The First Sparks

Chapter 8

 As it turned out, Liam in fact did not have any tools. So we did what all reasonable people do when they don't have things and resorted to robbery.

"Are you sure this is legal?" Liam whispered to me as we climbed Mr. Hailkins fence and into his backyard.

"Of course its legal why wouldn't it be." I replied with a shrug, I fully well knew this was against the law, but somehow I managed to convince him otherwise.

"Well for one this could be considered breaking and entering."

"You're right, it could be considered breaking and entering, but is it really?"

"Yeah, yeah it is."

I gave another shrug, "ok then we don't get caught!"

"What if they do catch us?"

"We run," I explained.

"Doesn't Mr. Hailkin own a gun?" Liam said, obviously not liking my plan

"We run really fast."

"Okay, but uhh, say we can"t run faster then bullets?"

"Nonsense we'll be fine, c'mon don't be a coward."

Liam scowled, he hated being called a coward. "Fine, but if we get caught you better take the blame."

It was dark out, we had already returned home and done our homework, slipped out of our houses and now hid at the edge of his yard, creeping closer to his tool shed. I only knew he had the stuff in there because he once asked my dad to help out with something in his backyard, and then my dad got me to help out a bit, giving me a good view of everything he had in there.

Besides we were only borrowing them, we wouldn't need them for too long, and when would Mr. Hailkin ever need them anyways? The only thing he did these days was grumble under his breath about how kids are stupid and go to the gun range.

Unfortunately, that meant he had a good shot, despite him being in his seventies. So even more motivation to not get caught.

We came up to the sheds door, just to investigate what we were dealing with, we had all night to do this so we weren't too rushed. Of course we didn't want to be there for too long but thats besides the matter.

I took a look at the door handle, it was held shut by a sturdy, rusty lock. I frowned a little, not that it would be hard to break off, but by the fact that it would definitely wake up Mr. Hailkins. When Liam noticed it, he sighed and trudged over to a large rock.

"Wait Liam you don't have to-" I told him.

"Shhhh," he cut me off. "You don't want to make anymore noise then we have to."

"No seriously just list-"

"Ok, three, two, one." He lifted the rock to smash the lock, but then instead of bringing it down upon it, he froze. Upon further examination of the lock, he realized what I had. The lock wasn't even locked.

"Well dementia is good for some things I guess." He laughed quietly. He threw the rock aside, accidentally hitting another rock and causing a loud clash. I froze, all my muscles clenched up. Did it wake him? It wasn't that loud, but Mr. Hailkins could have been a light sleeper.

I started to move quickly, if it had woken him there was no point in waiting to hear something. By then he could already have a gun and be onto us.

I opened the shed door and rushed inside, looking around frantically. I saw an array of gardening tools, a shovel, a pickaxe, even some of the drills you would see at construction sites. Liam grinned and grabbed one of them.