Billy was bored.
They’d waited for over half an hour to board their plane in New York, and it had been boring. Once on the plane, Catherine had stopped him from kicking the seat in front of him, had stopped him from yelling, had even made him switch seats with her when he tried to run up and down the aisle, and so he’d been bored. Now they were in New Mexico, waiting for their baggage to appear, and Billy was bored again, but Catherine was now paying more attention to her phone than to him. Now Billy was free.
He slipped away to explore. First things first, he was hungry. He wandered around the baggage area. There were no restaurants, which didn’t matter since he had no money on him anyway, but something did smell yummy. A dessert-y, sugary kind of yummy. He followed his nose until he found it.
By the floor-to-ceiling windows, wearing a tan vest and using a camera with a really long lens, was a man taking pictures of the airplanes as they came in to land. It was pretty, sure, and the man was probably taking good pictures, but more importantly there was a plate full of miniature eclairs on the table next to him that he wasn’t paying any attention to. Billy watched and waited, preparing for the heist. He noticed the man’s footwear, leather cowboy boots that reached halfway up his calf. They were neat, but Billy’s own were neater. The man scratched his bald head, then got ready to take more pictures as another plane approached. It was time. Billy crept up slowly, ready to bolt or start crying if the man turned around, whichever felt right when the time came. Luckily, the man was too enamored with his planes to notice, and Billy popped one of the eclairs into his mouth and ran off holding two more. The sucker never even noticed.
But Billy wasn’t out of the water yet, he had to make his getaway. He needed to get back to Catherine and didn’t have much time, as the carousel for their luggage had finally started moving. He placed one of the eclairs into his mouth and chomped down hard, spurting the filling onto his tongue. It was delicious. He watched a beautiful brown suitcase that was nearly as big as he was pass through the rubber flaps, and he knew what he had to do. He leapt up onto the platform and straddled the case, riding it down the conveyor. Up ahead, he spotted a smaller bag, silver and shiny with a Chinese-style tiger embroidered on its side. Surely, there was time for one more hit. He jumped forward, holding onto his steed with one hand and pointing the last eclair into the air with his other, but the brown case was too heavy and he barely moved. It would be a long chase.
He glanced out into the crowd of smirks and disapproving scowls, and he saw something out of place: A big man with an even bigger mustache was heading towards him, fast. The man’s name tag read Garrett. The law would never catch him, but Billy would be in trouble if he didn’t move quick. He had to give up on the silver satchel. He pointed the eclair at Garrett, muttered a quick, “Bang,” and then vaulted off the case, off the conveyor and sprinted towards Catherine. Grabbing hold of her hand, he turned to look back at the guard. Garrett had stopped his pursuit and was shaking his head at Billy. He raised a finger and waggled it, then turned and walked back to his post. Billy stuck out his tongue as far as he could at Garrett’s back.
Catherine looked away from her phone and down towards Billy. “Where have you been?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you not to go running off? What if you got in trouble?” She gave him a stern look, then turned her attention toward the carousel where a line of luggage was steadily streaming past.
“I’d have to get caught first.” Over at the window, the cameraman looked down and noticed some eclairs were missing. He looked up, then left and right, his brows furrowed in confusion. He finally just shrugged and popped the last one in his mouth. Billy smirked.
“Sure, Billy. Sure. Ah, there it is.” She held tightly onto Billy’s hand and dragged him with her up to the belt, where they each grabbed a bag. Billy’s small cowboy-themed backpack was dwarfed by Catherine’s large dark purple wheeled suitcase. As they left the baggage area, Billy spotted Garrett leaning against one of the walls, one leg bent and foot flat against the wall, keeping a close watch on the room. When their eyes met, Billy stuck his tongue out once again. Garrett’s tongue stuck out even farther.
