Sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.

An ability to look into the confusing mess of life and see things for what they are.

Stupid people are dangerous.

You don't destroy what you want to acquire in the future.

Mostly we just add to the piles of rainbow glass that's been blown off the exteriors of the cany-colored buildings.

As we trudge back through the woods, we reach a boulder, and both Gale and I turn our heads in the same direction, like a pair of dogs catching a scent on the wind. Cressida notices and asks what lies that way. We admit, without acknowledging each other, it's our old hunting rendez-vous place. She wants to see it, even after we tell her it's nothing really. Nothing but a place where I was happy, I think.

When I ask Plutarch about his absence, he just shakes his head and says, "He couldnt face it." "Haymitch? Not able to face something? Wanted a day off, more likely," I say. "I think his actual words were 'I couldn't face it without a bottle,'" says Plutarch.