Radio, Gun, Shoe's and Donuts

It was such a good week. I had finally started to feel like I was in the rhythm of heroing. All I wanted to do was get some fluff for my costume. Then I ended up in a robbery, had a lady nearly die in my arms, and revealed my secret identity to a classmate. Oh and then we ran into the police and committed a misdemeanor. Frankly this day is the worst and I do not like it. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

“WHAT!? Beth! You’re stealing money out of purses!!”

“Hey, that's not fair! I’m taking a finders fee for rescuing the purse! I’m gonna give it back!”

“The money!?”

“No, the purse. Like I said, it's a finders fee. I can’t just spend all my time stopping crooks for free.”

“So you empty their wallets? That sucks Beth.”

“It does not! Not everyone has a rich family Melody! Some of us have to work for a living!.”

“You’re not working, you're stealing Beth!”

“Hey stop tryna dox me idiot! We’re in costume for a reason. It’s Thieves' Thief right now Melody!”

“You’re gonna act on your high horse while you named yourself Thieves Thief!? And you’ve been doxing me idiot my names Strig, ST-R-II-GG!”

“You didn’t tell me your name!”

‘YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOURS!!!! Screw this! I am not dealing with this right now.” I rubbed the brow of my nose and turned away. Walked to the ladder and headed off the building.

“Be- I mean Strig where are you going?!”

“I’m done! I can’t handle this. I’m going home. Talk to you later!”

“Wait, you can't just leave. We’re in the middle of something!” She said while following me down th later.

“We are not in the middle of something! I didn’t see anything you didn't see anything! This never happened! My best friend is not stealing from criminals like some stupid raccoon themed robin hood!”

“What do you mean stupid! I love raccoons! They’re adorable, smart, and funny!”

“You’re gonna get stuck on that? Why do you care about everything that isn’t the important part!?”

“That is the important part! They’re my favorite animal! I even have my fursona based on them!”

“I didn’t need to know about that Thief! You're a masked criminal and a furry!”

“What, you hate furries now!?”

“No, I don't care! It’s just a lot to take in while climbing down a building in the middle of the night!” I say as I hop off the ladder and touch the ground in the alley. “ Is that why you're always drawing raccoons and cartoon animals from Bisney movies?”

“Well duh! I need something to put on my furaffinity account!”

“Jesus Christ Thief, stop talking!”

“You asked!!”

“I REGRET IT!! I'M SORRY!! I'M LEAVING!!”

“Hold it right there you two!” a voice barked into the alley as a beam of light illuminated Thief stepping off of the ladder.

“Oh crap” we’re screwed. It’s a police officer.

“Don’t move, we need to talk” The officer said as he leaned in towards his radio.

“Thief now, steal his radio!”

“What? Steal his radio? I can’t-”

“I am not getting arrested! Do you want to!?” I tried to yell at her as quietly as possible as my mind raced trying to think of a plan. All I can think of is to run. If I try to grab anything out of my Owl Bag he’s gonna shoot me.

“Crap Strig!!” Beth quickly started to do what I saw on the roof. One hand in front of the other like she was pulling some kind of rope towards her. Six or so hand motions flew by and then the radio was in her possession.

“Got a possible suspect on-. Hey what the!? Did you just do something!? Don’t move a muscle!!!” He shouted while reaching for his gun extremely quickly.

“Grab the gun Thief! Hurry!!” I screamed at her as she quickly moved her hands again, a few more pulls than before. She got a hold of the gun right before he got it pointed at us.

“Holy crap Strig this is messed up!”

“No time to think, Thief keep pulling! Grab his shoes!!”

“What? Why his shoes!?”

“NOTHINKINGSHOESTHIEF!!!

“Jeez fine, shoes!” While she steals his shoes and the officer goes for his batton I fly into my bag. Into the third compartment I have. I pull out my bag of the Owl Trops! I fling them onto the ground in front of us and as soon as Thief gets his shoes I pull her away with me.

As we run away I can hear the cop shout at us to stop and then his scream and grunt as he steps on the trops and falls into a trash can then the ground. I feel really bad to do that to him but I refuse to let my mom find out about me heading out after dark.

I lead myself and Beth down one of my routes home. There is a perfect abandoned home on that route where we can catch our breath and talk. Gosh this day has been really bad. I should have skipped tonight's patrol.

We made it to the building safe and sound. I haven’t heard anyone following us and no remarks about seeing us running. We should have at least a few minutes to rest. This house is in a rougher part of the city. I tend to not enjoy walking on my way home but I figured if we get caught again I’d rather it be a route I already avoid.

We hopped over the back fence easily. There's a part of it that's broken and hanging halfway over. The back door looks locked but it's actually totally broken, a single brick inside keeps it shut. I usher Beth in and we both head towards the living room. A smelly couch sits here with holes in it from rats and other animals. I brought a blanket here on a different night. I grab it from the closet and lay it onto the couch to sit on.

