Two Against Two

Chapter 19

December 23, 1990-11:02 A.M. CST

(Christine's PoV:)

The return trip home is a quiet one. Kevin is quiet, most-likely still shaken up from the near-car accident. I'm afraid of his reaction to when I tell him that those evil men we encountered earlier are planning to rob our parents' house.

Those two evil men are the reason I'm feeling paranoid at the moment, as I drive home. I'm just terrified that ugly van is going to pop up out of nowhere, and stalk my car all the way home. I'm also fearful what those two men could do to Kevin and I, if they ever trapped us in a position, where we couldn't escape.

I just have a feeling those creeps wouldn't hesitate to hurt or kill a woman, or a child, if the said woman and child stood in the way of protecting their home from being burglarized.

I become sick inside at the thoughts of other things those two could do to us, besides hurt or kill. I don't want the both of us to get hurt, but I'm willing to sacrifice myself, if it means saving Kevin. I couldn't forgive myself, if something did happen to him.

I finally make it home to Lincoln Blvd., without any trouble; there's no crooks' van in sight. I pull into the driveway and park the car out of view, behind the garage, to make it hard on the burglars to guess if my car was the one that scared them away yesterday.

I would've parked in the garage itself, but it's is fully occupied by presumably both of my parents' cars and Uncle Frank's car, thus no room for my car.

"Why are you parking behind the garage?" Kevin asks me.

"To make it easier to take the groceries in the house," I lie.

"Oh," He gets out of the car and helps me unload the groceries into the house.

"If you want, I can teach you how to properly put away groceries, if you'd like?"

"Anything to prove the family I'm not helpless," Kevin replies, eagerly.

I just shake my head, as the both of us take the last bit of groceries into the house. I show him where the different kinds of food go and how to properly put it away.

The next thing Kevin and I do, is we both start to gather up all the family's dirty laundry, including mine that I brought over from my apartment. I was planning to do my laundry after work yesterday, before Mr. Marley called to tell me Kevin was home alone.

"I saved a few quarters from not having to use the laundry faculties at my apartment building," I mutter to myself. I then ask Kevin, "Are you going to be okay going down to the basement? I won't hold it against you, if you don't want to."

"I'll be fine, Christine. I'll just have to tell myself that it's my imagination," Kevin replies, as both of us take the empty laundry baskets down to the basement, after dumping all of the dirty clothes down the laundry chute, thinking about all the pranks I scared my Mom with, using the said laundry chute. The fake bug on the string being my favorite.

I just smile, when I overhear Kevin tell the furnace to shut up. Well, I guess he's over that fear, but that's nothing, compared to those burglars. I cringe, but I try to get my mind off that worry by showing Kevin how to properly separate clothes, load, and operate a washing machine and dryer. I also explain the purpose of detergent, bleach, fabric softener, and how much to use.

Once the laundry is taken care of, I show Kevin how to mop, sweep, vacuum, and explain the different cleaners and the purposes they're used for.

Kevin and I head to the den to relax and have some lunch, while watching Celebrity Ding-Dang-Dong on TV, after spending what seems like hours cleaning up the house.

"Uh, Kevin," I start to say, while lying back in Dad's recliner.

"Yeah?" he replies, laying belly-first on the sofa, while munching on the sandwich I fixed for him.

"You know those creepy guys that almost hit us today—the one you said was a police officer asking Mom and Dad all those questions? I think I might know the reason why," I tell him. I start feeling tense about how he's going to take the bad news I'm about to spring onto him.

"What about it?" he asks, now looking at me.

Well, here goes nothing… "Kevin, I think those men are the same ones, who tried to break in the house yesterday. I believe they already broke into several houses around the block, because I remember seeing a van exactly like the one we encountered at the blue house across the street, when I first arrived here yesterday morning."

"I also feel like this house is next on their list, and they're going to break in, no matter what, even if we're here. I also think that man was impersonating a police officer, just to fish for information about how secure this house is, and when our family was leaving, to help him and his lackey plan out the perfect time to break in,"

Kevin takes a minute to process what I've told him, before speaking, "Can't we just scare them away again with the car alarm, like last time?" He looks fearful.

"I don't think that will work this time, Kevin, since we already did that once. Plus, it would just make it easier for them to connect the car that scared them away as the same one they almost hit. Meaning, they will figure out we're the ones, who scared them away yesterday," I respond.

I'm not wanting to share my thoughts to Kevin about the possibility that the burglars have already derived a conclusion about the cars, and us being the ones scaring them away yesterday. Using the alarm again would make them even more suspicious, and might cause them to do something rash, like killing an innocent person drawn to the attention of an alarm going off.

"Maybe we need to come up with another way to scare off those burglars?" Kevin suggests.

"Do you have any ideas that could scare them away, without putting us in harm's way?"

"We could try and convince them the family has returned home from Paris. They might be dumb enough to buy it," Kevin proposes.

I think about it for a minute, before I give my opinion on the idea my brother just came up with, "The idea sounds good, but there's a risk it could make the burglars more suspicious, especially about how Mom and Dad got home from Paris so soon, when they just left yesterday morning, but your plan is the only choice we have, unless you want to hide out at my apartment. We'll be safe there, but the burglars will have free reign in stealing everything,"

Kevin stands up, defiantly, "I may be scared of those burglars, but I will not let them steal from this house, no matter what,"

"Unless I say otherwise, especially if it places you in a dangerous situation—because I'm the guardian in charge of you, until Mom and Dad return home—I don't want those burglars to steal anything from this house, either, but your safety comes, before this house," I tell him, becoming firm.

