MashedPaDaders

    “Smooth move Ex-lax “ the man said sarcastically.

I looked up from the puddle full of my mail to see the back of man as he walked away down the street. The rain and the night swallowed him up before I could see any more. I muttered a curse under my breath as I bent down to grab my soaked mail. Most of it is ruined, but it doesn’t matter. After all I am leaving my apartment and my job. I only just escaped the police. I needed to leave before they could find out who I am and where I live. It’s not as if it was bad enough getting caught for grand larceny, getting caught for resisting arrest would only make it worse.

    I trudged over to my door and fumbled with the lock. It opened with a familiar click and I stomped down the hall. I threw open the door to my room and started pulling out drawers. I had to get packed and leave before the police could arrive. I took a duffle bag out from under my bed and brought it to the closet. I opened the closet and started putting shirts in then bag. When I had a nice layer of clothes at the bottom of the bag I reached down and opened my floor safe. I pulled out stacks of hundreds and stuffed some into the bag, some into my pockets. I reached back into the safe and pulled out a pistol in its holster. I gave the gun a quick once over and put on the holster. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to use it. I reached in once more and pulled out a paper bag. I opened it gingerly and peered inside.

    It was my collection. A collection of my most favorite jewels. It is nearly full with individual gems as well as pieces of jewelry. The value of those gems was worth more than everything else I owned combined. I love and take care of them as if they were my children. I could never part with a single stone of my collection. I placed the bag in the duffle and wrapped it in clothes. I started packing more clothes in the packing in tight in the center like a cocoon. As soon as the jewels are safely bundled up I zipped up the duffle and slung it over my shoulder. I made a beeline straight for the door hall.

    It was the person from across the hall. I could tell by then open door and the obnoxious show tunes bouncing out merrily. She was dressed in leisure wear. Just old sweatpants, worn out sweat shirt, and slippers. There was nothing amazing about that, it has her face that amazed me. It was a familiar face. It was a face I would always remember, and with it came a voice that I could never forget.

    “ What is your bag full of? rocks?” She said irritably, anger and sugar seeping through.

    As I look up at the night sky, standing in a city, I see a closed view. The stars I see are only the brightest and they are too few. Its like looking out of a fogged window; but I have looked to a night sky that laid bare the universe before me. A sky so full of stars, so full of pure beauty that it left me awestruck, looking  up with my mouth agape. A view so bright with light older than the earth lit up the night and made the dark feel less oppressive. As I looked up at the sky I realized how dumb I must have looked, staring wide-eyed like a small child at a sky people had been seeing for thousands of years.

     “ There’s nothing new up there.” they'd say, “ What’s so cool about balls of burning gas?”, they’d ask me. I would rebuttal, “ If only you could see through my eyes you would see not only balls of gas, but an infinite universe of possibility. When I look up I see infinite planetoids, with life bound to be on one. I see galaxies spinning on forever. I see solar systems consumed by black holes, and spit out through white holes. I see stars dying, and I see others reborn.

    It saddens me deeply to know that there are people who will never see such wonder. That there are those who will remain in voluntary ignorance of this universe’s true beauties. I cannot count the times I have seen people give up the chance to see real beauty because they were too obsessed with something else. As if to be separated from it is to sever their connection to the world.

I try to do what I can to show others the world’s true beauty. I try to show them not only the  beauty of the night sky, but that of falling snow. I attempt to show them the beauty of song and that of human nature; but somehow I always fall short. So, for now, I will continue to be saddened and will continue to try. I will continue to show people the night sky in hopes they will feel as I do, and every success will bring another dreamer into this world.

It was the most devious of schemes. No one other than I could have executed so flawlessly. Each little detail meticulously laid out. Every contingency planned for, or so I thought. It was absolutely perfect. Though it seems that the-powers-that-be had a different plan for me.

I had seen that beautiful emerald necklace everyday since I started walking to work. It would sit there in the window display, taunting me from behind that reinforced glass. I knew I had to have it for my personal collection. The rest of the gems in the would be a well earned bonus.

So I waited and I planned and I schemed. Then the day came when a weeks worth of preparation and years of experiance would finally be put to use. So I proceeded with my plan.

It started out just like any other job I had done before. I waited until nightfall to begin the heist. I blinded the security cameras from the outside using a piece of hardware a bought from a “friend”. I then would have expertly unlocked the backdoor and disabled the gallery’s floor sensors from the manager's office. You should’ve seen the look on my face when I found that the door was unlocked and the sensors were disabled, and not by yours truly. Someone was stealing my thunder and, more importantly, my necklace. Needless to say I was upset.

