Eric Byrd knew Adam slightly, and lived down the street from him. He also had some classes with him and rode the bus with him, but they didn't hang around with the same crowds. Eric went for hockey and baseball and stuff like that, and Adam hung with the nerds - those kids that liked astronomy and chess club, nerdy stuff like that. Just like a nerd to be carrying all those books home the day Christmas vacation starts, Eric thought. Maybe he'd have some fun with him, since it appeared they'd both missed the last bus.
Eric hitched up his backpack, stepped up his pace and soon came abreast of Adam, who was huffing and puffing to beat the band. "Hey Adam! How's it goin'?" he asked, giving the kid a pretty hard slap on the back.
Adam coughed harshly, then cleared his throat. "Okay, I guess. Did you miss the bus too?"
"Yeah, we had a late hockey practice today. Gotta be pumped for the playoffs next year."
Adam cleared his throat again and blushed. "I had to stay late for the chess tournament awards. I won first prize - fifty dollars."
Eric whistled softly. "Cool. You gonna use it to buy Christmas presents?"
Adam's blush deepened and he stuffed his hands deeper into his jacket pockets. "We don't exchange Christmas presents," he muttered.
They shuffled along silently through the snow as they entered the park both boys used as a shortcut to their street. Eric brushed off a clump of snow that fell from an overhanging tree as he chewed on Adam's last comment.
A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he blurted out, "Hey, are you a Jew?" Adam, with downcast eyes, nodded, resigned with what he inevitably knew would follow, especially at this time of year. Sure enough, Eric said smugly, "Sister Agatha told us the Jews killed Christ."
Stung by Eric's tone, Adam retorted, "I don't care what some dumb old nun says. That isn't true!"
"Don't you call Sister Agatha a dumb old nun!" Eric shoved Adam, harder than he intended, and they both fell into a clump of holly bushes, heavily laden with snow. They rolled around in the shrubbery, pummelling each other and shouting, "You take that back!" "No, you take that back!" Adam was pretty strong for a chess nerd, and got his share of licks in.
Both boys soon were tiring, when Eric rolled over and suddenly felt something soft and furry against his cheek. He jumped back, and yelled, "What's that?" Adam found his glasses in the snow and peered into the depths of the bushes. "I don't know... hey! It's a cat and some kittens!" The two boys bent to their knees and saw a scrawny gray cat with ears laid back and teeth bared, looking back while she pulled her kittens closer to her.
"It's okay," Adam said softly to the cat, as he slowly extended a raw-knuckled hand toward her. "She's cold, and her kittens might die from hypothermia if we don't get her out of here."
Eric's eyes widened. "How do you know so much about hypo - hypothermia, and cats?
"My sister belongs to a cat rescue group and she fosters mother cats and their litters. We almost always have one litter of kittens or another at our house."
Eric had always considered himself a "dog person," but as he stuck his head closer to the fuzzy circle and heard the soft purring of the kittens as they nursed, a strange feeling of peace overcame him. "What are we going to do with them?" he whispered.
Adam pulled off his mitten with his teeth and tugged his cell phone out of his pocket. "I'll call my sister and have her come over here."