Beth and I fall onto the couch and breath heavily. She’s actually in shape, but it seems the stress from our encounter affected her as much as the running affected me. We just sit in the darkness and silence for a few minutes.

“You think there might be a racoon in this place?” she said.

“Are you joking?”

“Kind of. I mean I’d love it if there was one.”

“That sucked. Let’s wait here for a few more minutes than we can head home.”

“Uh. Melody… What should we do with this?” Beth awkwardly pulled the gun out from her large front pocket.

“Holy crap Beth. You kept it? Why didn’t you drop it?”

“I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even think about it. You had me grab this after the radio then the shoes. I just kind of put everything in my pockets.”

“Wait, do you still have his shoes?”

“The radio too.” Beth pulled out all of our police officer swag we won from out strange crane game we played in the alley.

“So let me just map out everything. You stole a radio, a gun, and shoes from a police officer. And then I assaulted him with my Owl Trops.”

“Owl Trops? You mean the chestnuts you threw on the ground? You call those Owl Trops? Where did you buy completely shelled chestnuts?”

“What? I didn’t buy them. There's a chestnut tree in the park.”

“Do you call all of the things you collect owl something?”

I just stare at Beth. She’s my best friend, one of my oldest friends. But she's also the most annoying person I’ve ever met. That’s why she's so fun to hang out with. But it’s times like this I remember that.

“Let’s dump the gun in the attic for now. We can decide on something else later but I really just want to get home.”

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea.” Beth and I got up and headed upstairs.

This house has 2 floors. The attic is located in the upstairs hallway. It's a pulldown and luckily for us the string is still attached. Luckier for me I have Beth this time, since I can’t reach it. Beth easily pulls down the attic and I head up.

Beth is the complete opposite to me body wise. She’s tall, almost six fett. Long legs and arms that are extremely toned. She used to do gymnastics, she quit but has kept up with her physique. Also she's a super pretty almond, unlike my pasty self. She’s super popular with the guys at our school. If it wasn’t for us meeting young I don’t think we’d be friends. We don’t really fit into the same social crowds.

The attic is full of cobwebs and old boxes. Smells super musty and kind of pissish. I quickly find a box and hide the gun under some old dusty clothes. Gonna have to think of a way to get rid of this thing later.

“Alright, all set Thief. Let’s head home.”

“Be-Strig. You aren’t gonna tell anyone about this right? I know what I'm doing is kinda gray and all.”

“Gray? What your doing is black and white wrong. But I’m not gonna rat you out. At least not yet. If I did you’d rat me out to my mom. We can talk about it tomorrow or something. See ya at school idiot.”

“See ya round clown.”

With that over I headed home. I tried my best to be my usual self but I just couldn’t. Beth turning out to have powers and stealing was heavier than the lady dying. Worse than assaulting that cop. I don’t know why, maybe I’m just cold hearted.

Something about Beth doing heroics to get money felt weird to me. Maybe it’s because she’s my best friend and I’ve always held her on a pedestal. Or maybe it’s seeing myself in her. It’s not like I’m doing this out of the goodness of my heart. I want to get popular and make a career out of it. Am I even in the right to be upset at her. She might be stealing but she isn’t technically stealing from the victim, they already lost their stuff. Is it that wrong to be able to help someone and just not do so… I feel like it might be. It makes me think of earlier today and trying to leave those people in the thrift store.

I guess it really is just about me and not Beth. I think I’m still all mixed up about earlier. I’ll need to apologize to her tomorrow. I know her family isn’t the best off. Maybe she really needs the money. I dunno.

I ended up turning in as soon as I got home. I woke up tired on sunday. I didn't sleep well and tossed and turned with my thoughts. I texted Beth to call me when she had a chance but she texted back saying she had to work a double and would wanna crash as soon as she got home. She told me to just talk to her at lunch on Monday.

I don’t know how she does it. She can just act like everything is normal and ignore it for as long as she feels, while I’m gonna be stuck wallowing for the whole day. After I do my laundry and homework I’ll clean out Penelope's house and hang out with her all day. We can watch failure videos on WeTube.

Oh you like that don’t you. You love mealworms, Penelope. Mommies best little birdie baby aren’t you. Cluck cluck cluck.

“You sure love talking to her don’t ya kiddo.” Grands said with his facing peaking in through the chicken coops small window.

“Jesus! Grands, why do you love sneaking up on me!.”

“You're cute when you scream, what can I say? Hehehe.” Grands smirk curled up his face. Grands looks a lot like Al Pacino. The biggest difference between them was the scar under his right eye. It’s a few inches big and looks like the letter J if you squint.

“What are you even doing here?” I left the chicken coop and Penelope to her worms. Now in the backyard with Grands I can see he has another gaudy outfit. A blue and pink pinstripe suit, a thin silver chain, and every finger with 1 or 2 rings with different colored gems. “And another weird suit. You really should let grandma pick out your clothes sometimes.”