So I waltzed out onto the gallery floor, checking each display case for jewelry. They were all wide open and every single one had been picked clean. As I was silently lamenting the loss of a great score I heard something near the front of the store.

I turned and saw a figure garbed in black kneeling at the window display. Whoever they were, they seemed to be having trouble opening that particular lock.  The figure was swearing under his or her breath and working tools furiously in the lock. Eventually the person gave up with a huff. I decided then that I would make my presence known

“ Having a spot of trouble are we?”, I asked causally to the frustrated thief.

The figure sprung up and turned around quicker than I thought possible for any man. Then to my surprise the figure that stood before me was not a man but a women. She was about a head shorter than me. I could tell that she was fit and lean, like a cat. She stood with the confidence of an apex predator that had just spotted easy prey. She wore roughly the same kind of clothes I was wearing. Comfortable shoes, tight but flexible pants, a long sleeved shirt, and skin tight gloves . The only thing that made her clothing different from mine was the sleeveless black hoodie, and the obviously expensive metal Comedy mask. The coat I wore was a black one from my days in the army, and the mask I wore was a simple gray ski mask.

“ You could say that.” She replied. Her voice was slow and sweet, but it dripped with menace too. It was like honey mixed with cyanide.

We were silent for what seemed like ages, but in reality was only seconds. Both of us sizing each other up. Again I was the first to speak.

“ Fine work you’ve done here.”, I said, again casually, “ You did it exactly how I would have done it. If you wouldn’t have gotten here first of course.”

“ Great minds think alike I suppose.” She replied, her voice still dripping with sugar and poison.

“That they do” I rebuttled,” That they do.”

I can’t explain why, but I was starting to like this mysterious woman. Barely two sentences from her and I was already interested. She was like a venus fly trap, tempting me into her gaping maw with the promise of sweet nectar. I had to get her out of my hair quick.

“ I can see how hard you’ve worked to get up to this point, so how about we cut a deal”, I suggested,” You can leave now with all the loot you’ve collected and I get what’s in that display.”

“And why would I do that...?”she asked, her voice more toxic than sweet,”When I could just dispose of you and take everything for myself.”

“You can try.”, I chuckled as pulled my collapsible baton out of my coat pocket and opened it with a swing of my arm.

“You don’t stand a chance.”, she growled as she reached into her pocket. I barely saw the glint of the brass knuckles she had put on before she attacked. She tried to hit me with a left hook, probably hoping to hit me her brass knuckles while I was stunned. I anticipated it and blocked just in time and brought my baton down on her shoulder. She yelped and jumped away. We sized each other up again, both armed with new knowledge of the other’s strengths or weaknesses. This time I struck first. I swung at her head, but she ducked. She used her momentum to throw a right hook. I heard, more than felt, two of my ribs crack under then force of brass aided blow. It was my turn to yell and jump back. The Comedy mask she wore seemed to taunt me. Its wide smile silently laughing at my pain. We both launched back into combat and the rest became a blur. They next thing I knew my back was up against the window display and her gleaming fist was rushing towards my face. I ducked just in time and her fist went straight through the glass, shattering it.

The alarms started to blare as I gathered my strength. With a scream lifted her and sent her flying through a nearby display case. I turned to the window display and grabbed the prize I had worked so hard for. That beautiful emerald necklace that I had admired for so long. I turned around to leave before the cops showed up, and was kneed in the groin.

I fell to my knees, gasping my air, I look up and I saw Her standing there, holding the necklace. Though, even through the pain all I could focus on was her face.

When I threw her her mask must have been torn off. She was beautiful beyond all compare. Her fair skin was brighter than any diamond. Her eyes a deeper green than any emerald. Her lips were as red like rubies. Her short hair as brown as amber. It was in that moment of my own vulnerability that I knew that she was the real treasure and I had to have her. I knew that her heart would be my greatest prize. Then she knocked me out cold with one hard left hook.

When I woke up I was in a police cruiser going down the highway and my hands were cuffed behind my back.

“ What a woman.”, I said to myself as a started to pick the lock on my restraints.

It would be difficult, finding her, winning her over. After all we did do a number on each other, but it was a challenge I was willing to accept.