Tin Foil Hat Theory #2: Sponsor Gifts from District 12 (74th and 75th Games)
The foundation and first part of this theory is the idea that district sponsors can pay to send in items/goods from home, not just select from a resource list that the Capitol provides.
The burn medicine was most definitely manufactured in the Capitol, so my first example is Katniss's second gift in the 74th Games, the bread:
I open the parachute and find a small loaf of bread. It’s not the fine white Capitol stuff. It’s made of dark ration grain and shaped in a crescent. Sprinkled with seeds. I flashback to Peeta’s lesson on the various district breads in the Training Center. This bread came from District 11. I cautiously lift the still warm loaf. What must it have cost the people of District 11 who can’t even feed themselves? How many would’ve had to do without to scrape up a coin to put in the collection for this one loaf? It had been meant for Rue, surely. But instead of pulling the gift when she died, they’d authorized Haymitch to give it to me. As a thank-you? Or because, like me, they don’t like to let debts go unpaid? For whatever reason, this is a first. A district gift to a tribute who’s not your own.
Yes, the Capitol dining area had district bread provided for the tributes, but that scene may have just been so Katniss was able to immediately identify which district baked the bread and paid to send it in. Also, it's still warm. Sure, maybe the Capitol has containers to preserve the temperature of the food... or maybe Thresh and Rue were doing well in this arena and correctly identifying the birds, grains, and berries because it's located very close to District 11. (Then again, both can be true.)
Next gift is the pot of hot broth. Could be from the Capitol, it's true. Could also be from Greasy Sae, the woman who is known for serving up soup and who we learn in Catching Fire is currently starting up a collection back home to sponsor her.
I'm skipping over the sleep syrup for now because it still needs a little more proof and leadup. And that can be found in the food basket after the Feast:
Peeta peers through the rocks and then gives a whoop. Before I can stop him, he’s out in the rain, then handing something in to me. A silver parachute attached to a basket. I rip it open at once and inside there’s a feast — fresh rolls, goat cheese, apples, and best of all, a tureen of that incredible lamb stew on wild rice. The very dish I told Caesar Flickerman was the most impressive thing the Capitol had to offer.
Rolls, goat cheese, apples, lamb stew... Can I just point out that almost all of these things can be linked back to what we've already learned about Katniss's and Peeta's loved ones?
"The strong fatty cheese tastes just like the kind Prim makes" Oh I bet it does!
"We make a goat cheese and apple tart at the bakery” The Mellark bakery? That makes bread and rolls? And as Katniss mentioned twice, has an old apple tree in the backyard? That bakery?
Also (and this might be more of a stretch), when Katniss has lamb stew in the Capitol (breakfast on THG training day, in a can in MJ), it usually has dried plums. The batch in the arena does not. But as we'd just learned at that point in the book, what Katniss does have is a merchant butcher friend named Rooba who probably could've hooked Greasy Sae up with the lamb for a stew. Gale might've found the wild rice. Either they couldn't locate the plums, couldn't have them dried in time (?), or couldn't afford to buy them or send them along. I just think it's interesting the plums aren't there.
Now, if that's enough evidence, here's the second part of my theory:
Mrs. Everdeen sent in the sleep syrup (THG) and the skin ointment (CF).
Here's the thing about the sleep syrup -- whenever it's brought up, it's associated with Mrs. Everdeen.
THG: I uncork the vial and take a deep sniff. ... There’s no question, it’s sleep syrup. It’s a common medicine in District 12. Cheap, as medicine goes, but very addictive. Almost everyone’s had a dose at one time or another. We have some in a bottle at home. My mother gives it to hysterical patients to knock them out to stitch up a bad wound or quiet their minds or just to help someone in pain get through the night.
CF 1: “We’ll combine it with sleep syrup, Katniss, and he’ll manage it. The herbs are more for the inflammation —” my mother begins calmly.
CF 2: My mother gives me a cup of chamomile tea with a dose of sleep syrup, and my eyelids begin to droop immediately.
(Extra MJ: When I finally begin to surface into the sterile hospital room in 13, I remember. I was under the influence of sleep syrup. My
heel had been injured after I’d climbed out on a branch over the
electric fence and dropped back into 12.) (The reason I associate this hospital scene with Mrs. Everdeen is a theory post for another time)
Picture this: Mrs. Everdeen has been attentively watching the Games with Prim and Gale. Katniss and Peeta are in the final six. Food is scarce after the pyramid blew up. Capitol TV is probably hinting at a special announcement later. She's seen decades of Games, enough to know that a feast is imminent. But one morning Peeta wakes up and panics to find Katniss missing, and Mrs. Everdeen realizes that if he reacts this way now, it will be a real problem if/when Caesar announces a feast. Oh, certainly, Katniss will want to go, but Peeta will be hysterical trying to stop her. And there's only one cheap and easy way to deal with a hysterical patient.
She goes through her apothecary stores, where of course there would be tiny corked vials, and she measures from her bottle of sleep syrup what she deems to be exactly enough to knock Peeta out for a suitable amount of time. And she shells out the money to send it Haymitch's way, because she knows it's worth the chance of getting Katniss (and Peeta) home.
Would Mrs. Everdeen do this? Set aside softer feelings and make a cold/controversial/difficult yet practical call, for a patient's own good? Is it in her character?
“Just give him the medicine!” I scream at her. “Give it to him! Who are you, anyway, to decide how much pain he can stand!”
Gale begins stirring at my voice, trying to reach me. The movement causes fresh blood to stain his bandages and an agonized sound to come from his mouth.
“Take her out,” says my mother. Haymitch and Peeta literally carry me from the room while I shout obscenities at her. (CF)
Then I realize what it means. “My mother’s not coming back.”
“No,” he says. He pulls an envelope from his jacket pocket and hands it to me. I examine the delicate, perfectly formed writing. “She’s helping to start up a hospital in District Four. She wants you to call as soon as we get in.” My finger traces the graceful swoop of the letters. “You know why she can’t come back.” (MJ)
As for CF: The Everdeens weren't in optimal financial condition to send in sponsor gifts during the 74th Games (especially on day 12), which is why Collins made sure to point out the sleep syrup was cheap. But at the time of the Third Quarter Quell, the Everdeens had victor money and the Games only lasted three days. Which is why on Day 2, after hours of watching Katniss scratch herself in her sleep, we get this:
I plunk down on the sand next to Finnick and screw the lid
off the tube. Inside is a thick, dark ointment with a pungent
smell, a combination of tar and pine needles. I wrinkle my nose as I squeeze a glob of the medicine onto my palm and begin to massage it into my leg. A sound of pleasure slips out of my mouth as the stuff eradicates my itching. It also stains my scabby skin a ghastly gray-green.
Tar and pine needles. Tar comes from coal. Pine needles come from the woods. Ergo, the ointment comes from District 12, and since it doesn't look or smell pretty, it's obviously a home remedy made by an apothecary. A gift from Mrs. Everdeen and Prim.
(There's also the spile, which I suppose Mrs. Everdeen could've found among her husband's possessions when they were moving their stuff to the Victor's Village, but I'm not 100% on that one.)
It's just really amazing how District 12 came together, and what they sacrificed to bring Katniss home. (Also feels like foreshadowing for the end of Mockingjay, Mrs. Everdeen doing what she can to support Katniss from afar.)
