You Are My Mockingjay- Watty's Finalist 2013

Finding A Symbol

That night around seven o' clock Clove and her mother finished eating dinner which just happened to be Cloves least favorite meal that her mother cooks.   Green salad, lasagna, and garlic bread.  Not that she hated italian food but for SOME reason her mother always failed making that recipe by over cooking it or having it under cooked.  "What's wrong Clove?  Is the lasagna too burnt?"  Said her mother who swallowed a big bite of her bread.  

"No mom it's fine, I'm just not that hungry."  In truth the food was burnt quite a bit that night but like always she hated to be the burdened so she tried shuffling the food in her mouth slowly.  

"I heard from your father today."  Said Grace who started to cut up her lasagna in small pieces.  Clove by now tried washing down her food with a glass of milk.  That was until she heard her mother talk about her dad.  Clove hadn't heard anything about her dad since the letter she received from him a couple of weeks ago.  

Slowly she puts her glass down on her green place mat that her grandmother had made years ago.  "Really, what did he say?"  Clove said in cautious yet curious voice.  

Her mother looks up away from a fork full of salad. "Not much just wanted to see how you were doing in school and how we were both doing."  

Clove puts her head down trying to make eye contact with her mother.  "Is that it, he didn't say anything else?"  

Grace nods as she takes another bite of food.  "Yep pretty much.  He sounded good though maybe he's changing his ways and making a better life for himself."  Clove grumbles to herself: I doubt that!  Clove looks up at her mom and starts to raise her fork and knife onto her plate.  

"I'm done can I be excused?" Clove says a bit quietly.  

  Her mother looks at her surprised.  "Really, you hardly ate."  

Clove holds onto her pate as she stands.  "I'm not that hungry, besides I have to call Cato and talk about our project for leadership." Grace settles her fork down and turns to face Clove who slowly enters into the kitchen.  

"Ok well do you mind helping me do the dishes with me?"  Without responding Clove places her plate into the sink and shakes her head.

After washing the dishes Clove heads to her room while her mother goes onto the couch and watches her favorite soap channel.  Quietly she closes her door behind her and gazes her room to try remember where she left her phone.  Her room was anything but ordinary.  Clove loved things that was frilly and comfortable, such things were rugs, to chairs even down to her fancy pens that she loved collecting since she was little.  Slowly she moves to the center of the room gazing around spinning around continuously.  It took a couple of turns when she remembered she left it in her front pocket in her bag pack.  Grabbing her phone she dials Cato's number and awaits for his answer.

   Cato answers by the third ring.  "Hello?"  

Clove slowly sits on the carpeted floor legs criss crossed.  "Hey Cato, it's me Clove."  Cato who was at the time on his bed working on his homework.  "Oh hey how's it going?"  

Clove eyes swirl trying to think really on how she's feeling.  "Oh pretty good I guess just finished having dinner with my mom....gosh it was awful though, I hardly ate."  Cato laughs from the other end.  

"You should have come over here, my mom made her famous chicken fried steak with potatoes and corn."  Just the sound of that Clove falls backwards in awe.  

"Ugh did you have to say that?  You know how much I love that recipe that your mom makes."  

Cato places his pencil down who had been working on one of the worst math problems in history at least that's how Cato saw it.  "You know the first time you had dinner with us my mom had made that for us and you loved it so much that every time she makes it she thinks of you."