronted Billy Taupe and laid down a few rules. Billy Taupe had to accept that Lucy Gray was no longer his, but belonged firmly, and for always, to Coriolanus.

  Lucy Gray didn’t answer, but she stopped trying to free her hand. As they walked quietly through the open back door, the brightness of the August sun, now climbing high in the sky, made him squint. So engrossed was the pair that it was not until he and Lucy Gray stood directly over them that Billy Taupe reacted, swiping the picture from the dirt with his hand.

  Without Barb Azure’s tip-off, Coriolanus might have been clueless, but as it was, he recognized the image almost immediately. It was a map of the base.

  Sejanus startled in what Coriolanus couldn’t help thinking was a guilty manner, getting rapidly to his feet as he brushed the dust from his uniform. Billy Taupe, on the other hand, rose slowly, almost lazily, to confront them.

  “Well, look who’s decided to talk to me,” he said, grinning uneasily at Lucy Gray. Was this the first time they’d spoken since the Hunger Games?

  “Sejanus, Maude Ivory’s all bent out of shape about you bailing on those nuts,” she said.

  “Yes, I’ve been shirking my duties.” Sejanus held out his hand to Billy Taupe, who didn’t hesitate to give it a shake. “Nice meeting you.”

  “Sure, you, too. You can find me around the Hob some days, if you want to talk more,” Billy Taupe replied.

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” said Sejanus, making for the house.

  Lucy Gray released Coriolanus’s hand and squared her shoulders with Billy Taupe’s. “Go away, Billy Taupe. And don’t come back.”

  “Or what, Lucy Gray? You’ll sic your Peacekeepers on me?” He laughed.

  “If need be,” she said.

  Billy Taupe glanced over at Coriolanus. “Seem like a pretty tame pair.”

  “You don’t get it. There’s no walking this back,” said Lucy Gray.

  Billy Taupe turned angry. “You know I didn’t try and kill you.”

  “I know you’re still running with the girl that did,” Lucy Gray shot back. “Hear you’ve made yourself right at home at the mayor’s.”

  “And who sent me over there in the first place, I wonder? Makes me sick how you’re playing the kids. Poor Lucy Gray. Poor lamb,” he sneered.

  “They’re not stupid. They want you gone, too,” she spat out.

  Billy Taupe’s hand whipped out, grabbing her wrist and pulling her up against him. “Where, exactly, am I supposed to go?”

  Before Coriolanus could intervene, Lucy Gray sank her teeth into Billy Taupe’s hand, causing him to yelp and release her. He glared at Coriolanus, who’d stepped up protectively beside her. “Doesn’t look like you’re so lonely yourself. This your fancy man from the Capitol? Chased all this way after you? He’s got a few surprises waiting for him.”

  “I already know all about you.” Coriolanus didn’t, really. But it made him feel at less of a disadvantage.

  Billy Taupe gave a disbelieving laugh. “Me? I’m the rosebud in that dung heap.”

  “Why don’t you go, like she asked?” said Coriolanus coldly.

  “Fine. You’ll learn.” Billy Taupe gathered his possessions into his arms. “You’ll learn soon enough.” He strode off into the hot morning.

  Lucy Gray watched him go, rubbing the wrist he’d grabbed. “If you want to run, now’s the time.”

  “I don’t want to run,” said Coriolanus, although the exchange had been unsettling.

  “He’s a liar and a louse. Sure, I flirt with anybody. It’s part of my job. But what he’s implying, that just isn’t true.” Lucy Gray looked over at the window. “And what if it was? What if it was that or letting Maude Ivory starve? Neither of us would have let that happen, no matter what it took. Only, he’s got a different set of rules for him than for me. Like always. What makes him a victim makes me trash.”

  This brought back disturbing memories of his conversation with Tigris, and Coriolanus changed the subject quickly. “He’s seeing the mayor’s daughter now?”

  “That’s how it is. I sent him over there to pick up some cash teaching piano lessons, and the next thing I know, her daddy’s calling out my name in the reaping,” said Lucy Gray. “Not sure what she told him. He’d go nuts if he knew she was running around with Billy Taupe. Well, I survived the Capitol, but not to come back for more of the same.”