“Ha. Like I’d ever let her. She has no style. What's the point in dressing up if people aren't looking your way.”

“I don’t think they’re looking your way for any good reason.”

“Good or bad don’t matter. But they are looking, aren't they? Enough about my drip.”

“Did you just say drip?”

“That’s what the kids call it right? My drip is icy and goated with the sauce, sexual style.”

“Please stay off of WeTube Grands. I hate this.”

“Haha. I bet. But ignoring my amazing vernacular. Somethings up.”

“What? Nothing's up. What do you mean? You just got here, we’ve barely talked.”

“Don’t gotta talk long. I can tell by your face. You always look that way when you're thinking too much all by yourself. Sit down.” Grands sat down in the grass and pat the ground becoming me.

I sat down next to him. It’s not like I can escape. He’d never stop asking and just hang around all day until I finally gave up. I already learned that lesson. But what do I tell him? How do I explain what I’m feeling?

Grands put a box onto his lap and opened it up. Pulling out a grilled cheese donut and handing it to me. Ah right, I remember now. It's the third Sunday of the month. We always have donut brunch together. And I forgot. Tears started pouring down my cheeks.

“I’m sorry, grands.” I quietly mustered out as I cried. “I forgot.”

Grands softly patted my back while pulling out his own donut, pulled pork and potato salad flavored. “Don’t worry about it. You're just like your mother. You get too absorbed in your thoughts and forget stuff. I don’t mind at this point in my life.” taking a big bite of his donut he talked with his mouth full. “So what’s bothering ya Mel.”

Between small sniffles I mustered “Don’t talk with your mouth full. I’m too small to give you the heimlich maneuver.”

“Hahaha. Sure sure I’ll stop”

We sat and ate donuts. Quietly enjoying the day and Penelope’s cute clucking. I got my emotions and mind in order. I piped up.

“Grands. What would you do if you found out your friend was stealing? Would you turn them in”

“My friend is stealing? Nah.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. Them stealing is between their victims, the cops, and themselves. I’ m sure I’ve told you I grew up really poor in a bad part of the city. Back then people didn’t take kindly to a poor little irish kid. Me and my pals had to steal often to help feed our families. Sometimes I stole to get my little sister a gift for christmas.”

“You were a thief!?”

“Haha, yup. Sucks to hear huh. Sorry you had to have such a bad Grandpa.”

“You're not a bad Grandpa!”

“Thanks kid. But I was a bad person. For a long time. Before you and your mother I did a lot of bad stuff, and funny enough I don’t even think of the stealing we did as part of that.” I shifted his legs and grabbed another donut. “So I probably wouldn’t turn a friend in. But you're a different kid, you’ve lived a different life. I don’t think living the straight and arrow and turning people is the wrong thing to do. Just different. If you think it’s the right thing to do you should Mel.”

We sat again for a while. Finishing our donuts. Leaning back I looked up at the clouds. I never knew Grands committed crimes. I mean I shouldn't be too shocked. technically I have too, after last night. I wonder if most people commit a crime or two.Speeding is illegal, is that a crime?

“I’m gonna hafta talk to them. I don’t want to turnt them in, but I don’t want them to keep stealing.”

“Sounds like a good idea Mel. I think they’d be better off stopping. It’s a hard life committing crimes. One tends to lead to another, then even more. I hope she listens to you.” Grands pulled me into a hug.

“What do you mean she? You don’t know it’s a girl.”

“You only have the one friend, Mel. Plus if you got a second doubt it’d be a boy. I’ve never seen you willingly talk to a lad my whole life.”

“That’s not true! I’ve definitely talked to a boy before.”

“Someone working the register at the grocery store doesn't count Mel.”

Is that true? Have I never talked to a boy before? Now that he mentions it, have I only been friends with girls? The memory of the kiss from the thrift store assaults my mind and I feel blood rush to my face.

“Haha. You figuring some stuff out about yourself huh!?” he pointed at my blushing face.

“Shut up!” I shouted while slapping his shoulder multiple times.

Just then his phone started to ring.

“One second Mel.” he responded to me after looking at his phone. Getting up he walked a ways past the coop and took his call.

Grands always seemed to be taking life one step at a time. Never thinking too deeply and enjoying life. I wonder if it's his personality or a sign of his age. It’s been something I've been jealous of for a while now. Just one of the many reasons I look up to him.

“Yeah? Really? Alright, alright I’ll come over. Give me thirty minutes. Yeah, yeah. See ya soon. Sorry Mel gonna hafta cut this visit short. The guys at the brewery want me to go talk a sale through. Too bad that young kid didn’t work out. Was great at pitching a sale, liked the craft a bit too much. Real tragedy what he did to that family with his honda civic.”

“Jesus Grands. Be any Blunter.”

“I could try. Haha. If you need to talk anytime you know my number kid.” Grands gave me the rest of the donuts and walked off towards the front yard and his car. “See ya soon Kid, Love ya!”

“Right back at ya Grands!”