Den of Thieves

***Tom and Pearl Crompton, sat in the ‘his and her’ rockers that Tom had custom made for their twentieth anniversary. They rocked in silence, with no distraction of TV or radio, and enjoyed each other’s company while listened to the choir of nature outside of the small home they purchased for their golden years.

“Tom, the girl that comes in to clean, once a week stole one of the old purses I had hanging in the closet yesterday while she was here. There was nothing in it, it just surprised and disappointed me that she would take it, that’s all.”

Pearl looked over at Tom to see what his reaction was to the news. Tom just rocked and smiled.

“What are you smiling about, did you hear what I said?”

“I heard you, I was just thinking about the ‘den of thieves.”

Tom and Pearl broke into simultaneous laughter.***

“You ought to come and spend the summer with us Ethel,” Martha said. “You don’t have anything else to do, now that Nate has past on. You don’t have any kids, there’s nothing to hold you back. Besides you haven’t seen the boys since they were babies. Me and Charles would love to have you.”

“That sounds like a good idea Martha,” Ethel said. “When do my nephews get out of school?”

“Their last day is June third, so why don’t you come up on the third, they only have a half school day.”

“That sounds like a winner. It’s only an hour and a half drive, so I’ll be there around 9:30 in the morning.”

“Great I’ll see you then.”
Martha hangs up the phone, delighted that her sister had agreed to come.

Martha worried about Ethel being in that house all alone since her husband had past away a little over a month ago. She knew that Ethel’s friends came around to check on her but she still hated that she was by herself at night mourning the lost of her soul mate.

“Guess what, Charles?”

“What’s that?” Charles replied every time Martha asked the question, choosing not to play the guessing game.

“Ethel is coming to spend the summer with us.”

Charles smiled, “I like Ethel and she needs to get away from that house for a while.”

“I thought so too. She even admitted that she needs a vacation. She will be here next week, on the third, about 9:30.”

“ It’ll be nice to see her again.”

Timmy, the youngest of Charles and Ethel’s three son’s, now seven years old, with blonde hair and freckles, started singing; “We’re going to meet aunt Ethel, we’re going to meet Aunt Ethel!” and giggled, showing his new front teeth. One was all the way in and one was only in half way.

The identical twins, Carlton and Clayton, now nine years old looked at each other and said “YES!”

They had dishwater blonde hair. All of the boys had their mother’s facial features from the bridge of their nose up and their father’s facial features from the nose down. They had always heard Aunt Ethel spoken of fondly. They were only two and four years of age the last time she came to visit and neither of them really remembered her.

Ethel pulled into the circle drive of the ranch styled house at 9:25 am. She admired her sister’s home; it had the feel of warmth each time she visited. She enjoyed the company of Charles and Martha and she loved her nephews. She understood her sister’s reasoning to have offspring at such an early age, she didn’t understand why she worried so much about her internal clock ticking away.

Ethel knocked on the door. Martha muffled her mouth with her hand to sound farther away than on the other side of the door.

“Come in,” she sang.

Ethel opened the door and stepped inside. Martha took two quick pictures, click-click. Two blinding lights caught Ethel off guard,

She laughed, “how could I have forgotten you were a photo nut.”

“You’ve been away too long.” Martha said embracing her sister with an overdue hug.

“I guess I have.” Ethel said returning the hug.

“Come on in, I have coffee ready in the kitchen.”

“Great, I could use some.”

“I also made you favorite, blueberry muffins to go with it,” Martha said, leading the way.

“I’ve missed you too.”

Ethel looked around the kitchen “Charles at work?”

“Uh huh, he’s going to stop in during his lunch break to say hi.”

“And the boys?”

“They get out of school at 11:30, the bus drops them off about 12:15.”

Martha poured the coffee and handed a cup to Ethel. The platter of muffins was on the table. Martha picked up one of the muffins.

“So how is it going for you?”

“Fine, it’s going fine, really it is”.

“I worry about you being alone in that house mourning alone at night.”

“It’s OK Martha, Nate and I got a chance to have long heart to heart talks during his illness and in the end we were well prepared; both of us. We were blessed to have that closure, a lot of people aren’t.”

Ethel sipped her coffee.

“Whose car is that?” asked Timmy, as he jumped off of the bus steps, with the twins close behind.

“That must be Aunt Ethel’s car, see all the stuff in it, hurry,” exclaimed Clayton, jumping up and down, the last to exit the bus.

Racing to the house, giggling, they bust through the door.

Timmy yells, “Mom, is she here yet?”

They ran to the kitchen, following their nose from the lingering aroma of muffins. They stopped in their tracks at the sight of Aunt Ethel. She was an older image of their mother, with shorter hair and makeup.

“So you must be Timmy.” Ethel said smiling with the whitest teeth he’d ever seen.

