Now this story could have begun with once upon a time, but that would be entirely misleading, as this story has happened before, and, perhaps, will happen again someday.

Momma Moonshine was tired of waiting. She had been out in the cold since before the dawn's rays sliced open the sky, and even though the sun danced on the crusted snow beneath her feet, they offered no comfort from the cold. She had been out in the cold since before dawn, hiding behind a large ice-covered tree branch in the park. 

Occasionally she would look up to a melting icicle above, the drip, drip, and finally, drop, would cause her to swat at the water in her eye and the occasional, but never innocent, as no one was innocent to Momma Moonshine, bystander would believe she was engaged in some epic battle with an invisible insect. And, still, she was unable to keep herself warm, even on the most basic level.

She watched men and women, dressed in their ceremonial garb, mostly Armani that is, walk through the glass revolving doors of the great temple that was Frost & Associates Savings and Trust, just across the street from the park. Men walked into the bank wearing brown suits, and they wore black, and some wore gray. But, Momma Moonshine was determined to talk to the one who wore green, he had not arrived yet, the man in the green suit was always late. 

And, he had no idea of knowing just how long he had kept Momma Moonshine waiting.

Such important men were not accustomed to talking to Momma Moonshine, at least not in recent years, for it was rumored, by those who are inclined to rumor such things, that at one time Momma Moonshine played council to none other than Pan himself, and a lesser god or two, but such rumors had to be spoken with the tightest lips, as Momma Moonshine was inclined to be tempted to say one word and the slanderer would never be heard from again.

Momma Moonshine felt the trinkets her pockets, the trinkets, she believed, to the be the state of modern coin currency, some nice person's charity who believed her to be just another street woman, living day to day from a paper bag. Little did they know that Momma Moonshine had given up such things like food and drink years ago.

Then she heard children coming increasingly too close for her comfort to the tree. Unsure as to whether they found her or not she threw a clump of snow, not quite a ball by any child's standards, and hit a small boy named Joey smack in face. Sure that one of his untrustworthy companions had been the culprit, he pushed a boy named Donald to the ground, which then resulted in general mayhem. And all Momma Moonshine could do was smile at the gentle chaos she had created on this peaceful, snowy morning.

When Momma Moonshine had returned to her post, under the tree branch, she saw the great man in the green suit,  enter the grand, glass bank.

"Cuses, curses, you all!" she cried at the children, something said that usually has more of a result on small children when somone like Momma Moonshine utters them.

Momma Moonshine proceeded to run down the snow covered hill to the sidewalk below, only to lose her footing on the slippery snow and rolled the remainder of the incline. A woman outside the bank, finishing a cigarette that would end her life in twenty odd years, seemed to notice Momma Moonshine's fall, but then thought nothing more of it and went back to her cigarette.

Standing herself up, Momma Moonshine was not the kind of woman to get herself shaken or embarassed. No, actually it was a feeling, a feeling she had not felt since she could remember, and she could remember Babylon. No, as she brushed off the snow from the rags that covered her. She looked back at the park fountain, and found it a bit inviting, for she had washed her clothes in it many, many times before.

Momma Moonshine was surprised in herself, even though it was something she was not in the least bit accustomed to feeling, she beginning to feel a bit afraid.

She was actually afraid of her situation, afraid of the man in the green suit who had just walked into the bank, afraid of those who came to her some time ago to tell her it was time time to talk to the man in the bank, and afraid of what the man guarded there.

And, just for a split fraction of a second, she felt a slight tremor down her spine at the precise moment she realized, without a doubt in her head, that this would be the first time she had left the park in over one hundred years.