The following week, Oorbo and Orbii were walking down a neighborhood stretch when they came across a little red boy.
"Hey!" The boy called. "Do you want to play with me?"
"Play? Like play pretend?" Oorbo asked.
"Yeah, I'm bored. How old are you?"
"Ten," Oorbo said.
"Thirteen," Orbii said.
"Cool, I'm eleven! Do you wanna play?"
Orbii and Oorbo looked at each other. "I guess it wouldn't hurt, right?" Oorbo asked.
"It's up to you, I'm not in the mood," Orbii shrugged.
"Alright sure, I'll play with you," Oorbo said to the boy.
"Awesome!" The boy took out his bag of toys. He had action figures, plastic animals, and toy cars.
"Ooh, can I play with the cars?" Oorbo asked.
"Sure, and I'll be Captain Spherl!" The boy said as he grabbed a superhero figure.
They played for a while, making sounds and laughing. Orbii was sitting against the wall, fast asleep. At some point, Oorbo ran out of energy.
"Woo! I'm tired," he said as he lay on his back.
"What's that?" The boy asked, pointing to his ribs.
"What's what? Oh, that's my ribcage."
"What's a ribcage?"
"Oh, it's a part of your body that protects your heart. You're not supposed to see it normally, but you can only see it if you don't eat for a long time."
"How long?"
"Well, I haven't eaten in six days, but I've gone without food for much longer before."
His stomach then growled. "Gosh, just thinking about that makes me hungry."
"You wanna come into my house?"
"Oh, I don't think your parents would like us very much."
"It's ok, you're my friends. Momma likes all my friends."
"Still, she might not want us in your house. We live outside, she wouldn't like stray kids."
"I'm telling my mom, wait here," the boy said as he ran inside.
The boy and his mother came outside. "See momma? That's them!"
Orbii woke up, "What happened?"
The mother was shocked, "Oh my, you boys look so starved! My son was talking about someone's rib cage but I didn't know what he meant until now."
"Yeah sorry. He just asked what it was so I told him, sorry if you didn't want him to know." Oorbo said.
"You don't need to apologize. Where are your parents?"
"They're gone, miss. We just live on the streets together."
"Gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that, would you boys like to come in?"
"Sure," they said, following her into the house.
The house was pretty small but it looked almost like a stereo apartment. The kitchen and living room were together with no walls and there was an upstairs that led to the bedroom.
"So what are your names?" She asked.
"I'm Orbii and this is Oorbo."
"Those are nice names."
"Thanks, what's yours?" Oorbo said.
"You can call me Harvest. Ms. Harvest."
"Well thanks for letting us in your house, miss."
"No problem. Well, how about you make yourself comfortable, there are couches out in the living room."
They both sat down on the couch, but then sat on the floor.
"Wow, your carpet is pretty comfy too, miss!" Oorbo said.
"Oh, you don't have to sit on the carpet, you can sit on the couch."
"Meh, the couch is too cushiony, It feels like I'm floating. I like sitting on the ground better."
Orbii agreed.
"Alright, be my guest, Would you boys like me to cook something for you?" The mom asked.
"Oh, that'd be lovely, of course!" Oorbo said.
"Yes, thank you!" Orbii said.
The boy was playing by himself, making car and animal noises.
"That's sweet how the kid still likes his toys, reminds me of when we used to play like that, right?" Orbii said.
"Yeah," Oorbo giggled.
They waited for the food for a while until Oorbo's stomach groaned in impatience. He rubbed his stomach since it hurt.
"Aah! A monster!" The boy shouted, pointing at him.
"Wait, I'm not a monster."
His stomach growled again.
"The monster is growling at us! It's gonna eat us!" The boy said as he held a car in his hand.
"Oh," Oorbo laughed. He got up and started stomping around like a big beast. "Grrr, I'm a big, hungry monster! I'm gonna eat you, roar!"
"Oh no!" The boy said he slid his toy car on the floor.
He then picked up the action figure.
"Don't worry, Captain Spherl will save you!" The boy used Captain Spherl to pick up the car and run away.
"Get back here!" Oorbo said, chasing him. "I'm gonna eat you both!"
Orbii laughed as he saw them chasing each other.
They ran around chasing each other for a few minutes until the boy's mom called them.
"Boys! Dinner's ready!"
All of them went to the dinner table as she was passing out plates of food.
Oorbo and Orbii licked their lips and went to dig in, but the mom stopped them.
"Hang on boys, we gotta say grace first."
"Grace?" Oorbo asked.
"It's when we pray to the Lord and thank Him for giving us this food."
"Oh I get it, I pray to my ancestors for blessing us with gifts."
"Well, that isn't exactly the same. Come on, say grace with us."
The boy and his mom bowed their heads while Oorbo and Orbii were looking straight at them.
She peaked and noticed they were not praying. "You have to bow your head and close your eyes."
"Oh," they both said as they did what she told them.
"Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this time we have together. Thank you for these two loving boys who were in need of food and thank you for allowing them to find us so we could help nourish their bodies with this meal tonight, Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen."
"Alright, now you may eat," she said.
They all ate their food together. Oorbo and Orbii were eating like pigs, but enjoyed and savored every bite.
