The Girl Thief

by Robert E Cummings

  “You like candy too, Jenna.”

  “You’ll never defeat the candy monster if you’re fighting amongst yourselves. Remember what I said.”

  They both looked down, grudgingly reciting, “We’re stronger together.”

  “So you didn’t forget everything,” Sammy said, tapping their noses. “You can’t expect me to defeat the candy monster all the time.” It had always begun that way.

  They both looked up with widening grins. “Did you?” Justin asked.

  Jenna nodded. “I bet you did.”

  “It was just me against the Lord of the Nut Crunch. He stood as tall as a house, guarding his treasure of chocolate nuggets.”

  “Did he have horns?” Jenna asked.

  “No, but he had thorns all over his body, and if you got close enough to him, he’d cut you in half.”

  Their eyes opened wide with wonder.

  Sammy swooped down with an exaggerated motion. “‘Stay away from my candy,’ he said, trying to swipe at me with his massive arms.”

  The twins squealed and ran to the fence. Sammy stomped off after them, swinging her arms in a big, slow, looping motion. The twins braced themselves.

  “I knew I couldn’t get at the candy cache, but there was a little candy bush off to the side and hanging there was this one wrapper, so I ducked under his sweeping hand, scooped up that one wrapper, and ran for my life.” Sammy pulled out the candy she’d taken from Vinnie’s restaurant, ripped open the wrapper, and handed one piece to each of them.

  They gleefully chomped on the chocolate nougat candy. The schoolyard was emptying. Would it be so bad if they missed a day? She bent down and hugged them. “Love you guys.”

  The doors closed soon after they disappeared inside. She stood by the fence for a while, then walked away.

  Chapter Fourteen

  _____________________________

  Sammy sat next to Igor at the dining room table and flicked a finger through the holo display of black marbles rolling through a tube. It was supposed to be electrons going through a circuit.

  “Why do you keep doing that?” Igor said. “It is very annoying.”

  “I don’t need to build an alarm. I just need to disable one.”

  “You need to understand basics.”

  “Of alarms, not electricity.”

  Igor rolled his eyes. “I knew this was mistake.”

  “Just show me one alarm and how to disable it.”

  “You have alarm in mind?”

  “You pick one.”

  “Why? So you can ask me hundred questions about things you know nothing about?”

  “One of them won’t be which direction the electrons are flowing.”

  “No, it will be ‘what is this’ and ‘what is that.’”

  “Afraid you won’t be able to answer it?”

  “No,” Igor said, “you won’t be able to understand.”

  “I bet you’ve never even seen an alarm and don’t know how to explain anything about it.”

  “You are impossible!”

  The front door opened. “I can hear you yelling from the hallway,” Cindy said.

  “It’s a Russian thing.”

  Igor sneered. “It’s a you thing.”

  “I bet he’s got a doozy of a favor he wants from me and figures if he drags it out for weeks, I’ll have to pay big.”

  “You expect to understand all about alarms in hours?”

  “If you taught me all that you knew, it’d be minutes.”

  “You see how she is? She is impossible, yes?”

  Cindy plopped into the chair and kicked her shoes off. “It’s all gobbledygook to me.”

  Sammy grinned. “That’s okay, Cindy. It’s all gobbledygook to Igor too.”

  “She is the worst kind of stupid. She thinks she knows everything.”

  “I know a phony when I spot one, that’s for sure.”

  “She knows nothing.”

  Cindy massaged the balls of her feet. “You two should call it a night.”

  Sammy twirled her fingers through the electron-flowing display. It reminded her of running her fingers through muddy water.

  “Off,” Igor said with a maniacal glee in his eyes.

  Sammy shrugged and stepped away from the table. “New dress?”

  Cindy sat up to give Sammy a better view. “You like it?”

  “Either your boobs are getting bigger or the dress is running lower.”

  Cindy stared down. “You think it’s too low?”

  “It is beautiful. Don’t listen to her.”

