Monday, September 6, 1993

Hi, I'm Taichi Kamiya, but everyone calls me Tai. Last night, the weirdest thing happened! This little thing showed up and then became bigger and bigger, each time getting a new name, then it fought with a giant bird!

Kari's been even quieter than usual. I think it's because she's sad about losing Greymon, but Matt thinks there's something bigger going on...

"Hey, good morning, sleepyhead!" I said to my little sister as she walked to the table for breakfast, still half-asleep. She only whistled. "You excited about starting preschool tomorrow?" Again, only the whistle. "You still sad about losing Greymon?"

"Greymon," she cooed softly, and tears began to fill her eyes.

"Why did you talk to him, but only whistle at me?" Nothing. Then, after a few moments, she blew the whistle again. It sounded different this time, probably because both Kari and the whistle were full of tears. "Well, I'm going to call Matt now," I said finally. The tears stopped, but she still looked sad. I dialed the number.

"Hello, Ishida residence."

"Hello, may I please speak to Matt. This is Tai."

"Sure, no problem." I could hear TK rush into the room along with Matt.

"Hey, Tai, what's up?"

"Nothing much, Wanna' come over to my place, and we can talk about last night?"

"Sure. Hey, uh, can TK come along?"

"Must he?"

"He's begging me to let him come." He lowered his voice. "Methinks the boy has taken a liking to your little sister."

"Like a first crush? Oh, that is so cute. Well, sure, you can bring TK, but I doubt he'll be pleased with the result."

"Whatever. See you in about five."

"Right. See ya'." Of course, perhaps I was wrong. By the end of the conversation, Kari was beaming. Maybe it's not just one-way, I thought. I toyed with the idea for a good five minutes before the doorbell finally rang. I ran to get it, and the way Kari tried to keep up with me as I ran nearly confirmed my thoughts.

"Hey, Matt. Hello, TK."

"Hello." Here Kari caught up and reached the door. She kept running until she'd nearly rammed into us before slowing to a stop and taking TK back to her playroom, hand in hand.

"Did you tell Kari about this in advance?" Matt asked.

"What? No, she never pays any attention to me, or to anyone else, for that matter. That's why we put off putting her in preschool."

"You shouldn't have done that. It looks like all she needs are some friends her own age. Look how well she's doing with TK."

Quietly I added, "Er, yeah, about that? She was smiling when she overheard our conversation. I don't think TK's the only one in love here."

"And you were afraid of the result."

"Well, she's always so quiet..." She was talking to TK even more than she did to Greymon.

"I'm telling you, all she needed were some peers, and she'd open right up."

"Or in this case, a boyfriend," I whispered to him. We both chuckled at that, then went on to our conversation about last night's events. We then continued on about our own first loves (as these were the "changes" Matt mentioned in the Sunday opening), and decided that this new development between our little sibs meant a lot more.

It was Matt who came up with this. He said, "We're at the age when these types of things are likely to start happening—meaningless first loves."

"Meaningless?" I interjected.

"Shut up and let me finish, Tai. Like I was saying, yes, meaningless. Possibly meaningful ones take place with the same person later on, but that's later. But TK and Kari are even too young for that to be happening."

"So what does it mean?" I asked.

"If...you...would... stop...interrupting, I'd tell you."

"Sorry."

"It's okay, just don't do it again. Now, where was I? Oh, yes", he said, right as I was about to remind him, so I just closed my mouth without a word, "I think it means that what's going on between them is true love."

"As opposed to what, false love?"

"Meaning that it's something brought on by fate that will continue on forever and ever."

"Sounds fierce. Aren't they kinda' young for that, though?"

"Weren't you listening? They were obviously brought together by fate because normal love never starts at that age!"

"What about love?" TK asked. He and Kari were standing at the entrance of the room.

"Nice one, Matt," I muttered to him.

"It's your fault, Tai," he shot back.

"You were the one yelling."

"Because you weren't paying attention!"

"Let it go, TK," Kari said as we got into another fight. They walked away.

Eventually, the fight stopped, and we went in to look at what they were doing. "Maybe we were wrong," I said, once we had gone back.

"No, that's still a sign. They're 4-year-olds, remember? What did you expect, them to be kissing or something? Please."

"You could be a little nicer about it, sheesh." We started roughhousing again, this time more playfully. Pretty soon, though, Matt and TK had to go home.

"See you tomorrow, Matt!"

"You too, Tai!"

TK and Kari exchanged similar good-byes. "Well, that was an interesting day too, wasn't it, Kari?"

She whistled at me.