  Something in her manner, the raw distress, convinced Coriolanus. He touched her arm. “Make a new life, then.”

  She entwined her fingers with his. “A new life. With you.” But a cloud hung over her.

  Coriolanus gave her a nudge. “Don’t we have a goat to milk?”

  Her face relaxed. “We do.” She led him back into the house, only to find Maude Ivory had taken Sejanus out to teach him to milk Shamus.

  “He couldn’t say no. He’s in the doghouse for talking to the enemy,” said Barb Azure. She took a pan of chilled milk from the old refrigerator, set it on the table, and examined it. From a shelf, Clerk Carmine retrieved a glass jar with some sort of contraption on the top. A crank attached to the lid appeared to move small paddles within the jar.

  “What are you doing there?” asked Coriolanus.

  “A fool’s errand.” Barb Azure laughed. “Trying to get enough cream so as we can make butter. Only goat’s milk doesn’t separate like cow’s.”

  “Maybe if we gave it another day?” Clerk Carmine said.

  “Well, maybe.” Barb Azure returned the pan to the refrigerator.

  “We promised Maude Ivory we’d try. She’s crazy for butter. Tam Amber fashioned the churn for her birthday. Guess we’ll see,” said Lucy Gray.

  Coriolanus fiddled with the crank. “So you . . . ?”

  “Theoretically, when we get enough cream, we turn the handle, and the paddles churn it into butter,” Lucy Gray explained. “Well, that’s what someone told us anyway.”

  “Seems like a lot of work.” Coriolanus thought of the beautiful, uniform pats he’d helped himself to from the buffet on reaping day, never giving a moment’s thought as to where they came from.

  “It is. But it’ll be worth it if it works. Maude Ivory doesn’t sleep well since they took me away. Seems fine during the day, then wakes up screaming at night,” confided Lucy Gray. “Trying to get some happy in her head.”

  Barb Azure strained the fresh milk Sejanus and Maude Ivory brought in and poured it into mugs while Lucy Gray portioned out the bread. Coriolanus had never had goat’s milk, but Sejanus smacked his lips, saying it reminded him of his childhood in District 2.

  “Did I ever go to District Two?” Maude Ivory asked.

  “No, baby, that’s out west. The Covey stayed more east,” Barb Azure told her.

  “Sometimes we went north,” said Tam Amber, and Coriolanus realized it was the first time he’d heard him speak.

  “To what district?” asked Coriolanus.

  “No district, really,” said Barb Azure. “Up where the Capitol didn’t care about
.”

  Coriolanus felt embarrassed for them. No such place existed. At least not anymore. The Capitol controlled the known world. For a moment, he imagined a group of people in wild animal furs scraping out an existence in a cave somewhere. He supposed such a thing could happen, but that life would be a big step down from even the districts. Barely human.

  “Probably rounded up like we were,” said Clerk Carmine.

  Barb Ivory gave a sad smile. “Doubt we’ll ever know.”

  “Is there any more? I’m still hungry,” Maude Ivory complained, but the bread was gone.

  “Eat a handful of your nuts,” Barb Azure said. “They’ll feed us at the wedding.”

  To Coriolanus’s dismay, it turned out that the Covey had a job that afternoon, playing for a wedding in town. He had hoped to get Lucy Gray off alone again for a more in-depth conversation about Billy Taupe, her history with him, and exactly why he might be drawing a map of the base in the dirt. But it would all have to wait, since the Covey began to prepare for their gig as soon as the dishes were washed.

  “Sorry to run you off so soon, but this is how we earn our bread.” Lucy Gray saw Coriolanus and Sejanus to the door. “The butcher’s daughter’s getting hitched, and we need to make a good impression. People with money to hire us will be there. You could wait and walk us over, I guess, but that might . . .”

  “Start people gossiping,” he finished for her, glad she had been the first to suggest it. “Probably best if we keep it between us. When can I see you again?”

  “Anytime you like,” she said. “I have a feeling your schedule’s a little more demanding than mine.”

  “Do you play at the Hob next Saturday?” he asked.

  “If they let us. After the trouble last night.” They agreed he would come as early as he could to share a few precious minutes with her before the show. “There’s a shed we use, just behind the Hob. You can meet us there. If there’s no show, just come to the house.”