  “There’s your answer,” Sammy said. “I guess it’s about right for that place.”

  “You should see the place at night, Sam. Fine linens for the tablecloth with candles and fancy cups and glasses. And the guys are really nice. I thought they might be creepy, but they aren’t.”

  “So Jonathan’s the only creep in the place?”

  “Johnny ain’t bad. He treats all the girls good.”

  It’s Johnny now.

  “I said you would like him.” Igor glanced back at Sammy.

  Sammy rolled her eyes. “How much is he paying you?”

  “I’m still in training, and I need clothes—”

  “He’s not paying you anything?”

  “I got to get clothes and those cost money.”

  “Yes, clothes cost money,” Igor said. “You should steal some. It couldn’t hurt.”

  Sammy looked down at her T-shirt and jeans. “Yeah, maybe I should steal a dress. What size do you wear?” she asked, turning to Igor.

  “I do not wear dress. Why do you ask that?”

  Sammy shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “You are stupid girl, saying stupid things,” Igor said, marching out.

  Sammy sat across from Cindy. “I thought I’d never get rid of him.”

  “Shouldn’t you be nicer to him?”

  Sammy hadn’t seen him with the bow knife since that first night. She’d seen all kinds, and he seemed more like the threatening type. That reminded her. She had to get more ball bearings, but her stash was in the shed behind Gladys’s house.

  “Isn’t he our landlord?”

  Sammy propped her feet on the low table. “He’s a squatter just like us.”

  Cindy glanced over at her as if to say something. She reached down and worked the backs of her legs. “I’m not used to all that standing.”

  “How are you going to fare with the dance pole?” Sammy said under her breath.

  “What?”

  Sammy shook her head. “Nothing.”

  Cindy stretched her leg. “What’ve you been up to?”

  “Getting enough money together for the tablet. Not sure it’ll help me with the alarms, but the display is fun to play with.”

  “Wish I could do things like that.”

  “Why? You got Johnny.”

  “So that’s it,” Cindy said, her tone noticeably sharper.

  Sammy studied her. “What?”

  “You’re mad at me for taking the job, aren’t you?”

  “If you don’t mind guys staring at your boobs all day, who am I to say different.”

  “It must be nice being you. If you need something, you go through your bag of tricks and there it is like magic.”

  “It’s not like that. Everybody thinks it’s easy, but it’s not.”

  “It’s impossible for me,” Cindy said, her voice halting. Tears welled up. “I’m just trying to hold on, and I don’t know if I can.”

  Sammy slid over next to her. “Sorry, Cindy. I was just being a jerk.” Sammy rubbed Cindy’s arms. “I thought you could do better, that’s all.”

  Cindy wiped her cheek. “The only thing I have that’s worth anything is these damn boobs.”

  “Who said that? Johnny?”

  “Nobody said anything. I got two eyes. You have more smarts than three of me.”

  Sammy looked away. “I’m not that smart.”

  “You read a little booklet and in no time
you’re picking every lock.”

  Did she tell her that she was using Uncle Danny’s locked-picking set?

  “Now you’re talking about stuff I wouldn’t begin to understand.”

  “I don’t understand it either.”

  “You will. You always do. Take school—”

  “It was a stupid entrance test. You just tell them what they want to hear.”

  Cindy spouted a nervous laugh. “Like I know how to do that? You weren’t even going to school.”

  “I went to school.”

  “One year?”

  “I went to school before that,” Sammy said, remembering Uncle Danny pulling a coin from behind her ear and giving it to her for lunch money.

  “How old were you then? Seven, eight?”

  “I was a weird kid. I read a lot.”

  Cindy looked down at her lap, rolling the dress between her fingers. “It’s all my fault we’re in this mess.”

  “What mess? This place never looked better.”

  Cindy grinned. “You were the smart kid in a good school. You could’ve gone on to college and gotten a good job.”

  Sammy leaned into Cindy. “It’s all a con. They’re training a bunch of seals to jump through hoops. Do you want me to turn into a seal barking for a fish?”

