Clean Getaway

Tasteless Pictures

The term 'quiet' was not something I would normally use to describe my two friends and me, but when it came to break ins and theft, silence was our speciality; although Live Wire was not in the house for a reason. He gets, for lack of a better word, excited, and excitement leads to him being a klutz. Car Keys and Myself walked down the slim hallway trying our hardest to skip a creaky fall board or avoid knocking into chest of draws on our way into the kitchen. The house was nice, it was clearly a family home. It was neutral in colouring but had ornaments from trips away and flowers in full bloom. Once in the spacious kitchen dining area I walked straight to the right side of the room and Car Keys went to the left. There we started our hushed hunt through the many drawers and cabinets of junk that lined the room in search for the one item we came to find and anything else that we saw and wanted. There would be nothing I wishes to possess other than one important item that I had come to retrieve. Although, Car Keys wasn't only window shopping for himself but also for Live Wire, who was easy to get for; just anything he can sell to make him a quick tenner.

"Found anything yet, mate?" asked Car Keys from the other side of the kitchen as he slowly moved the utensils from one of the drawers around to get a better look as to what was inside.

"No." I replied, closing the largest cabinet that I had bent down to look in. There was nothing in there but food. I hadn't eaten since yesterday night so I grabbed two packets of crisps and started munching away as I continued to search.

"Eat up" I declared throwing my accomplice the second bag which he caught with little effort.

We took a minute to eat what was in front of us, what can I say, boys have to eat, especially when they're hard at work. After we finished I broke the silence "Right, let's split up. You take downstairs, I'll go up." and headed out the room but was suddenly stopped by my partner in crime.

"What if they wake up?" Car Keys spoke with dark eyebrows creasing into a frown.

I rolled my eyes as if his remark was stupid, which considering how many times we had done this, it was. "If someone wakes up then I'll handle it the way that we always do." I turned to leave but quickly murmured "You be careful now" in a patronising tone and exited the room. I heard the low grumble of his response and then the echoes of his shuffling as he made his way into the living room.

Car Keys was smart, he knew what could happen if something like this went wrong. Didn't we all? But he was careful and always took the necessary precautions to ensure our safety, but most importantly his own. Being brought up without anything and nothing makes you look out for the most important person in your life, yourself. An upbringing where you have everything and anything allows a person the choice be kind or cruel to either, a luxury that most don't have. Car Keys had the talent of stealing cars without getting caught. He took the necessary precautions to get away with it, hence the nickname. It was like he had all the car keys in the palm of his hand. What I needed wasn't always found in a car and mugging someone would get us caught. It was best to go unseen.

I sneaked up the staircase peering to the top to get some understanding of the layout of the landing. As I ascended the stairs, a number of family photos ran along the wall of the staircase and I tried my best not to stare into the memories of the strangers. Although this failed and I found that the snapshots predominantly presented three people. The mother, father and their son at a number of different ages, it made me feel sick to see proud parents with their oh so perfect child. It was a classic family home. I passed the photos trying to ignore the tasteless pictures of the nuclear family. I needed to get to the top and see where each room was, how many there were, which had lights on, anything to give me some indication of my next move.

Nearing the top I could see the entrance to four rooms. Three rooms were expected, the fourth was not. I anticipated two bedrooms and a bathroom. It could have been a storage room, maybe there was a second child, a spare room or a walk in wardrobe... I hadn't been given any indication that a second child lived here. Going off how many pictures there were of the teenager I would expect at least one of their other children, if they had any.