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I'd give you the Sun, if you asked me
You could have all of the time
You could have the stars, and the trees
When dividing up the universe, you could have mine
“Congratulations,” Asterid says, handing her the baby wrapped in a blanket embroidered with orange flowers and green ivy – a gift from Katniss and Peeta. The woman has a sort of vacant expression that hasn’t left her face since Burdock’s death, but still offers them a small smile. “It’s a girl.”
She turns around quickly, not giving them the chance to see her tears.
“Knew, it.” Haymitch says, rushing to Effie’s side and wrapping an arm around her. “I told ya it’d be a girl, princess. And you said I was wrong–”
“No, I didn’t.” She rolls her eyes tiredly, voice a bit raspy from all the screaming. “I just didn’t want the baby to hear I was hoping for a girl. What if it was a boy? That would’ve been unfair to him.”
“So you admit you wanted a girl.” Haymitch pokes her arm, making Effie resent the fact she can’t elbow him on the ribs.
“Now that she’s here, I can tell her she’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of.” As if on cue, the baby whines and Effie coos at her. “There, there, sweeting. Papa’s being silly, isn’t he? Such a silly goose.”
This time, Haymitch is the one to roll his eyes. “Figures you’d join forces with our daughter to make fun of me.”
Our daughter.
Effie tears up. Haymitch presses a kiss to the crown of her head and looks at the baby. Really looks at her.
She has a tuft of blonde hair like his and Effie’s beautiful blue eyes. Fingers so tiny but that already have Haymitch wrapped around them. He figures she will have a lot of power over him – just like her mama, not that he’s complaining.
The sun peeks through the curtains and turns her gold. A child born after the sunrise, literally and figuratively. That bundle of innocence in Effie’s arms will get to stay that way for longer than eleven years because the time for the reaping will never come again, and his wife will never risk calling their daughter’s name on a stage.
Life no longer means waiting for death to come. It no longer means surviving.
It means watching his little girl grow up into a woman. Growing like the flowers Peeta plants around their houses, only more beautiful.
He’d been so lost in thought he didn’t even notice Effie humming a quiet and peaceful tune as her fingers caress the baby’s cheek.
“I was thinking Calliope,” His wife whispers. “The eldest of the Muses. Music and poetry. And I thought… I thought you’d like to pick her second name. After a pretty color.”
Haymitch doesn’t bother wiping his tears. He knows what Effie means.
He knows she’s asking him to give her a Covey name if he’d like. For his long lost Dove.
He had been thinking about it, of course, ever since Effie announced her pregnancy. After the first trimester – to ensure it was safe, that there was no risk of a miscarriage – Haymitch had made his way to the Meadow, to the spot the Covey had turned into their own graveyard, and froze the moment he spotted the old man playing a lone fiddle.
The conversation with Clerk Carmine had been bittersweet, but the unique way the Covey used to name their children wasn’t his to simply take.
Tam Amber
Lenore Dove
Maude Ivory
Lucy Gray
Clerk Carmine had left after shaking his hand firmly. He didn’t cry. Haymitch thought perhaps he’d run out of tears by now.
There were many ideas in his mind – Sienna, Cerise, Celeste, Erin, Violet, Fawn – for the color that would be forever part of his baby girl, but having her there, right in front of him for the very first time, only one seemed fitting.
Charm. Like one of the many shades of pink Effie liked to wear.
Charm. Like the trait his daughter had been born with, of giving delight.
Charm. Like the little ornaments adorning his wife’s jewelry. Like Trinket.
When he tells her that, Effie gives him a smile – soft, exhausted, happy – and glances back at their baby.
“She’s perfect.” Effie breathes out.
“I’ll give her everything,” Haymitch promises, either to Calliope Charm, to Effie, or simply to himself. The fact that he used to think he’d never be a good father no longer matters because his daughter is already here and all she needs is for him to do his best. So he will. “You’ll be so loved, sunshine…”
Asterid returns, looking apologetic as she tells them the baby needs to be washed. They inform her of the chosen name and she says the children are going to love it, so Haymitch asks her to let Katniss and Peeta inside because he can hear Katniss’ nonstop pacing all the way downstairs.
“At least the girl will stop calling our baby a sprout, huh?”
Effie laughs and leans back against him.
“You okay?” Haymitch asks and she nods. “You did good, Eff. She’s perfect.”
Calliope Charm Abernathy, proof that the world can still be beautiful.
Asterid stays for a month, making sure both Effie and Calliope – Callie Charm, as they call her – are healthy. She stays at their house, both because it’s easier and because Katniss doesn’t like being around her mother for longer than necessary.
It’s painful to watch. The way Asterid’s eyes focus on the dozens of primroses around their garden instead of her firstborn that lives across the street and vanishes into the woods for hours on end.
Effie tries to be understanding, especially now that she has a daughter of her own. Every time she thinks of bad things happening to her Callie Charm, of the mere chance someone might try to hurt her, she has a breakdown and Haymitch has to remind her that the world is safe now.
