The Life Of Andrés De Fonollosa

The first robbery

In 1983 a brown haired eight year old boy with chestnut brown eyes walked into an expensive jewelry shop. He was wearing what looked like posh and elegant clothes, although they were actually cheap, just so that he could at least enter without getting thrown out.

He went up to an older lady, who was just trying on every jewelry piece in the whole shop. He never understood how someone could spend hours in a shop without buying anything. It was just a waste of time in his mind.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something the woman turned around. Her face covered with makeup, her hair bright pink and an unpleasant and fake smile spread across her face. The little boy swallowed hard, looking at the scarry lady but he knew everybody would be disappointed with him. They would think he was still too young and incapable of doing anything.

„Excuse me Madam, as a present for my mother, my father said I should find a nice jewelry piece and buy it with the money he gave me. The problem is, that I just don't know what she would want. I don't know my way around jewelry. Could you please help me?" The 8 year old boy said this with his sweetest smile and his famous puppy eyes. No one could ever say no to those eyes.

The scarry lady replied with a now softer smile:„Well of course little one come with me."

She put the necklace she was holding minutes ago down on a table. The little boy used the chance as the woman turned her back to him, he quickly grabbed the necklace and stuffed it into his little pocket.‚ Phew' he thought to himself ,did anyone see me?' He looked around carefully, but no one was looking. The first part was dealt with but now he had to get out of this shop so he went up to the lady again and said with a sorrowful tone:

„Ma'am, please forgive me but I have just realised that my father meant a different jewelry shop. I am sorry to have bothered you."

Instead of accepting his apologies she looked at him suspiciously and said:„You aren't here to buy anything for your mother are you? You do realise that there aren't any other jewelry shops around here?! So what do you want?" She then looked at the table, where she had put her necklace down but it was gone. She looked angrily at the boy. He looked at her with big eyes and then suddenly before she could say anything else he ran to the glass door, ripped it open and ran out.

The women screamed and shouted to the jewelry associate:„ A thief! Stop him! He stole my necklace". The associate immediately ran over to the telephone and called the police.

The boy was running as fast as his little legs could take him. He ran through an alley, past the Spanish market, turned off many times, he even ran through someone's house. After a while he couldn't breathe anymore so he came to a sudden holt in the middle of a group of people. He couldn't run anymore. Just as he thought he was safe he heard police sirens. He panicked and quickly looked around. The police quickly got out of their car, looked around and spotted him in the crowd. They shouted to him that he should stay exactly where he was. That is exactly what the boy did. He was too shocked to run away. But then he heard his mother's voice in his head. ‚Don't disappoint me again and come back without the jewelry!'
The police were fighting through the crowd. They were getting closer and closer but then suddenly the boy woke up from his trance. He only had one thought:

RUN!

So again the young boy started to run away. The police closely followed. The boy thought of his brother. What would he do in this situation? Where would he go?
His brother was slightly older than him so he always had the say and he also always told him what to do. The boy always got annoyed about that. He wanted to be mature like his brother. Everybody relied on his brother even though he was a lot of the time in hospital. He was known to be the more intelligent and kinder one and HE was going to be the future of the family and save everybody. But that wasn't true in the boys eyes. He did everything to be like his older brother but also wanted to establish his own identity.
This was the first time he had ever stolen something this big. He now knew that he had overestimated how difficult this would actually be. He had imagined it to be a lot simpler. But as he liked to say ‚that's life for you'.

The police were catching him up quite quickly but the boy now knew where to go. He turned sharp left into another alley. Lots of poor children came here to look for food in the bins and also to play in the dirt. This place was the poor part of the town. He lived around here, next to all the homeless and desperate people.

The boy ran over to the bins and hid behind them, hoping the police won't find him. He put his hands in front of his face and just prayed, prayed that the police wouldn't punish him too hard, just in case they did spot him and arrest him.

The police came around the corner and went running straight down the alley without looking at the bins. The boy heard the footsteps getting quieter and then vanish. The sudden silence felt so relieving and so welcoming.. He then slowly took his hands away from his face and carefully looked past the bins. No noise. No police. Had he made it?

He carefully took the necklace out of his pocket and examined it. The necklace was beautiful. It had a thin golden chain and an emerald green diamond in the middle. The boy absolutely loved this jewelry piece and promised himself he would give his future wife a necklace as beautiful as this one. He already knew, that he wanted to marry and have a child. That was nearly every Spanish man's dream. Marry a beautiful women and live a fun, free and happy life. Singing, celebrating and dancing.

But again his brother was different. He always said that he never wanted a child. Maybe it is because no one would like to have a child with someone who is nearly always in hospital' he thought to himself.
Yes, his brother was ill and therefore had to go to hospital. The eight year old always thought it was stupid that his family always saw his brother to be their future and not their healthy child, who was slightly younger, by just a few months.

A little time went by so the boy thought he was safe by now and left his hiding place. He then walked slowly back to the poor apartment, he and his family lived in. He hated his apartment and he hated living such a poor life. His biggest dream was to become rich and posh and show everyone that he was intelligent and more than just a poor, dirty and foolish young child.

He had a difficult life and therefore very unrealistic dreams. But he, Andrés de Fonollosa, would be the first in his family to become something special. Even if he had to steal or be mean to people he was confident of fulfilling his biggest dreams.

Yes, he would be rich and live in a big castle with lots of servants and a beautiful wife.