Chapter Text
All in all, the watchmakers weren't so bad but it took some time to understand what they were expecting from me.
It was all kinds of confusing at first. The wife invited me to a hotel room but I panicked, so I think she tried to make it more comfortable for me by inviting me to her house instead.
A limousine brought me to one of those streets where all you could see were metal gates and fences because the houses were spread out so far. A whole Village could have fit in some of the gardens I passed through over the years. You couldn’t even call them gardens. They were parks meant just for the handful of people inhabiting the houses.
The watchmakers’ villa was just like that. Just a massive building with a giant garden and dozens of empty rooms. The only thing that stood out compared to most of the houses around theirs was that it had a clock tower. The property was on top of a slope, so you could see the thing from all around the neighborhood. I guess they wanted everyone to know who was setting the time in the Capitol.
I’m not sure if the husband even knew how to make watches. He talked a lot but mainly about who he sold his watches to and what gemstones were set into them. I think I asked some questions on how to build a watch from scratch but he never went into detail. It was the same for the wife. She always said that she didn’t want to bore me with details. Maybe they just didn’t think I would understand. I was, what? Sixteen? There wasn’t really much I understood about anything.
I thought it was odd that the husband was there at all. I could guess what the wife wanted from me, even if she was being purposely vague, but why didn’t she hide that from her husband? It was weird because I still tried to make sense of things based on what I grew up with. Cheating spouses are just–
I mean, I suppose that there will always be people who do that. But to invite the person you plan to cheat with and show them to your spouse? I couldn’t wrap my head around that idea.
Maybe she didn’t think of it as cheating, to begin with. If she did, she would have had to acknowledge that I was a sixteen-year-old kid and not some kind of toy.
It’s odd to think about that sometimes. I was dealing with so many kids, I stopped thinking about myself as one. Sixteen is the official age of consent. That’s what they told me the day I arrived that year.
Anyway.
The funny thing about the watchmakers was that they never even gave me a watch. The wife kept putting different ones around my wrist, sometimes two at once. Most were heavy like shackles but she was happy to show them to me, so I pretended that I was amazed. To be honest, I mainly thought about how much I could sell them for back home. Even if we had enough food back then because of my stipend, I could have given the money to someone else in the family.
I’m not sure if the wife saw that I was getting greedy but whenever I told her that I liked a watch, she took it away and said that she had a much better one waiting for me in their store. She would bring it next time. There was always a next time.
The first time around, it was just her. She had this room with red walls and red sheets on a round bed that started spinning. Or maybe my head was just spinning. I’m not sure. She poured me this green liquor that burnt all the way down my gut and got me drowsy.
There was a mirror on the ceiling but I only noticed that when I looked up while she was on top of me. I started laughing because it looked as if I was being swallowed by a spider, so she started howling like a wild animal. I think she misunderstood what I was laughing about. That made the whole thing even more absurd. Like a fever dream.
I wasn’t sure what had happened until I went home and my head started getting clearer.
I only realized that I had made a mistake when the gift she sponsored wasn’t one my remaining tribute knew how to use. She gave him a trident because that’s what I was famous for but then another tribute stabbed him with it. Ultimately, it was all for nothing.
I figured I would have to be more clear in conveying what I wanted but not everyone listened. I didn’t have much bargaining power in the first place but the watchmakers usually followed my requests once I figured out the right timing to place them.
I saw them once a year during the first couple of years of my being a mentor.
The second year, when I got the invitation, I was prepared for the red room and the green drink. I took a smaller sip that time and poured the rest into a vase, so I could be more focused. It was a different room, one with blue walls and a canopy bed. She was on top of me again and I was about to crack up because she had this updo that made her look even more like a spider. Dark beads were hanging from it like flies rolled up in a web.
But then I noticed the husband.
I have no idea if he was there the first time but it didn’t look accidental. He sat on this chair in a corner, just watching. I don’t know if he was watching me or her. Me on her. Her on me. I don’t know. But he had that look. They always have that look. Somehow, the way he looked at me was even worse than the way he looked at her. As if I was just–
This thing.
A piece of meat. Something that can be devoured.
I mean, it could have been worse though. They never expected more and in the end, each encounter was the same. They made me wear watches they weren’t going to let me take home. The wife was on top howling. The husband watched. I got the sponsorships I wanted.
It was fine.
At least, I could tell myself that I was somehow saving a marriage. They weren’t exactly hurting me either. I always knew where I was and how I got home, so that was something.
It was just a transaction.