“KRASCH”
The sound of the front door slamming against the wall echoed through the silent apartment. Lisa and Mandy woke up instantly.
“Oh, my God,” Mandy thought, terrified, “we have a burglar in the house! I wish our parents hadn’t chosen this night to go to a fancy-shmancy party and leave us alone!”
“Oh, my God,” Lisa thought, exited, “we have a burglar in the house! I hope we either get kidnapped, or at least tied up!”
They tippy-toed out of their bedrooms, dressed in ankle-long wool night-gowns, Lisa’s pink with yellow flowers, and Mandy’s yellow with pink flowers. They could see a man silently moving about in the living-room, pulling out drawers and opening cupboards. They crept into the living-room, hiding behind a sofa. It wasn’t hard to figure out what he was looking for, but the girls knew their parents kept all their jewellery in a safety-deposit box in the bank. Well, except for tonight, when they were wearing most of it.
To her horror, Lisa saw her younger sister creeping towards the light-switch, and before she could do anything to stop her, she had turned the lights on.
“If you’re looking for our parents’ jewellery, it’s not here! It’s in the bank, where you can’t get at it; so there!” she triumphantly said, and put out her tongue.
The burglar turned around, startled by the sudden sound and light.
“What the...? Who...?” When he saw it was just a little girl, he started laughing.
“If what you say is true, I just have to take you instead, then; won’t I?” He held out his arms to grab her. At that moment, Lisa stood up and said:
“Don’t you dare touch my sister!”
“So there are two of you, are there? He got out a gun from somewhere, pointed it at Lisa and asked: “Do you have any rope in the house?”
“Yes, we have.” Lisa replied, at the same time as Mandy said:”No, we haven’t!”
The burglar looked at the girls, and growled:”Well, which is it? Have you or haven’t you?”
“Come to think of it, I think we might have some in a cupboard in the hallway,” Mandy yielded with a sigh.
“Right; you stay here, and I’ll go get it.”
“Hurry up”. Mandy hissed. “Let’s get out of here before he comes back!” She started walking towards the window.
“What are you going to do? Are you going to jump out from the window? Numskull; aren’t you forgetting something?” Lisa hissed back. “We’re on the third floor!”
“Yea, I did kind of forget that. So what do we do?”
“You are not going to do anything, except turn your backs to me and put your hands behind you!” While the girls had been quarrelling the burglar had silently returned, holding several lengths of rope, handkerchief and bandanas in his hands. There was nothing else for them to do, but do as he demanded. He crossed their wrists and tied them snugly together behind their backs. “Ow, it’s too tight! It hurts!” Mandy sobbed.
“Well, boo-hoo! I couldn’t care less, no matter how hard I tried.” The burglar bunched up one of the handkerchiefs, shoved it in her mouth, and tied a bandana around her head to keep it in.
Then, he did the same with Lisa, and forced them to sit, back to back, on the floor with their legs stretched out in front of them. He tied them together using a rope round their waists, and one around their chests, before tying their knees and feet together.
“Now,” he smugly said, “you’re not going anywhere! You just sit tight until your parents come home.” He patted them on their heads and scrawled together what valuables he could find. Before he could leave, though, they heard someone entering the apartment. It was the girls’ parents, who came straight into the living-room to find their daughters, dressed in only their night-gowns, gagged and tied together on the floor.
“O.K, Ralph,” their father sighed, “so, just out of curiosity, whose idea was this? Was it yours?” he asked the babysitter.
“No,” he replied. “It was Lisa’s, actually. I’d play a burglar, who came in and tied these two defenceless young ladies up, and then I just improvised a bit. Did I go too far with the scenario?” The question was directed at Lisa, who thought it over for a moment and then shook her head.
“For me; the real surprise,” their father said, “was that you managed to get Mandy to play along.”
“Well, we did kind of have to twist her arm a bit. Not much, though. I think that if you ask her; she’d probably admit to loving this every bit as much as her sister. Am I right?”
Even though still being gagged, Mandy managed to look sheepish when she nodded.
The girls’ father escorted Ralph to the door, and gave him his salary, before returning to them.
“Oh girls, girls,” he sighed and shook his head. “What are we going to do with you; huh?” He turned towards the door, and put a hand on the knob. Then he turned around again, smiled, and said:”I think I’ll just leave you like this, and we’ll have a nice long talk about it in the morning! Good night!” He turned the lights off and closed the door, leaving his offspring to spend a very uncomfortable night, sitting on the floor.