I stared at the two children who picked my pocket and stole my wallet. They continued to try and escape my grasp as I observed the duo. Their resemblance was remarkable. They've got to be twins.
"Let's try that again." I say, tilting my head.
"Let go of us!" The boy says as they tried to pull their arms away again.
"Ah, that's what I thought. Now don't try to run." I say as I let go of them.
The boy gently put his sister behind him and both pairs of blue/grey eyes watched me carefully. They seem to be very protective of each other.
"You're a long way from home, children." I say as they rub the spot on their arms where I held them.
They scoffed.
"Don't call us that." They both snap at me. Yep, their twins alright.
"Parents must be worried about you two." I say, trying to at least get some information of the two teens in front of me.
The girl gave a laugh.
"Yeah, not likely." She states bitterly.
"Okay, sore subject. " I say.
"That was a nice lift back there. You two are pretty good." I say, changing the topic to the matter at hand.
The two glance at each other before focusing their attention back to me.
"We don't know what you're talking about, old man." The boy says defensively.
"Hey. Don't call me that." I say, reciting what the two told me a moment ago.
"Your techniques are sloppy though, you two are telegraphing all of your moves." I inform them.
The twins looked at me and backed away from me.
"You're crazy." They say as they start walking around me.
I followed their movement with my own.
"Yeah? You two have been tailing me all over town." I say, letting them know that I've had my eyes on them for as long as they've had theirs on me.
The two work as a team, neither one the leader.
"Probably figured me for an easy mark." I say as we all stop moving.
"But you picked the wrong guy, pals." I say as they turn their heads and looked down the empty street and began to back away.
"Ah-ah." I warn.
"What?" the boy snaps.
"My wallet." I say sternly, holding my hand out.
The two put their hands on their hips defiantly.
"Fine, maybe we'll just call the police." I threaten, seeing if that would scare the two enough into returning my wallet.
They just gave two crooked smirks.
"Go ahead." The girl says.
"Course, They might wonder why a middle aged tourist is following boys and girls down alleyways." she said as they walked closer to me, crossing their arms.
I laughed.
"You two are crafty little beggars, aren't you?" I asked them.
"We know how to take care of ourselves." They said.
"Anyway, I'm pretty sure you don't like the cops any more than we do." the boy counters.
I pondered over his words for a moment.
"Good point." I say.
They stretched out their arms, palms out, as if to show their point, and turned to try walking off again.
"Kids." I said, holding my arm out once again.
They turned their bodies sideways and looked at me.
"The wallet." I say.
They laughed as they shook their heads. The boy took it out of his bag and he threw it to me.
"Had to try." the girl shrugged. The boy held his hand out, the girl took it, and they ran off.
"Course you two did." I whispered. I smiled and shook my head, thinking I would never see them again.