Let's All Just Blindfold The Poor, We Must Remind Them What's In Store

David & Kathrine

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining in through the window of David's room, pulling him out of his sleep. A cool spring breeze accompanied it, ruffling his hair. He blinked awake, swinging his legs to the side of the creaking bed.
"Mornin' sleepin' beauty!"
"Good morning Les," the 17 year old sighed. "You're up early"
Leslie hopped up onto the bed next to his brother. "It's eight!"
David sighed. 8:00 AM is early for a Saturday, but he wouldn't blame Les for having boundless energy, after all, he remembers how it was being nine.
It's hard for him to believe that it's been eight years since David realized he had powers. And only six years since his family found out too.
He could only hide it for so long, and their house isn't very big. It was only a matter of time for something else to fall, like for example, Leslie. The three year old was crawling on the counter, and he slipped, and Davey wasn't close enough to catch him with his hands, so he caught him with his talent.
He still curses himself for not being able to control it, but maybe it was better that his family knew. Sure, when they found out, they lost their minds, especially when seeing their youngest child floating three feet off of the ground, glowing blue. And sure, Sarah wouldn't talk to him for weeks, and his parents tried everything they could to get the magic out of his body, and they cried and neglected him and made him feel like he was a monster - whether they meant to or not. But after a while, they taught him how to repress it. How to control his emotions, therefore controlling his powers. And Sarah started talking to him again, albeit from a distance.
But Les didn't really understand. He knew that David was different, but he didn't seem dangerous, or like he wanted to hurt Les. All Les knew was that he couldn't tell anyone that his brother was different. But that was fine, cause les didn't see a difference. And anyways, he had plenty of other things to talk about.
He talked about his friends, how boring classes were, how loud he could yell (and he'd show it off quite often), pretty much anything that came to mind. And as annoying as the kid could be, David was so grateful to have someone to always be there with him.
He didn't need Les to be a therapist, and David had a few friends at school. Les' job was more like a distraction. David wouldn't deny that his life was hard. David wouldn't deny that he can't remember the last time he'd felt pure joy - though he'd never admit it - so it was kind of nice to have someone that kept him out of his head. And anyways, he feels like that's the only reason his parents let him be around his siblings so much. They know that what they're doing is harsh, but what else can they do? If David lets himself feel fear, anger, sadness, whatever, then his talent slips out. And they can't have that, so they allow Les to always be so close, and they only worry a little.
But as bad as he feels, David knows that so many kids have it worse. He wasn't abandoned or taken to the refuge, his parents only tried to help him. And he has people to talk to, not about anything heavy or important, but at least it's interaction. And it's been going on for so long, it doesn't even seem so bad, it's just normal.
"Dave. Dave. David. Hey. Davidddddd" Les was bouncing on the bed, slowly getting louder as he was attempting to get his brother's attention.
Lesie is a short kid for his age, short and stout. He has tight black curls that are always hidden underneath a bowler hat that's just a bit too big for him.
"What do you want?" David responded, pulling on his sweater vest. Les continued to bounce as David walked closer to the bed, rolling up his sleeves.
"Let's go to the park!" he said, finally managing to stand still, now face to face with his tired brother.
"What? Why?"
"I dunno. Somethin' to do."
David sighed, and lifted Les off of the bed. David was pretty skinny for a 17 year old, and Les continued to grow and grow everyday, but he could still carry his younger brother like it was nothing. Les liked feeling tall, and David liked a reminder that he was still strong in some way, so it was a win-win. They walked into the kitchen to see Sarah sitting at the table. Their parents were already off at work, so Sarah felt comfortable sitting out and studying, instead of locking herself in her room.
"What are you doing?" she asked plainly, not looking up from her book.
"David and I are gonna go to the park!" Les smiled giddily, bouncing a bit to let David know that he wanted to leave now.
Sarah nodded as David passed her, and went out the door.

