Peter and the Lost Girl

Bread Robbed

"Alright coast is clear Jess, go!" Jasper ran across the street and towards Swift's Bakery. When he came to the store, he stopped. Jess stood there, right in front of the Bakery's window. The one showing loaves of bread, sweet cakes, and just about every form of lovely food that they could not afford.

Jasper kept standing there, staring at all of those goodies. It's to look at food, good food at that, when you haven't eaten all day.

It had been five days since the boys had argued about having to share the food with John. They had lasted longer than Tommy had expected. Every time they ate, they all gave a little portion of their food to John, some of them not liking it very much. Everyday they came closer and closer the have no more food, and everyday they came closer and closer to suggesting that they, maybe, just maybe, go back to the dreaded orphanage.

No one had gotten up the courage, though. So, on the day that they ran out of food, Tommy had suggested a plan to get more. He loved his plan. He was determined to make it work, and very excited to go back to his days before his family's death. He had explained his plan to all of them with loads of excitement mixed in. The other boys were all weary of it, though. They had never done anything like this before, and the weren't eager to get caught.

The boys all waited. They watched Jess stand there for three minutes, than six, until a tall man came up to the store. He went to the door, his hand resting on the knob. He looked over at Jess with a concerned and confused look, then went into the store. Jasper looked back at us, hiding in the alleyway across the street. Tommy gave him a stern look and motioned for him the keep staring at the sweets in the store's window.

Jess turned back, and we all held our breaths as we waited to see if Tommy's plan was going to work or not.

After a couple of minutes in the Bakery, the tall man came out holding a small bag. He once again stopped to look at Jasper, this time remarking him with a colder look, one of disgust. He then walked closer to the street and called a carriage.

When he was gone Jasper then, again, looked back at Tommy with a dismayed look. Once again Tom gestured for him to turn back.

The moment Jess's head was back on the cakes, the Bakery's door burst open. A short, stubby man thumped out with a ferocious glare on his face. Tom smiled, but the rest of the boys could not bring themselves to do so. The man started to yell and scream at Jasper. The poor five year old was so scared, Peter feared he might abandon the plan.

As Jess stood his ground the rest of the group snuck across the street and, carefully and quietly, into Swift's Bakery.

While the other boys were stuffing their clothes and faces with breads, cakes, and sweets straight from their wildest dreams, Jasper stood stunned, outside. He seemed too scared to moved, perhaps afraid that the baker would strike him. John, also, was not stuffing two handfuls of cookies into his mouth like Marcus. He was standing at the door watching that hored old man tell Jess off for scaring his customers away. He was the watchdog.

"He's sending Jasper off!" Everyone knew the drill. They stuffed a few crumbs into their mouths and ran to the back where Tommy had told them to go. Tom knew this town, he had grown up here. One of the perks of living a life of thievery was that he knew which stores had one door, and which had two.

Peter was the first there. He stumbled out and ran back to the front. He peeked around the corner. The man was going back into the store now. Jasper was standing across the street where the other boys had watched him from before. Something about him was, wrong somehow, but Peter was too caught up in the mayhem to be bothered by little details.

Peter dashed across, hoping that he wouldn't be spotted by the Baker. When he got to Jess he looked back across the street. The Baker was standing there in the doorway of his store, not moving. Peter motioned for the others boys to run over to them. By the time the man was out of his amazement from seeing his trashed and robbed business, every one of the boys were hiding in the cover of darkness the ally provided them.

They waited, watching. The short man roared out of his store. "Robbed! I have been robbed! Someone fetch the police!"

The boys smiled, so far they had not been spotted. "Come on." Tom whispered to the others, "Let's go while we're not being chased. The rest of the boys nodded and whispered their agreements. They left with nothing but that short, stubby man's store to show they were there.