A Story About Gary

Gary knows it is wrong, but he can't resist. It's his one passion in life. His thief instinct was right now running through his blood like hot acid, and it made him stir crazy for the thrill that comes from the anxiety and speed that only thievery can deliver. But this night was different from all the others. This night was bigger, better, and even more dangerous. Tonight he was hitting the Lord Ursus's manor, and it was going to be a huge pay off.

Gary did the usual pre-thieving work. He took out the guards at the gate with a beautiful distraction named Tiffany, cut the wires to the security box on the opposite side of the hedge ridden stone wall, and rerouted the security cam's video feed through his own recordings so as to be virtually invisible when going through the mansion. All that was left was for the Ursus family to take off on their scheduled 9:30 pm helicopter flight to the Florida Keys for the weekend.

Gary was prepared. His watch man, Dun, had control of all the cams and was well aware of everything going on in and outside the house from his little white van down the street. Both the men waited and watched as the Ursus family walked from their back door to the helicopter.

"Go Gary, we only have a small window of time until Tiffany hits the road. You now have approximately 10 minutes to get in and take the jewels from the Lord's chamber, just make sure you.."

And before Dun could even finish what he was saying, Gary was out the door and over the wall. Quickly he ran to the side entrance nearest the east end that they were at, quickly pulled out his lock picking mechanism and (so smoothly, so quietly) made the lock fall to pieces in his hand. He got into this business because of his skill with locks. He still found it amazing that they always did exactly as he wanted them too.

Gary quietly opened the door and made his way through the dark kitchen, all the time listening to the chopper outside, expecting it to lift off any minute now. "Why hasn't it lifted off yet!?" Gary thought to himself. He reached down to radio into Dun about his concern but nothing was on his waste. He had left the Motorola in the van! This was the biggest job of his life and he had left the walky-talky in the van! He panicked for a total of 0.3 seconds, but decided it was too late and he'd been planning for too long to turn back now. In and out was all it was, he'd be gone in no time.

With his heart beating in his ears, he quickly but quietly assailed the stairs to the Lord's Chamber. Once in, he began to rip apart everything. The closets emptied, cabinets tipped, bed stands smashed, chairs ripped, bed frames flipped.... but there were no jewels anywhere! "Think, Gary, Think!" he said aloud to himself. "Ah, must be in the Ladies room! Of course!" So he ran to the room across the hall and ripped Lady Ursus's room apart the same, but to no avail. "Where the hell could they be!? They couldn't possibly have taken the jewels with them," he said to himself. And at that moment, he heard a slam from downstairs! Somebody else was in the house with him!

"Great, now what!?" Gary stood silent for a moment to hear what was happening downstairs, and the rustling of papers came from where the Ursus's office may have been, somewhere beneath the room he was standing in.

Gary began to tip-toe back to the eastern end of the building. He figured even though he was on the second story, there would be a window over here somewhere that he could get to and make it back to Dun! It was dark but he had to go fast. He flew through a door at the end of the hall and ran straight into a giant stuffed animal. Gary and the animal toppled through the room and slammed against the far wall. As Gary and the creature hit the wall, a cupboard door next to them quickly swung open and out rolled a small, child size bowl. Gary didn't notice. He saw that his escape was just above his head, and as he was about to stand and jump out the window, he noticed a small glimmer out of the corner of his eye. It was the bowl. The jewels that were covering the bowl had caught the moon light, and Gary realized this was what he had been looking for all along. Not paying attention to the noise he had been making, and distracted by now trying quickly to stuff the bowl into his bag, he did not see the little girl walk up to the entrance of the room he now stood in.

As Gary pushed the bowl to safety within his bag, the girl let out an ear shriveling scream so loud that it probably blew Dun out of his seat in the van. She then yelled, "Daddy! Someone is in my room, taking the pretty bowl!" But Gary never heard this. Gary had already jumped out the window, ran through the yard, hopped the hedge, and fallen from the wall. Dun was nowhere to be seen.

"Had this all been a set up? How could this have all gone so wrong?" Gary thought to himself as he ran across the street and into the alley, slipping into the shadows as the police sirens wailed into the night.

The Ursus's never saw their golden bowl again.