drapetomonia - the overwhelming urge to run away.
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When Junia Beaumont, her brother and their classmates get a last assignment before the end of the school year, she doesn't know just how quickly things will change for her.
Who would have thought t...
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24. of snakes and antidotes
Right after dinner that evening, June retreats to her room instead of spending time with the rest of her family. Well, it's really just Max and their father that are in the living room since Cas has decided to follow her. Their mother is already in their study again, probably noting down whatever development Clemmie made today. She wonders when she'll have the next opportunity to enter her study and snoop through her notes.
"Like most of life's circumstances, war has its ups and downs. And that's your next assignment. Write me an essay on everything attractive about the war. Everything you loved about it."
Even quoting Dr. Gaul's words out loud doesn't make it any better. Cas is looking at her like she has three heads, too.
As if it isn't enough that they were given this assignment, June can't help but wonder what exactly Dr. Gaul's motives are. Everyone hated the war and the people in the Capitol are beyond glad that it's over. No one wants to be digging up old memories that they've desperately been trying to forget.
Perhaps she should ask her mother for advice. Even though the war traumatized her deeply and she doesn't like to think about it, she does seem to have somewhat gotten herself to the point at which she thinks the war was worth it because it ended up with her having a new, better job. Without it and without the creation of the Games, she might not have ended up working under Dr. Gaul.
Or perhaps not. But she can't think of a single person that might have something good to say about the war. Everyone in the Capitol seems to acknowledge that even though they always make sure to never forget it happened, they're glad it's over. The war was traumatizing for all of them and with the Capitol and Panem now on the road to recovery, it shouldn't be celebrated. Just because things are better for them now, it doesn't mean they should be trying to find good sides of such awful times.
Without the war, so many people wouldn't have died. Her grandfather and grandmother would still be alive and so many of her classmates wouldn't have lost any family members either. It's no wonder that everyone was utterly bewildered when Dr. Gaul gave them the assignment - no one can and wants to think of war as a good thing. Not when it has cost all of them so much.
"She's crazy," Cas finally replies. "No one wants to think about it. It was awful."
"That's what most of us said," June says. She leans back in her chair and watches as Cas slowly paces up and down her room. "I mean, it's only until Sunday but still. It's like my brain is empty."
