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Mags Flanagan was fifteen years old when she saw Lucy Gray Baird captivate the nation with her voice, and her victory at the 10th Hunger Games. From the moment that Lucy Gray began to sing at her reaping, to her being announced as the victor of the Hunger Games, Mags was enthralled with the girl. With her brightly colored clothes, and her positive attitude that hardly ever seemed to falter despite the worst being thrown at her, Mags looked at her as some sort of role model.
At sixteen, Mags found herself being reaped in the 11th Hunger Games, though this event was different than the one before. After the explosion at the previous arena, the Capitol had designed a special arena for the next generation of tributes. Not only that but winning now meant safety and fortune- something that those in the districts desperately needed.
She carried the memory of Lucy Gray through the entirety of her Hunger Games, often finding herself humming to her songs as she made her fish hooks or when she was fishing. After she killed her first tribute, she quietly repeated the song that Lucy Gray had sung when she was in the arena, after the snakes had been let loose.
When I have no regrets,
Right here in
The old therebefore,
When nothing
Is left anymore
When Mags was announced as the victor of the 11th Hunger Games, she had Lucy Gray to thank for keeping her sane throughout everything. Upon her return to the Capitol, and the subsequent interview after the Games, she mentioned how Lucy Gray’s songs helped her.
Upon watching the interview, she noticed that the segment where she mentioned Lucy Gray had been cut out. It wasn’t until the end of her victory tour, when she met with Dr. Gaul, that she realized why. Dr. Gaul explained to her in an eerily gentle manner, that Lucy Gray didn’t exist anymore. That she was the end of an time that was not to be spoken of, and the Mags was the beginning of a new era. One that did not include Lucy Gray. If she were to ever be asked about the previous victor, she would simply deny ever hearing the name Lucy Gray Baird. That if there was talk that Mags brought her up, there would be consequences.
Mags was smart enough to understand what that meant, after all, she did remember how the previous victors were treated. Mags was lucky, they said. She didn’t want to jeopardize that.
So Mags never mentioned Lucy Gray again, but she carried the memory of the girl with her for the rest of her life. When she heard the birds sing, she thought of the girl from District 12 who seemed to change the history of Panem forever. Sometimes, on the way to the Capitol with the tributes that she mentored, she’d find herself looking out the window, wondering what happened to the girl called Lucy Gray Baird.
When Mags began to grow old, and her mind began to slip away, she would often mention ‘The Songbird’. Her children and grandchildren dismissed her words as ramblings of an old woman, but on the nights before her tributes were to be sent into the Games, she told them to listen for the Songbird, to listen for hope. They never knew what she meant by that, but no one questioned it. Mags was respected in district four, and no one wanted to challenge her.
When Katniss Everdeen volunteered for her little sister, Mags could see Lucy Gray in her. Her dark hair, her bravery at the face of true evil. That’s why when at eighty, she agreed to the rebel plan to keep Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark alive. After sixty four years of working under the Capitol, of seeing the horrors that they put the tributes through, she had realized why they were so eager to erase Lucy Gray from memory- Lucy Gray was the first Mockingjay. She was a sign of hope in dark times, and they were afraid that with hope, the districts would see that there was still a fight. That there was still a war to be won.
And when Mags walked into the mist to save the two tributes from district 12, she didn’t think about the pain, nor about the people she was leaving behind. She thought about the future, a world where those like Lucy Gray wouldn’t be erased from history, a world where children would not be sent to die for the cruel entertainment of the Capitol. She thought of Lucy Grays song:
I’ll be along
When I’ve finished my song,
When I’ve shut down the band,
When I’ve played out my hand
When I’ve paid all my debts,
When I have no regrets
Right here
In the old therebefore
When nothing
Is left anymore