DANIEL HERON: BECOMING

6 - Heron, you're our good-luck charm

The sun was slowly rising on the eastern sky, the forest behind him was waking up, still, Daniel felt miserable. Without a buck in his pocket, he was supposed to go shopping with Lucio, Rafael and Bernard. He was standing like a stump of a cut down tree for at least four minutes, indecisive.

"What are you waiting for, Heron?" Lucio shouted loud enough for Daniel to hear despite the fact that the car windows weren't lowered.

Daniel slowly walked up to the driver's side of the car and leaned so that his face was close to the window. Lucio started to turn the ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­window crank handle on the inner side of the door, and as a result, the glass begun to lower. "What?" his eyebrows lowered.

"Listen, Lucio..." Lack of certainty in Daniel's voice came through. "I don't exactly have any cash at the moment."

"Who asked you about cash? Get in!"

"But you said we were going shopping."

"We don't need cash to go shopping. Now shut to fuck up and get in!" said Lucio, turned his head forward, letting Daniel know that the discussion was over.

Daniel complied and sat on the back seat next to Rafael who grinned mischievously.

About half an hour later, Daniel exited Lucio's car in the street not far from the store. Earlier they made sure he got detail instructions about what he was supposed to do.

The walk to the store was short, but weighed down by the gloomy thoughts, it seemed to him as if he were walking towards his own scaffold. Lucio's plan involved theft, and since Daniel was the 'team's fresh face', it was up to him to play the role of the main shoplifter. He didn't like that the least bit.

"What if they recognize us?" he asked. He and the guys lived in this town all their lives; he was sure that at least someone should be able to remember who they are.

"You worry for nothing again!" The smile on Lucio's face wasn't to his liking. "Here." He threw him a large, thick framed glasses. "You're four-eyed from now on."

Daniel put them on, surprised that his vision wasn't blurred.

"They got no dioptre," Lucio explained. He walked up to Daniel, took a plastic tube out of his pocket and squeezed gelatin-like blue substance. He rubbed it between his palms and brushed Daniel's hair backwards. "There you go. There isn't a single person who would remember Daniel as a guy with carefully styled hair."

"There sure isn't," Bernard and Rafael agreed.

Soon they too became someone else. Bernard threw his baseball cap on the dashboard of the car, and glued a false mustache above his lip, while Rafael hid his mullet under the woolen cap and put on a sweater that made him seem fatter than he was.

"Boys, it's action time!" said Lucio and after that, there was no going back.

That's the life you've chose, Daniel kept telling himself. Now buckle up and do what's expected of you.

He stopped for a moment before the store's door, took a deep breath and followed the sign that said PULL. He walked into the store with the most innocent face he could feign. He hopped it was good enough.

He greeted the saleswoman at the cash register opposite to the entrance door, took a basket and headed down the aisle between the only two rows of shelves in the store. Other than the shelves and the cash register, there was only one refrigerator. It was a small, neighborhood store, not built to attract many shoppers. That was exactly what Lucio counted on when he chose it as a target.

Daniel was just browsing through the items on the shelves when the door suddenly opened. Two very loud, uncontrolled young men stormed in. Daniel knew them, but he didn't let it show.