We head to the kitchen and plan out how we're going to convince the burglars that the family has come home from Paris…

Later That Night…

December 23, 1990-7:02 P.M. EST

The song In Time by Robbie Robb blares loudly on the stereo, as Kevin and I are currently placing the final touches on the plan that took hours to come up with in the kitchen. I lip-sync the song, laughing, as I dress up several of Mom's old sewing mannequins in some old clothes I found down in the basement.

Kevin is setting up his toy train around the living room, so he could put up the cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan that he's borrowing from Buzz's room to give off the illusion that people are moving around in the room. I tell him he has to put it back exactly like he found it, once we're finished with it, as part of the deal of him wanting to use it in the plan.

"I just finished dressing up Mom's mannequins, Kevin. You need any help with setting up the train set, before we start tying the strings to the mannequins?" I ask him.

"No, I'm about done. Thanks for asking, though, big sis," He smiles, as he sets up the cutout on top of the train. "Well, I'm finished with the train. Do you want me to help you start knotting the strings around the mannequins now?"

"You sure can, little brother,"

We soon both start tying the strings around the mannequins, as means to control them to convince the burglars that the family has returned home; in hopes it will scare them away from robbing this house, since the impression of eight people being home would be a major obstacle to their plans, in comparison to two people.

"Can we change the song to Rock Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee, before we tie the final strings around our bodies?" Kevin asks.

"Sure, Kevin. It would make sense to have a good Christmas song to party with than the Rock music we were listening to," I smile.

Kevin quickly changes the tape out of the stereo, and the awesome voice of Brenda Lee starts loudly booming out of the stereo. Kevin runs back to the center of the living room, where I made a makeshift dance floor after carefully moving some of the furniture. We both tie the strings around our waists and do a quick jig together to make sure the mannequins work right.

After making a few minor adjustments to the mannequins, we grab each others' hands and start getting down to some boogieing, causing the mannequins to give an illusion to those looking from the outside that a party is going on in every room, as the whole house is lit up.

Kevin and I break down laughing, once we start doing some silly dances, while I keep an eye out through the window, waiting for the burglars' van to arrive.

The burglars' van finally rolls up and stops in front of the house a half hour later. A small chill of fear creeps up my spine, as I discreetly watch the van to see if the burglars are dumb enough to fall for the plan.

"Hey, Kevin, we have company outside," I continue to dance and watch the burglars through the window, as the two bastards are in the middle of some kind of discussion I wish I could hear.

I can see the fear suddenly pop up in his eyes, while silently praying and repeatedly saying, "I hope this plan works,"

To my surprise, the van suddenly drives on down the road. "Those idiots actually fell for it. I can't believe it," I tell myself, in shock. I just hope the cold feeling in my gut, telling me they're coming back, is wrong, and this is the last we'll have to worry about these fools.

"Hey, Kevin, it's all clear. The burglars are gone,"

"Yes! My idea worked!" he shouts, pumping his fist, in celebration. We give each other a high five and start laughing. We begin cleaning up the mess, before having a quick bite to eat and heading to bed…

(Harry's PoV:)

Finally, after a few hours of waiting for the heat to die down, and a quick bite to eat, Marv and I begin our drive back over to Lincoln Blvd.; hopefully, to loot 671, without any complications, so we can get our butts to New York and pay off the debt to Hector. That way, Marv and I can begin our new life.

Once I drive the van up in front of 671, the last thing I expected to see is a party going on in the McCallisters' place, when the whole family is supposed to be in Paris. It seems like a rowdy gathering: dancing, drinking, people moving all about.

"Do you see what I see going on at 671, Marv, or are my eyes messing with me?" I ask, as I look on at the scene, in disbelief.

"I see what looks like a party going on," he replies, woozy from the pain medication he took. It was caused by me pistol-whipping him in the back of the head earlier today for being an idiot, which knocked him out for a few hours. "Do you think the family is back home?"

"From Paris? There's no way in Hell they could've returned so soon, especially if they're planning to spend the holidays there. It doesn't make sense,"

My gut is telling me I should be suspicious about this; especially with the alarm incident, and the strange encounter with the woman and boy earlier today, but I don't want to take any risks of being wrong.

"Maybe they had an emergency, and they took one of those fast jets? Concorp, they call them, I think,"

"It's Concorde," I correct. "I think it would be very hard to get a flight on one of those planes, especially with it being the holidays."

"So, what's the plan, then, Harry?"

"No point in taking a chance of trying to loot the place tonight, with that rowdy crowd of people. We'll just come back tomorrow and take it from there. We'd better leave, before someone spots us; especially with the police snooping around the houses we've hit,"

"Hector is not going to be happy," Marv responds.

"You know what, screw Hector. If he wants to send his thugs to kill us, let him, because I'll be happy to gun down every one of them. If Hector wants to kill us, I hope he comes, because I just love to place a bullet in between the eyes of our friend, who's been corrupted with power, that's turned him into an asshole," I say, feeling angry. I then drive away from the McCallisters' house…

END