The Fugitive

Chapter 2 Twelve Years Later

In the afternoon of another boring Wednesday, everyone was in a rush to get to their jobs.

Business men walked past janitors, and accountants bumped into contruction men.

Cars were barely used in Drenal City because everything was so close to their homes that they preferred to walk than operate a hassling machine.

But who would notice a young girl observing the crowd from a little far away when they had appointments to get to and business decisions to make. It was laughably trivial.

Nevertheless she was there, her blue eyes scanning the crowed with deep intent. She appeared to be looking for something.

Suddenly she spotted something. Her eyes squinted to see it clearly.

A lustrous, gold wristwatch on a businessman's hand.

"It would look great on John." She thought happily. She swiftly joined the crowd and began walking towards the man with the golden wristwatch. She had a keen eye which tracked the man as he moved with the crowd.

She had a petite figure, therefore she could slip between people easily. Soon she began to to catch up to the man with wristwatch.

She realized he was on the phone, talking fervently with the man on the other side. She needed to grasp this opportunity while she had the chance.

With one quick movement, she removed the watch from the man's hand, but he didn't notice.

"It a pretty heavy watch." The girl thought. "It won't be long until he realizes that a huge weight from his hand is gone."

She briskly made her way out of the crowd and into a rundown shop on the side of the boulevard. She opended the door whose sign said 'closed' and entered a dilapidated looking place. What the shop sold she did not know, for all the items for sale were taken away or eaten by rats.

She inspected the watch. It looked extremely expensive.

The floor boards creaked as she lowered herself on to the floor. Then she began emptying her pockets.

A ring embedded with a large diamond, an ancient looking pocket watch, a few 10 dollars, fresh from an ignorant man's wallet and the heavy gold wristwatch.

She was satisfied with her haul, but one lucky time she had gotten six times the cost of whatever she found here.

"Hey Alice!" A jovial voice called out making her jump a bit. She turned towards the direction of the voice. There was a young boy around 10 years old smiling gleefully at her, occasionally trying to catch a glimpse of the haul that Alice had made.

"Well hello, Devon." Alice greeted him cordially.

"Ooo." He said eyeing her haul enviously. "I only get around quarter of that in three days!"

"Well its because you are not looking in the right places. Your are supposed to go to places where there are a lot of business men. And spoilt wives." Alice added humorously.

Devon giggled. "But I do, honestly! Mabye your just lucky." He said with a wink.

"Yeah, mabye." She said thoughtfully, looking down at her seemingly big treasures.

"Well anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" he exclaimed. "Old S, Terrance and I have something big planned for you! You're going to love it." He spoke quickly his eyes shinning with innocence.

Alice giggled and blushed.

"Thanks, Devon." She said tousling his brown hair.

"Well I better get going then. I have got sooo much to prepare for your surprise." Devon said rubbing his hands eagerly.