As Witnesses

7💜

Monday, August 11, 2008

~*~

Despite not being able to go on the cruise or anywhere else, summer has still been a fun time for all four kids to recuperate from schoolwork and school itself. One bad thing left: the stress of their parents' jobs is always present, especially now that the kids have learned about it and how it all works.

Before heading over to the Valors' house for Ginny's birthday, Fuzzynerd and Midnight have stayed home and worked on their greeting card, which is bright pink and sea green with streamers and confetti in all colors and some basketballs drawn in most places, as well as prepared their gifts. They're expecting Ginny to love all this. What they're not expecting is for their parents to enter the house right now, at two in the afternoon.

Zeno and Exa find their children in the kitchen. "Fuzzynerd! Midnight! We just knew we'd find you in here," Zeno tries to be happy for a change.

Still, by the looks on their parents' faces alone tell the children that something's up. Midnight gathers up the audacity to ask, "What's wrong? How was work today?"

"Work..." Zeno sighs, then breaks the news. "It's gone. It doesn't exist anymore."

All Midnight and Fuzzynerd do after hearing this is stare at their parents. "What?" they both say at the same time.

"Our company, Cross Continent, ran out of money, and it's part of the Pyrite Bank - the main bank of the Selenite Realm - now," explains Zeno.

"Wait a second, Papa, how could Cross Continent be part of the bank?" Fuzzynerd asks.

Zeno covers that part too. "Remember what happened to that company Bear Stearns? They ran out of money and they were bought by another company, JP Morgan, for a very low price? Basically, the same thing happened to us, in Bear Stearns' position."

The kids have more questions. "What does that mean? What happens to your jobs?"

Exa is already in tears, but tries the best she can to answer them. "We're not sure. Most of our former employees are going to be laid off completely and will be left to find new jobs. Some of us, though, less than half, will be able to keep our jobs at the bank. But we have no idea what's going to happen..."

At this point, she can no longer speak, and neither can Zeno. Both of them collapse on the couch near the kitchen, tilt their heads down, try to hug each other, and cry. Midnight and Fuzzynerd, who know that this moment can't be interrupted, find their heads spinning with 'what-if' questions: What if we lose our house? What if we lose what we own? What if we'll have to move to another city? What if we won't like it there? And worst of all, What if we never see Lil' Catty and Ginny again?

"We're... so sorry," says Zeno in the midst of weeping. "We're... so sorry."

"We're sorry too," the children try to offer comfort. Fuzzynerd then sees this as the time to bring today's event: "Papa, Mama, once you're feeling better you might want to talk to someone who would know more about this. As you might know, Midnight and I are heading off to the Valors' for Ginny's eighth birthday. Want to come?"

"Thank you for the suggestion and offer, but we'd rather keep to ourselves today. We'll join if we feel like it," Exa turns it down.

"But you two can definitely go by yourselves," Zeno reassures the kids.