A Black Rose

Is it Really Stealing if No One is Looking?

Magnolia Springs, Alabama

The most opportune time for shoplifting is on hot, sticky summer days.

In small towns like Magnolia Springs, Alabama, gas stations line every block. Their doors stay open, a small fan greeting customers as they walk in, lazy feet dragging on the dirty floors. A shopkeeper slouches at the counter, bored face slipping from the weight of their head on their knuckles. 

Everyone’s minds are hazy from the heat, barely registering the nimble fingers that pluck items from the shelf. Hands shift under a coat, uneasy from the silver mirror at the corner of the store. It sits high, but not a single eye lays upon it. 

Some quiet shuffling and the deed is done. A soda pop, a bag of chips, batteries, cigarettes, and a twenty-dollar bill from the coat pocket of an unsuspecting customer. A girl’s dark hands washed white on the underside, cradle the stolen items under baggy clothing. 

The girl slips away from the convenience store, careful eyes surveying the area. No one pays her any mind. Only in her town could a black girl successfully steal from a dusty store without a single glance given. 

She slips onto the street, joining pedestrians spread sparsely in her sight. 

It’s supposed to be her first time. 

But her hands are already worn with the skill, her mind already used to the busy adrenaline that comes from the game. The convenience store is her rite of passage. 

Being a thief is in her blood.

She can feel it coursing through her veins, all iron toughness and warm precision. 

The girl continues up the street, footsteps dry on the white pavement. People pass by her, unknowing of the contents beneath her jacket. It's scorching outside, the heavy coat doing nothing to prevent the sweat dripping down her back. 

The back of the girl’s neck prickles in anxiety, and she picks up her pace. She knows when she’s being watched. However, she does not know how to solve such an issue. Her family’s home is within her view, but the feeling of being watched does not disappear. A glance behind her renders her senses useless; she cannot see anyone that could be following her. No footsteps warrant the feeling on her neck, but she can’t seem to dismiss it. 

Before she can think of a way to react, the feeling dissipates and her feet reach the worn steps to her house. She can already hear her brothers yelling at the sound of her arrival. Her face splits into a grin, and she closes the door behind her. Darius is the first to greet her, all frizzy curls and blinding smile. 

“Find anything good, Raya?” he teases, eyes looking over the bulges in her jacket. 

Before she can respond, Ben is already bounding down the stairs towards her. 

“You made it back,” he says, grinning widely. 

Raya rolls her eyes, “Of course I did.”

She opens her coat, her hard-won prizes spilling out onto the floor. Her brothers nod approvingly. 

“You know we can’t tell Mom and Dad, right?” Darius reminds her as he’s picking up a bag of chips. 

Ben joins in agreement, “They can’t know you’re going back into the game. They’d be devastated if what happened to Uncle happened to you too.” 

She scowls, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. 

“You both know that nothin’s gonna happen to me. Just keep it a secret for me?” she pleads, giving her brothers her best guilt-inducing look. 

Darius and Ben laugh, and Ben pats her shoulder reassuringly. 

“We just want you to be safe, kid.” 

Raya softens and gives her brothers a smile. 

“I know. I can take care of myself,” she says, shrugging off her coat and walking towards the stairs.

Her brothers don’t follow, probably assuming she wanted some alone time, which wasn’t far from the truth. Raya did want some alone time, but not for the reason her brothers might think. Raya had stolen one more thing from the gas station that had been burning a hole in her pocket ever since she grasped it. One of the patrons of the store had stood out considerably from the rest. He wore an expensive-looking suit and had dark, slicked back hair. She had only found a twenty-dollar bill in his pocket. 

That, and a beautiful pink diamond. 

Raya quickly arrives at her bedroom door, and slips inside. As soon as she does, strong arms grab her and a large hand covers her mouth before she can even scream. She struggles intensely, heart rate immediately spiking and panic rising quickly in her chest. The person has an iron grip on her, her body hardly able to struggle no matter how hard she tried. Her room is dark but Raya knows that the baseball bat she keeps in her room is about five feet away from her. 

“Do not scream,” the individual, a man, tells her harshly, no threat, just an instruction. 

Raya stops struggling, going stock-still in the man’s vice grip. The man releases her and Raya immediately goes for the baseball bat, swinging it as hard as she can in the man’s direction. The contact between metal and a person makes a loud thud. The man grunts in pain, but Raya isn’t sure where she hit him. The lights to her room flicker on, and Raya sees the man’s hand at the light switch. 

The first thing she notices about the man is his striking white hair. His face is older and the man was only a little taller than her. He was also wearing a suit similar to the man she stole the diamond from. However, she didn’t remember the patron having white hair. 

The man is holding his arm, presumably where Raya had hit him. She grips the bat harder. 

“Why the hell are you in my house?” she demands, bat poised over her shoulder. 

The man watches her calmly, and despite having been hit with a bat, was standing up perfectly straight. 

“I believe you have acquired something that doesn’t belong to you,” the white-haired man tells her. 

Raya almost starts laughing. Her heart is beating out of her chest and there’s no way her brothers haven’t heard the commotion coming from her bedroom. There was no way this man knew about the diamond in her pocket. And there was no way that she was going to give it up so easily. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you don’t get out of my house in the next couple of seconds I will hit you with this bat again. And this time I can see,” she threatens, stepping closer to the man in case he wanted to try and pull something. 

The man chuckles heartlessly, appraising Raya carefully. 

“Let me cut you a deal. I’ll let you keep that diamond, and,” he pauses, watching her, “Let your brothers go unharmed if you steal something for me.”  

Cold fear grips Raya’s spine as she realizes what the man means. Anger quickly replaces that fear, however, and Raya’s intimidating stance falters. 

“Fine. I’ll do what you want. But I want to get one more good hit or no deal,” Raya insisted, grinning darkly at the man’s reaction. 

She wasn’t going to be threatened so easily. 

The man contemplates for a second, and gives her a defeated expression, “Just make it quick.”

She grips her bat in preparation and steps toward the white-haired man. The man flinches at her movement, and she can’t hide her laugh. He was getting what he deserved. 

Raya slams the bat as hard as she can.