Still, even though she and Haymitch have only planned to have one baby, Effie can’t help but wonder what she would do in case another was born and then lost, like Prim. And that’s where she can’t excuse Asterid’s behavior, because there is no amount of grief that would make her turn her back on her eldest.
Haymitch tells her not to judge, even though he doesn’t exactly disagree with her. But despite carrying his last name now, she’s still Effie Trinket and she judges.
When she leaves, Katniss and Peeta finally start coming over more, always bearing gifts. She brings Effie fabric for her to make Callie Charm’s outfits – some the same shade of pink as her name and others with pretty patterns. He brings Effie’s favorite sweets from the bakery and even bakes a special cake for each of her monthly birthdays.
Callie Charm’s hair continues to grow despite Effie having prepared for the day it would fall. Beautiful blonde curls that wake up all messy and tangled, and that she will braid one day.
No milestone goes without celebration. Her first word is mama, which Haymitch claims it’s cheating due to the many times a day Effie would repeat the word to her slowly. She had first crawled towards Peeta and the bunny plushie he’d been holding, making the boy burst into tears and pick her up lovingly. Her first steps were towards Haymitch, which Callie Charm had managed after falling on her butt twice and getting up again.
Her first piece of jewelry had been given by Katniss, a tiny golden bracelet with a single charm – a goose. Callie Charm had loved it, because she was crazy about her father’s pet geese, and the older she gets, the more names she comes up with for each of them. Katniss also teaches her how to swim, with patience and sweetness that used to be reserved for her sister.
Effie’s life is transformed from making sure their outfits are pristine to rolling her eyes fondly each time another one of her daughter’s dresses appears dirty because of the mud she plays in when it rains, stained due to the berries Katniss helps her pick or from the leftover icing Peeta always lets her eat.
It’s evidence of a childhood none of them had ever had. Haymitch’s Ma wouldn’t mind if her sons got a little dirty from playing around in the woods, Asterid and Burdock would only chuckle when Katniss and Prim’s fingers turned purple from the berry juice – glad their daughters had something good to eat for a change – and getting covered in flour or icing was part of working at Mellark’s Bakery.
The Trinkets would’ve cared deeply. Effie remembers the way her mother would glare at her and Proserpina if she ever caught them licking their fingers clean or realized they had accidentally ripped their expensive clothes.
Now, she patiently sews the fabric again, blowing her daughter a kiss when she looks at her feet and mutters an apology. “That’s life, sweeting.” Effie tells her every time. “Nothing mama can’t fix.”
Callie Charm smiles and the world lights up. She has freckles now, over her nose, just like Effie, and it makes her look even more adorable. “Love ya, mama.”
“I love you too, birdie.” Effie brushes a strand of Callie Charm’s hair behind her ear. She doesn’t even remember the first time Katniss had come up with the nickname, but it stuck and it suited her daughter perfectly.
Their girl has two birthmarks. One in her stomach, near the exact spot of Haymitch’s scar, and the other behind her ear – which amazingly resembles a heart. Callie Charm adores both, but huffs in frustration about not being able to see the latter. Effie had taken a picture of it, which she shows her every time her daughter asks.
That same day, Haymitch had come home from the Meadow to find both of them on the porch – Callie Charm feeding peas to the geese, Effie with her sewing kit and peach thread in hand. It’d been a good day, he’d figured, because there were times his wife couldn’t handle the mere sight of a needle.
“Pa!” She exclaims, leaving the bowl of peas behind and jumping on his arms. “I missed you!”
“Oof,” He grunts as his daughter all but climbs him until she sits around his shoulders. “Your pa’s getting a little too old to do this, Callie Charm.”
“You’re not old, you silly goose!” She giggles, leaning over his head and poking his cheek.
“Next time, I’ll sit on your shoulders, then.” Haymitch walks up the steps to meet his wife. “Watch your head, hummingbird.”
“Your daughter has ripped another dress,” Effie teases, grinning when the girl gasps and uses her braid to cover her eyes like a blindfold. “Said the bushes came out of nowhere.”
“Now she’s just mine, huh?” He strokes Effie’s cheek and she presses a kiss to his palm. “I’m sure those were some very mean bushes.”
“Why don’t you go show her the surprise?” She stands up and helps Callie Charm get down. “Don’t be long. We’ll be having dinner at Katniss and Peeta’s tonight.”
“Surprise?” The girl squeals. “What, pa?”
Effie watches them go, shaking her head in amusement. The last thing she hears before going back inside is Callie Charm’s loud voice – filled with childlike wonder – “A swing!”
It’s not the life she ever thought she’d have – in District 12, married to a Victor, mother of the sweetest and most perfect child to ever grace the face of the Earth. After she’d been forced to take the job as an escort for the Games, Effie had stopped believing in a normal future.
Of course, nothing was one hundred percent normal, even years after the end of the war. Sometimes, Callie Charm had to sleep at her auntie Kat’s house because her mama had locked herself away in the bedroom and her pa had to be there for her. Sometimes, she wouldn’t see her auntie Kat and her uncle Peeta for days because either or both of them were ‘sick’.
