The singer and the Liquor (Jessica S)

[ali]

Speak the words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open

15 years, 15 years since Tisha walked among the halls of the training centre. Now, here we were again- preparing for another year of the games. Lethe Turner had won last year- I remember her, yes. The girl who was afraid of herself. I could understand how she was feeling, to an extent. I could tell, by the way she sat on stage during the Celebration ceremony and any other broadcast with her face alike post games, that she felt alone and trapped from the world. However the feeling was not Mutual. She could never feel like I do. She would never understand how it feels to lose ones voice, ones identity. Well, I hoped she never would- such a pretty girl with such a sweet melodic voice should never suffer the way I had.

Though, I may not be in her presence ever. All I knew was that I’d be watching the tributes on my Mistresses TV screens. I grimaced as I walked through the streets, bags of food in my hands- along with a bag of liquor. To my left, sits a row of multi coloured houses to my right, another row of multi coloured houses with young plump children running about in the street. I couldn't remember when I had last celebrated my birthday, I wasn’t even sure when it was anymore. It had really been that long since someone had greeted me with birthday wishes.

I turned right and up a set of marble flowing steps. The walls were a creamy yellow- one of the less obscene colours on the street. This was also my mistresses home, where I worked and lived. She was a singer, hence the piano in the front room. A large room; with white walls and black furniture. I placed the bags down and looked round the house, listening for my Mistress. My mistress’s name was Libretto and she was a true Capitolian. She had had many plastic surgeries and her waist was ridiculously thin- but she never bragged to her friends about it. She was nice, nicer than some in the Capitol. Though she still had her temper tantrums, in which she was not very nice. I hung up my coat, the rain droplets cautiously bouncing as gravitiy tugged on it. I turned back to the stair way in front of me, looking up onto the 1st floor.

[Jessica S]

Libretto was standing directly in the center of her...well, it wasn't quite a living room, nor a practice room, not a bar. It was an odd fusion of all these things, the area where she spent all of her time. It was the first room off the door, with a large, wall-size television, a complicated glass bar, a disgustingly expensive piano, and a sunken sitting area with overstuffed burgundy sofas. It was decorated like an old room from another era - overly elegant and exquisitely decorated, like a the opera houses from long before people had any technology whatsoever.

Libretto stood, her eyes transfixed on the television as she smoked furiously through a long black holder. "Damn, damn, damn," she muttered to herself. Her head jerked towards the open door when she heard the sound of her Avox entering.

"Clymene!" she called sharply, waiting for the girl to enter. The girl tended to fade into the scenery, but it was nice to occasionally have someone listen to your ramblings, even if that person wasn't a "person" per se. It was akin to talking absentmindedly to the pet cat.

When Clymene entered, Libretto immediately began speaking. "Fix me a drink, please," she ordered, glancing at her quickly before looking back at the television. "I haven't booked a single appearance this week. Mother will surely have a field day picking apart exactly why that is, considering that we are at the very height of the games," Libretto rambled, yanking the finished cigarette out of the holder and replacing it with a new one. She glanced around the floor quickly. "Damnit, where is my lighter? The long one, the antique," she said.

[ali]

Speak the words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open

“Damn, Damn Damn” I heard my Mistress mumble from the living room before shouting “Clymene!”

Swiftly I walked in there, holding my hands at naval level like I was taught all those years ago in the Avox centre. I had lost count on how many years it had been- sometimes it seemed like yesterdays; others it seemed like an eternity ago. My Mistress stood- elegantly dressed as always- in the centre of the 'living room' looking the direction of the door way.

The moment I came into her line of sight she snapped “Fix me a drink, please”

Please was an uncommon word to hear when one was an Avox. Please was not in many Avoxe's dictionaries. However, Libretto was nice- well.. she were a woman of class after all. She still had respect for other human beings- Avox and Capitolie alike. She kept to the old ways- where woman considered beauty and fame as everything, while the new ways taught woman to follow their husbands. Libretto didn't have a husband, I wasn't even sure if she had a boyfriend or lover. She may have a secret admirer that I do not know about- for it would not be a secret admirer if I knew- but I had never really seen any male counterparts in this house. None, that she took a fancying to anyway.

Listening to her order, I nodded and made my way over to the bar. Libretto liked her drinks, as did many Capitolians. I never did really drink- I couldn't now anyway; it was the rules. Yet I saw no need to drink anyway since it had been the thing that had ruined my marriage. My husband had not been the alcoholic type in the beginning. He had barely tasted a sip of wine which his parents had kindly imported for us from District 11- a place were many things grow in the sweltering sun. It was only after I had given birth to my first did he stray to drinking. It had been limited at first- one or two an evening. Then as our daughter grew, as if she were the serpent herself, so did my husbands daily intake of alcohol. Many nights he would drink maybe 5 or 6- it would double this amount over the months. Then he would stop for a while- I would be given false hope that the hitting would stop but he would just begin the drinking again. I noticed it got somewhat worse when Daria was born- mainly after we learnt of her deafness. The abusing got worse. I knew he had not stopped when I had been taken off into the night- and I dread to think that he has been continuing with my daughter who was so vulnerable.

I poured Libretto a glass of clear liquid into a small glass tumbler as she continued complaining about how she had not got a job in months..or weeks...I couldn't really tell I wasn't listening. I put a slice of lime in the tumbler and carried it over to Libretto looking at the TV.