Stealing and pickpocketing. What was next? Maybe, robbing. And money never stayed long in his hands. He was always in a desperate state again after a few days of every last crime.
Hiding himself behind a tree, Mark set his intent gaze on two females on a bench, a few yards away from him. A middle-aged woman and a teenage girl. His target seemed to be from a well-off family. His particular interest was the branded handbag laid next to the woman. But he was still racking his brains for how to take it away without their notice.
Then the woman moved to the bed of roses some steps away from the bench. What was important was she had left her handbag on the bench. Afterwards, her daughter or niece - never mind however they were related - followed her, with the phone in one hand. Then she was taking pictures of the lady.
This was his only chance. They were distracted and he just needed to walk past the bench, like a normal passerby would, and leave with the bag.
He did exactly as he had mentally planned. But alas, before he could coolly walk off, the woman was shouting, "Thief!" and they both dashed towards him just as he sped up. It was okay. Compared to him, the women were much slower. He held the bag firmly and increased his pace.
"Hey stop! You're gonna die if we catch you." Now it was not a feminine voice. Mark risked a glance back, over his shoulder, at the source of the voice and only then realised he was being chased by two security guards of the park. He could have outrun the two women but not two big guys.
The distance between him and the two threatening guys was getting even shorter. Hell! He dropped the bag, abruptly, hoping they would stop and then ran for his life. But why the hell were they still in pursuit? He could still hear their voices demanding him to stop.
There was a group of children in the direction he was running and a guy near them leaning against a tree and watching them attentively. Mark did the only thing he could think of. He ran straight to the guy and pulled him to the other side of the tree, removed his own hood from his head as to slightly change his look, pinned the startled guy against the hard trunk of the tree and whispered into his ear.
"Please. Stay still for a moment. I won't do anything to you."
"What the fu-"
"Shh. Be quiet. Just for a moment." The two guards were in a moment near them. Mark planted his face on the guy's neck and slightly ground against him. The guy made protesting noises but Mark's ears were to hear the guards only at the moment.
"Is he gone? Which way? Did you see it?" said a panting voice.
"No, did you?"
"I don't know. Maybe this way. Yah! What're you looking at! It's not time for porn. Let's search this way."
Then the footsteps turned away and the two guards were soon gone. Mark could breathe properly again and detached himself from the guy, who was scowling at him and crossed his arms. Wait, this face looked familiar.
"I demand an explanation." The guy's frown deepened, "You! You, the same thief! Who tried to steal my wallet!"
"Don't shout. I didn't get that anyway," Mark said miserably, thinking if he needed to run again.
"It was you the guards were searching for? Did you just commit a crime again? Seriously. I let you go once. But this time I really am going to send you to the police station." The guy grabbed Mark's hand before Mark could even react and dragged him away from the hiding spot.
"Well, I've been in prison a number of times. It's not that bad. They feed me and I can sleep there," Mark said, trying to sound nonchalant, while all he was hoping for was he would be let go. "It won't make any difference to me."