The day just seemed to get more lovely as it went on, and Les's face shone brighter than the sun as he was running around the park. David was sitting on the bench, watching Les use up the last of his energy, just as he noticed two kids standing by a tree, staring at him.
His breath quickened. He'd never had much.. Luck... with kids his age. And not just that, there are kids scattered all through the city who are the president's personal spies just to bring kids with talents to the refuge. The idea is that they play the nice guy card, get the kids to open up to them about their talent, and then sick the police on them. But some can just tell. And with the way these boys were looking at him, he knew they knew.
"Excuse me? Sir?" The sound of a young girl's voice broke him out of his trance, and he snapped his head over to face her.
"Woah, sorry to startle you." she said with a confused smile.
He shook his head. "No uh- sorry about that." she must be one too. David is fucked and Les has no idea that his brother could get taken away right this moment.
"Oh, well, I'm Kathrine." she paused, "Kathrine Plumber."
David looked on suspiciously, and waited for her to continue. She sighed and her face dropped a bit. "I was wondering if I could interview you. About the park I mean."
He blinked at her slowly. A reporter? What would she want with him? There were plenty of adults around, and this park had been talked about in the papers so many times already. "Um, I- sure? This is only my second time here though" he said, straightening up a bit. He'd walked past this place almost a million times, but he wasn't lying about being in it.
"Right. Thanks." Kathrine nodded and David watched her as she walked away.
He watched her until she disappeared into the horizon, and when he turned his head, the boys were gone as well.

Kathrine held her hands up to her eyes. Ugh, what am I doing? She asked herself over and over again, all the way back to the building she works in. Everything was going so fast. Just one week ago, she was barely allowed to talk to her only friends, Bill and Darcy, But now, she was expected to have thorough conversations with five kids about... she doesn't even know what!
She remembered that Wednesday when she approached her father. It was one of the rare times when he wasn't busy, they recently hadn't had any kids come to the refuge, and her father was worried. The criminals were getting better at hiding, and even the kids he sent after them barely brought in two a week.
She asked him if she could see her mother. If she could live with her a month, just to see what life was like down there. And maybe, a fresh pair of eyes on the town would help his case too. He reluctantly agreed, and only because he knew once she saw the state of the town, she'd never want to return there.
But Katherine just believed that he trusted her.
And when she saw her mother, they were both in tears. Kathrine had no idea why they hadn't seen each other sooner, but she didn't ask. And she didn't think about it past that, because she was told not to.
After two short days of seeing the town and catching up, Kathrine found a small publishing company that was hiring writers. Her mother helped her piece together some of her best writing, and she went for the interview.
She easily got it, and she figured she would. It had nothing to do with her father, in fact, she took her mom's last name and told anyone who asked that her father was dead, so they wouldn't pry. It seemed a little harsh, just writing her father out of the story like that, but she didn't want an unfair advantage because of him.
The man that hired her was nice, and really funny. He told her that girl reporteres were strange in this word, and that's just what the company wanted. He made her feel right at home, and trusted her with an assignment right away. The problem was, she's a writer. Not an interviewer. Sure, she'd love to review and talk to people that are actually doing something important, but kidds? a park? Her time would be better spent in the theatre. And as if on cue, her boss came up to her.
"Hello Kathrine. Is everything alright?" he asked, a comforting smile resting on his face.
She shrugged, "I don't know, this is just a lot."
His smile dropped a bit, but it wasn't because he was upset. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know... Well, I thought I'd be doing more of the reviewing, rather than the discussing. At least, to start out."
Her boss paused, and shifted a bit while he thought. "Well, I was actually about to go review a play at the local theatre. Just to have a little something extra for this week. If you'd like to write about that, I could take over for you."
Kathrine blinked. Wow! It's that easy? To just bring up a reasonable suggestion and have an adult listen to her is other-worldy.
And of course, Kathrine took the job. Brain Denton knew that kids wouldn't want to talk about a park to some random man, he thought that maybe a kid would help them out. But if that kid excels with and is more comfortable with seeing art and writing about it, then he would help her do that. After all, she could always work on her social skills some other time.