  Cindy chuckled. “I’d like just five minutes to see the world through your eyes.”

  “If you did that, you’d go around screaming, ‘Make it stop! Make it stop!’”

  Cindy reached out and squeezed Sammy’s hand. “I’m glad you’re here, even if it makes me a horrible person.”

  “We can be horrible together. We’ll lock Igor’s door and glue it so he can’t open it.”

  Cindy leaned back and shook her head. She smiled a warm smile.

  “Can’t understand why door won’t open,” Sammy said in her best imitation of Igor.

  They both laughed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  _____________________________

  Sammy crouched next to the building across the street from the hardware store, now darkened and closed. She’d stopped by yesterday and checked out the heaters on sale. She was looking for a bigger discount.

  The lockpicks and the jumper wires were in her coat pocket. Once she opened the front door, the alarm would count down to thirty seconds before sounding. She’d have to pop the covers off, jumper J1 and J3 together—that stopped the timer—and then jumper J9 and J11. That would reset the alarm. She had five seconds for the reset.

  Sammy had discovered all she needed about alarms on the site “Hack the alarm.” It went over some of the basics in case the model changed slightly. At worst, she could run. It wasn’t the type of neighborhood where drones circled over.

  A lone boxy transporter buzzed up the street. Other than that it was quiet. Sammy worked the lock with the picks, finding each tumbler seemed to take forever. The last tumbler clicked. She stuffed the picks into one pocket and pulled out the jumpers from the other. She rushed through the door, then took five steps to the alarm box on the wall.

  Sammy fumbled for the cover. It had a latch on each side that had to be popped open. She found one and ran her fingers along the side for the other. It wasn’t there. Was it broken off? She pulled on the cover. The unlatched side slipped off, but the other side barely budged. She pushed it back, seating it against the wall, and pulled hard. The cover gave way. Sammy fell back, banging her head against the bin of wrenches behind her.

  The circuit board had enough glowing LED lights to help her find her way to the jumpers. The countdown clock registered fourteen seconds. Did she lose the jumper wires? She had them in her hand. Nine seconds to go. They must be by the cover. Sammy moved the cover to the side and shook it. Nothing. Four seconds remaining. Sammy felt the floor behind her, cursing herself for not bringing more jumpers. Two seconds to go. She found a wire and hooked one end. The clock clicked zero. She hooked the other end. Was she in time? Should she run?

  It was quiet but the clock was counting down from five…four… She forgot about the reset. She leaped up, looking for the other jumper. Two seconds to go. She’d never make it. Wait! The reset is just a trigger. Sammy grabbed a wrench and shoved the metal tip between the two jumpers. She stared at the blank clock.

  The LED on top of the board was still flashing red, then went dark. It was supposed to be green. Why wasn’t it green? The LED flashed green.

  Sammy let out a deep breath, pulled off the jumper, and pushed the cover back on. The door was still open! She dashed over and closed it. The heaters were in the back on a display table. She picked one under the clearance sign.

  Sammy walked to the bins along the wall behind the heater display, drumming on the box. There was enough light from the street for her to spot the fireworks sign, but not enough to see what type they were. She dug into a bin and pulled out a handful of little balls with wicks. She stuffed them into her pocket. She tried another bin, pulling out sticks with pencil-like tubes attached to one end. A type of rocket, she figured and shoved them into the other pocket. The last bin of fireworks had candle-like tubes, and she took a few of them too.

  She walked toward the door, looking if anyone was out front. A guy strolled right by the front door. Sammy dived, knocking over the bin of wrenches. If he didn’t see her, he must’ve heard the crash. She lay still, looking up at the window. It was quiet. She rose slowly. Whoever it was didn’t stick around.

  Sammy knelt, quietly loading the spilled wrenches into the bin. “Okay, lost points on stealth.”

  She froze. Creaking steps approached from the back.

  A row of lights in the back flashed on. “Who’s there?”

