Le Captain of 13

029: The girl once picked up the phone on a stormy day in fall. The house was empty, her father at the bakery, her mother was off teaching her brother to set snares in the woods, and her Uncle Haymitch was in the ditch behind the train station, a resupply shipment had arrived the night before. So in short, she was alone. And when the phone rang, she was hesitant to pick it up. She had seen her parents do it on occasion but they rarely smiled when they did so. The girl brought the receiver to her ear and she heard...

The vocie: “Hello?”
The girl: “Yes?”
The voice: “Who is this?”
The girl: “Who is this?”
The voice: "Who is this?”
The girl: “I’m Bo. Who are you?”
The voice: “Oh, I must have the wrong numb-”
Bo: “Are you that doctor, mommy talks to? She doesn’t like to talk to you.”
The voice (stuttering): “No, I’m not a doctor.”
Bo: “Then who are you?”
The voice: “What is your mommy like?”
Bo: “Well-she’s tall and has dark hair like Egan, she hunts all the time, she hates my Uncle Haymitch, she bothers Daddy for cheese buns all the time, and she can never get a snare right the first time around.”
The voice: “Egan?”
Bo: "My baby brother."
The voice: “Is your mother around?"
Bo: “No, she’s trying to teach Egan snares even though she is bad at it.”
The voice: "I always was better than her at it- your father?"
Bo: “He’s at the bakery, I’m supposed to be helping him but I told him that I felt sick. He isn’t making any treats today so it would’ve been no fun.”
The voice: “How old are you?”
Bo: "Nine. You?"
The voice: "Too old."
Bo: "Why did you call?"
The voice: “Do you know what today is?”
Bo: “No.”
The voice: “Do you know what the Hunger Games were?”
Bo: “Sure, they were the Old Capitol’s thing-”
The voice: “Well today is the anniversary of the old Reaping. Do you know what that was?”
Bo: "No."
The voice: “It was when they took away the Tributes from the Districts to go prepare for the Games.”
Bo: "And?"
The voice: “I just wanted to tell your mother, may the odds be ever in your favor. Even after all these years.”
Bo: “Who should I tell her called?”
The voice: “The boy with the snares.”
The line cut and Bo put down the receiver. When her Uncle Haymitch came by later to check in on her, she told him on his way out, “May the odds be ever in your favor.” The old man nearly had a stroke and demanded to know where she got that phrase. She played dumb and merely shrugged. Bo never did tell her mother that the boy with the snares called.