As Witnesses

Prologue🖤

Monday, September 15, 2008

~*~

"Looks like all the basketball courts are taken. Oh well, I don't really feel like balling today anyway."

"Me neither."

A pair of best friends, Lil' Catty Valor and Fuzzynerd Airlet, both in grade 4, observe their peers in grades 4 and 5 play around in various areas of the playground. Normally, they'd be playing basketball or some other sport they have in common. But for the past few weeks, both of them have completely lost motivation to play, because something else having to do with family has been haunting them to an unhealthy level...

Fuzzynerd scratches his chestnut brown hair. "Hey, I could help you with homework... but we don't have any today, right?"

"None," Lil' Catty confirms. Why do they have the same homework? Easy. They're in the same class, which means everyone in their class has all the same assignments. Today, though, there isn't anything they have to take home.

"What's with your hair today?" Fuzzynerd asks out of the blue. He gestures to the two spikes on Lil' Catty's red-copper hair, which are supposed to resemble cat ears. They don't look as well-kept as usual.

Lil' Catty doesn't have much of an answer. He isn't sure what to say. Maybe he was in a rush and forgot to brush it? That's all he remembers, anyway.

"Well, this morning was kind of a blur. All I remember is that I was in a rush and forgot to do my hair," Lil' Catty forms a response.

What Fuzzynerd says next surprises Lil' Catty in a way. "It's okay. This morning was kind of a blur for me, too. My parents were too preoccupied with something. Must have had to do with their – you know – business things. Which left Midnight and myself kind of on our own, which is why I'm sure I forgot at least one of my books today."

"Fuzzynerd Airlet, forgetting one of his books? What a shocker, for someone as great in school as you!" Lil' Catty gives his honest reaction. "But hey, don't feel bad at all. The same thing happened to me and Ginny this morning."

Midnight Airlet, Fuzzynerd's older sister, and Ginny Valor, Lil' Catty's younger sister, aren't here to take part in this conversation. Ginny is in grade 3, so she just had lunch recess last period. Midnight is in grade 6, so she's in the middle school, which can be considered a completely different campus.

Neither Lil' Catty nor Fuzzynerd can think of something to say without it being all despair-ish, in light of recent times. There have been too many news stories about banks and companies going out of business to count, people are losing their jobs, houses are losing their values – it's a whole crisis that they, their sisters, and their friends are all too young to understand much of. But it's been clear to even the youngest that this is a huge deal.

Then, out of the blue, Lil' Catty changes the subject to what both of them would much rather talk about: "Hey, the new season for our club basketball is starting. Do you think they'll put both of us on the A-team again?"

"I sure hope so," is all Fuzzynerd can say. "Last year was so awesome! Especially with us playing together, and how well pretty much everything went!"

"Yeah, I can't wait to start playing again! Shooting around, tournaments, everything! Maybe this season, we'll even win the championship!" Lil' Catty agrees and adds on.

Any of the adults involved in the crisis would perhaps be very impressed by these two, and how they managed to find good times coming ahead of them in the midst of all the bad times the whole world is going through...

The bell rings, signaling the end of lunch break. The moment it's heard, Fuzzynerd rushes over to the line near his classroom, followed by Lil' Catty. Maybe they'll find an opportunity to have a better time later.