Thief

Diablo thought to himself as a woman followed him into a grocery checkout line, “That one there, Mary, I’ve had my eye on her. She looks so free and easy. I would love to control her,” He made his wallet fall as if by mistake.

Mary said, “Excuse me sir, you dropped your wallet.”

Diablo acted like he didn’t hear her and gathered his grocery bags.

Mary approached him and picked up the bulging wallet, thinking, “With it so full and the edge of yellow lined paper peeking out, it looks like not only does it carry money and ID’s, but his whole life must be in it.”

She held out the wallet to him. “Excuse me, sir. This is yours.”

Diablo turned and accepted it. “Oh, I thought I put it…” He didn’t complete the sentence.

Mary felt so bad that he could have lost his possessions that she didn’t make eye contact with him.

Mary went home. Home was a small but comfortable house where she lived in warm relationship to her mother and cat. Mary was grateful for it all and continued living joyfully.

Diablo was frustrated. He had been sure that was how to get her. But if greed and sticky fingers weren’t her weaknesses, he was sure there was some other weakness which he would find and then exploit. He was determined to control her.

On this day he’d have to get someone else. He spied another young woman he knew about. Her name was Eve. He did the same thing as with Mary. He held up the checkout line, acting like he didn’t have it all together. When he was sure Eve was behind him, he dropped his wallet, doing his best to make it look like a mistake.

Eve looked around. Nobody was watching. She snatched the wallet.

“Bingo,” Diablo thought. “I got her. It’s not as glorious as the other one would be, no happy bubble to burst, but I got this one.”

Eve went home, which was a small house that Eve thought of as “no frills.” Eve and her mother lived together and often argued. It was a chore to clean up after the cat.

Eve closed the door to her room and took out the bulging leather wallet.

She thought, “He may have thousands of dollars in this wallet.”

Eve pulled out the lined yellow piece of paper. When she unfolded the paper, she found it wrapped up a wad of play money from a Monopoly game. The yellow sheet itself had in large letters made by a magic marker, “THIEF.” There was nothing of value in the wallet.

Eve felt blood surge to her face and she felt hot all over. She felt exposed, embarrassed and ashamed. She went to bed uneasily, with tension in her heart. She tossed and turned and got up and paced her room, but she couldn’t shake off those feelings.

Eve finally fell asleep. She dreamed about Diablo. He laughed maniacally.

“Yes, you are a thief,” he said, “but not a very clever one. I’m also a thief, but I only steal from other thieves, so there is justice in my actions.”

Diablo laughed some more.

The next day, Eve found there was money missing from her purse. All of her spending money for the week. She went online to her bank account, and it had been cleared out, too.

Eve had a clerical job at a bank. That day as she worked, she heard Diablo whispering in her ear, “You are worthless. If you were prosecuted for what you tried to do, you would be convicted, thrown in jail, and would never work in a bank again.”

Eve made several errors in her work. She didn’t have money for lunch, so the afternoon was even more difficult.

Eve and her boyfriend usually talked on the phone after dinner on week nights. On this night he texted her when she was expecting a call.

“I’m sorry, but my ex and I made up. You and I are over.”

Eve heard Diablo’s maniacal laughter in her ear.

“You are all mine. Just wait. Your mother will throw you out of the house when you lose your job for making so many mistakes.”

Eve heaved several sighs and then bawled. She felt angry, frustrated, and ashamed all at once and wanted to lash out at Diablo, but he wasn’t actually there.

Eve’s mother was watching the news with the volume turned up high, so she didn’t hear Eve’s wails.

Eve desperately wanted the punishment to stop, but she foresaw a life of powerlessness, isolation, poverty, and the mocking Diablo.

Eve hung herself.

Diablo won.