The day will come for Calliope Charm to learn the truth – the reason why Effie cried every time she had to get a haircut, why everyone in her family had a collection of scars, why Peeta only had one leg and both he and Katniss had burn scars, why Haymitch would always eat her gumdrops first and never let her near the red ones and why the one time Katniss styled her blonde hair in two braids had made him so sick he threw up.
It’s the conversation Annie has just started to have with her son, Finn, now that he’s asking more questions and is a bit older – almost as old as his father had been when he became District 4’s youngest Victor. It’s a conversation Effie know’s Haymitch’s dreading, because it involves a lot more than his own Games. It involves everything from before as well.
Someday, he will tell her of his little brother, Sid – forever ten years old in their mother’s embrace. Someday, he will tell her of the girl he fell in love with before Effie, of the true significance of Callie Charm’s name. Someday, he will tell her of the twins who were supposed to be his sisters and of his sister who happened to be a twin.
Someday, Effie will tell her more of the girl Callie Charm reminds her so much of. The joy and excitement, the gleam in her eyes, the way she likes to dress in Effie’s clothes and twirl around the house – all of which serve as painful reminders of her dearest Prosie.
Prosie would've loved her niece as much as any of them did and would’ve spoiled her rotten.
Effie misses her sister so much it feels like her stomach is being ripped out. She constantly has nightmares of the light leaving her eyes. When that happens, Effie gets out of bed and goes to Callie Charm’s room, getting into bed with her and holding her daughter close the same way she did with Prosie when they were children, because her little sister was afraid of thunderstorms.
Inside the house, Effie snaps out of her thoughts, realizing she’d been looking at the pictures above the fireplace – her and Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta, baby Callie Charm, Annie and Finn, big girl Callie Charm, Johanna, Asterid, a copy of Katniss’ pictures of Burdock and Prim, and the few pictures of Prosie Effie had been able to save.
Taking a deep breath, she wipes the corner of her eye and starts picking up Callie Charm’s toys from the floor, seizing the opportunity to wash her beloved bunny plushie – Mr. Dandelion, Dandy for short, who was now missing an eye.
“Your ma can fix him, hummingbird.” Haymitch as told her, ruffling her hair. “Dandy will be good as new.”
“But now he has a scar too!” Callie Charm had pointed at the one under her chin, the result of tripping over a log and falling over the rocks near the lake. “He’s part of the family, pa.”
Haymitch hadn’t known what to say to that. He didn’t drink anymore to try and soothe the pain, so he pulled her into a tight hug instead.
Dandy stayed that way – perfectly imperfect, like every one of them.
“Pa, do ya love me?” Callie Charm asks suddenly when they’re in the Meadow, laying on a blanket, watching the sky and the beautiful orange color of the moon that night. She’s missing her front teeth, which Effie had taken from under her pillow and put inside her jewelry box, and Haymitch had replaced with two charms for her new necklace – a bunny and a music note.
“I do.” He tells her like a promise, taking her small hand in his and giving it a squeeze.
“Like, how much?”
“As much as the amount of trees in the forest and stars in the sky.” Haymitch feels his heart swell when his daughter giggles and snuggles against him. He wants to stay there forever, wants to live forever and never leave her side.
“You too, mama?” She asks Effie, who shifts closer and kisses her forehead.
“You are so loved, Calliope Charm…” Effie brushes her daughter’s hair behind her ear, tapping her heart-shaped birthmark. “So much love it even shows on your skin.”
Callie Charm beams and hugs Dandy tightly against her chest. “Pa, what’s that poem I like?”
Haymitch took a moment to remember all the words before reciting.
“He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise”
“What does it mean?” Callie Charm asks, stifling a yawn.
“It means you can’t hold only onto things and people that have made ya happy in the past,” Haymtich tries to explain in a way a child can understand. “Because it stops you from enjoying the present. You may be sad or angry sometimes, but you’ll be happy again, and that’s a life worth living.”
When he looks down at his daughter, Callie Charm is fast asleep, sucking on one of Dandy’s ears. Effie smiles and takes it off her mouth, fingers lingering on the softness of her chubby cheeks.
“Guess I made that boring.” Haymitch chuckles and his wife shakes her head.
“The time will arrive for her to truly understand,” Effie leans over their little girl’s body and pecks him on the lips. “For now, let her enjoy the poem just because it’s pretty.”
Haymitch picks Callie Charm up while Effie folds the blanket, making their way back to their home. They put their daughter to bed, under the jellyfish mobile little Finn had gifted to his best friend back when she turned two.
He watches Effie put Dandy back next to her, under the covers, blonde hair covering his face in a matter of seconds.
“How did we make her, Eff?” He asks, like he does almost every night. “You and I. How did we end up making her?”
So perfect, so sweet, so happy.
Effie turns around to look at him and shrugs. “I don’t know. I never will. But I’m glad we did.”
“Yeah,” He kisses her neck. “Me too.”
They spend a few more minutes just watching their daughter sleep soundly, unafraid of bombs and reapings, of starvation and torture.
Tomorrow, she will have her hair braided by her mama, feed the geese with her pa, pick berries with auntie Katniss and plant flowers with uncle Peeta.
And her life will be worth living.
“Sweet dreams, hummingbird.”