OK, its later and I'm going to write down all my impressions of this amazing part. Honestly AnnieB, each time I read a section I think your writing cannot get any better, than another great section gets knocked out of the park!
There was plenty of light above the clouds — the sky was blanketed with stars and the moon was full and looked unusually large, a phenomenon known as a super moon, which was always prized by District 9 farmers during the planting and harvest seasons because it allowed them to work much later than usual.
I have heard the term harvest moon, but never super moon, very different. It most have been unusally bright for the District Nine farmers to work by.
There was a fine layer of dust on the table and the few other pieces of furniture — something Martha had never allowed while she was living there. The floors were unswept, and there was the occasional sound of rodents skittering across the floor and hiding in the walls, the eyes of the ones brave enough to venture out while Clark was there sometimes reflecting the lantern light.
Apparently they are no longer living at the farm, Martha would never allow the house to get that dusty!
Though Clark had intended to stay at the farm for the night — his excuse about flying somewhere else had been mostly to ensure that Martha wouldn’t go out in the storm looking for him — the longer he spent inside the house, the more restless he became. He didn’t know what to do about the farm, whether to sign it over to his friends or take the risk that he wouldn’t be able to provide enough help for his mother to keep it productive. He needed to think, and he couldn’t do it inside the cold, abandoned place where he’d grown up.
Just what he needs, time to think and clear his mind, which is something he hasn't been able to do since returning from the games. Flying, will be the first step towards this 'new' normal.
Or would it? Clark froze in place, thinking. It was easy to contemplate murder — for murder it would be, if he killed Snow — but the actual consequences were hard to predict. Clark had been brought up to show kindness and empathy to others, to help where he could, and killing another person went against everything he had ever been taught. He couldn’t forgive himself for Lysander and Lois’s deaths, regardless of the circumstances. Would he be able to live with himself if he killed Snow, despite all the things the man had done?
Clark is human. Completely and compassionately human.
I have to wonder if there really are tapes of Clark. As well as are there really people who will expose his secret if he does anything to Snow. Snow is too much a of control freak to place that kind of power in someone else's hands. What if they were to use Clark against Snow?
Admitting to himself that he’d loved Lois — and still did — had opened the floodgate to all the other emotions Clark had been suppressing since the Games. Grief for everyone and everything he’d lost because of the Games rushed through him.
Tears blurred his vision. He started to blink them back, then changed his mind. Out here, there was no one to see him, no one to ask if he was okay or tell him that he should be grateful for everything he’d gained as a victor.
Burying his face in his hands, Clark finally wept for everything he’d lost to the arena.
Out of the forges of adversity a new man has been formed.
Smiling tenderly, Martha stepped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her and leaving him to rest.
Martha's son, older than his years and very different, has finally returned home from the games.
I await the next installment with quiet eagerness.