  The man sounded like the cranky owner. Did he sleep here?

  “I have a gun, and I’m not afraid to use it.”

  Sammy crawled to the bins lined up by the door. She’d have to stand and pull the door open to get out, making her a good target.

  From the back of the place, a figure emerged. He had a gun all right, and she figured he was ornery enough to use it. She reached into her pocket for the bearings. Damn! She’d forgotten to get more. She plucked out the few she had.

  “Ginger, stay back. Don’t want to shoot you.”

  She had to be smart on how to use the few bearings. A diversion was her best option.

  “Ginger!”

  A pug was at the back end of the aisle, leaning forward and growling.

  The last thing she needed was a dog to tell him where to shoot. She needed two diversions now. She’d better get this right because there wouldn’t be any second chances.

  The pug took a couple of quick steps, growling as if it were a Doberman.

  Sammy tossed a few bearings against the base of the register counter. The pug chased the bearings as they bounced and ricocheted off the wall. She took what was left and flung them at the pots-and-pans section hanging along the back wall. They rattled like distant gunfire. The guy jumped back, aiming his gun at the pans. Sammy leaped up and ran for the door, yanked it open, and dashed out. The door’s glass exploded behind her.

  Sammy ran with the heater under her arm, looking back at the store. The glass from the door had spilled onto the sidewalk. Sammy kept going until her legs burned and her breath choked. She collapsed against the side of a building.

  None of the buildings looked familiar. A drone looped over the building across the street from her then disappeared out of view. Was it looking for her? She waited a while for the drone to make another loop, but it never did. She walked up a few blocks, hoping to see something familiar. A block over displayed the flickering of a building’s side-screen.

  She was near Midtown by Times Square Park. She could cross the park and head south to get back to the apartment. The park was empty, except for a few on the periphery, wandering about like lost souls.

  A screen flashed behind her as if a giant door had opened, and out rolled Barb, the toothpaste lady, smiling in a bathroom mirror and flashing enough pearly whites to make a shark envious. />
  “Barb, get a life,” Sammy shouted. She and Uncle Danny used to come here late when it was quiet like this and have fun with the product shills.

  Barb waved as if they were on ships going in opposite directions.

  Saul, the laundry-detergent guy, stood in front of a giant washer with enough dirty clothes to make a laundry bot pop a spring. He tossed the clothes into the washer with abandon, talking how his detergent would get whiter whites without dulling the darker darks. All that talk made her head spin.

  Raul, the pastry guy, was next, wanting her to take a bite of his blueberry muffins. “They’ll melt in your mouth.”

  Sammy could’ve sworn she smelled the muffins. “I don’t want your stupid muffins, Raul, okay?”

  Marge, the mop lady, thrust the mop in front of Sammy, trying to make her feel guilty about dirty floors.

  Sammy had enough and ran through the ghostly screen figures descending on her like locusts from a plague. At the edge of the park, the figures gathered around as if cheering at a game, waving at her to join them.

  “Geez, if that ain’t creepy, nothing is.” Sammy walked back home with the heater under her arm.

  Chapter Sixteen

  _____________________________

  Sammy stared at another alarm system diagram, the third one since breaking into the hardware store a week ago. This one had motion-sensor inputs and dual-level monitoring for piggybacking other systems. She was sure this would be the one she’d face for a big heist. If she could just find something big enough to steal, they could find a place in the country and raise chickens and whatever else they needed to live on. It wouldn’t even have to be that big of a heist.

  She rubbed her eyes and flipped through some of the popular video channels.

  Cindy bounced up from the sofa. “Was that Shantou?”

  Sammy flipped back. “Snake lady?”

  “I heard she got her tongue forked.”

  “Sure she wasn’t born that way?”

  Cindy gave Sammy a playful jab. The camera view was a full-body long shot. Sammy wanted a close-up to look at the tongue and zoomed in, but the image blurred.

  Cindy flicked her fingers. “Back it up.”