“I sure am, and you must be Aunt Ethel.” Timmy stepping up to shake Ethel’s hand, it amused her to be called Aunt; she wasn’t quite accustomed to it yet.

She stepped toward Timmy and gave him a gentle hug. Turning to the twins, Ethel said, “Mercy, Martha, how can you tell them apart?”

Martha said, “Clayton is the one dressed in the green, and has a birthmark behind his left ear. Carlton has on the blue clothes.”

“Clayton, Carlton.” Ethel said as she hugged then one in each arm. “It’s nice to meet you all, I think we are going to have a wonderful summer.”

“Me too,” Timmy said, squeezing into the group hug.

“Will you boys have a blueberry muffin?” Ethel asked.

“I will”, Timmy was the first to grab one off of the platter.

“Me too,” said Clayton.

“Me three,” said Carlton.

The boys grabbed the rest of the muffins and headed outside to gobble them up.

Martha washed up the few dishes and asked Ethel if she needed to shop for anything. “I have what I need for the moment.”

“Good.”

“So, what do you do for fun around here.”

“We have a lot of things going on during the summer. We have a circus coming to town, a carnival, um, a new line dancing tavern opened up last summer.”

“Now that sounds like fun, Ethel smiled.

“Boys why don’t you bring in Aunt Ethel’s bags from her car and put them in the guest room for her.”

“OK”, Timmy said, starting out the door.

“Come on Carlton,” said Clayton, following Timmy.

“What do we have here?” Carlton said. Picking up the open top tote, exposing a short jar full of a variety of candy.

“I want some candy.” Timmy stretched his arm reaching for the jar. “Not yet, what if they are looking through the window?”

Timmy glanced at the house, then said. “No one’s looking Carlton, give me some candy.”

“You can have some later, when they go to the store.” I heard mom say, she has to pick up some things for dinner.”

“Oh, I can wait”

It was 3:30 p.m. By the time Ethel was finished putting her things away and was ready to go shopping for the evening meal. Charles normally gets home at 5:30 and Martha liked to have his food hot and waiting for him when he walked threw the door.

“Can we have some candy? Asked Timmy”

“After dinner you can have some, Ethel answered on her way out of the bedroom door, which she closed behind her. Me and your mom will be right back, we are going to the corner store.”

“OK,” the three said in unison.

At the grocers, Martha picked up some French string beans and almonds and ingredients for a peach cobbler.

“Let’s get some candy,” Timmy said, skipping toward the guest room.

“Aunt Ethel said after we eat,” Clayton protested.

“I want some now,” Timmy bounding threw her door. He searched through the dresser drawers and found the candy jar and took out four pieces of candy. He gave one to each of his brothers. “Why do you get two pieces?” Carlton complained.

“Because I went and got it,” Timmy giggled through the caramel square he just put in his mouth.

“Well next time I’m going.” Carlton pouted.

“Did you see any change laying around?” Clayton asked.

“Not yet but we’ll have time to find it, she’ll be here all summer,” Timmy said.


“Let’s get away from this door, here they come.” Clayton said.

After dinner the boys helped Martha clean the kitchen. Martha and Charles relaxed on the porch afterward. Ethel took the candy jar from the drawer and noticed come were missing, the jar held twenty pieces of candy a time, there were sixteen pieces left. She called the boys into the room, and handed each one a piece and ate one herself. She said nothing about the missing candy.

“Thank you Aunt Ethel”, the boys said in unison.

“You’re welcome”, she replied.

The boys ate their candy and went outside to play. Ethel joined Charles and Martha on the porch.

“How’s your stay so far Ethel?” Charles asked.

“It’s going great, thanks for asking, Martha said. A new tavern opened on Bradshaw blvd; do you think you’ll feel like going tomorrow evening Charles?”

“I’m a little rusty but I would love to go.”

“I was hoping you would say that. I’m going to retire for the night, sweet dreams, you two.”

“We’ll see you in the morning, Ethel,” Martha said.

“Goodnight boys,” Ethel called.

“Good night Aunt Ethel,” they called back.

Ethel took the journal out of the locked brief case.

‘6-3-74, my nephews are a in a mischievous stage. They are unaware that I knew how many pieces of candy I had in the candy jar and noticed that some was taken while me and Martha went to the store this afternoon. This is going to be a summer they won’t soon forget.’

Then she drew a small happy face at the end of her note. She got into her PJ’s and smiled as she laid on her pillow.

Ethel woke to the smell of coffee brewing, it was nice, and it’s been a long time for her to awake to any consumable aroma. She went into the kitchen where she could spend some alone time with her sister before the house became lively. “Good morning,” Mrs. Martha.
“Good morning Mrs. Ethel. I will need to get a few things after all. No problem we can go after breakfast.”

“I’m going to skip breakfast this morning, I’ll just run up to the plaza while you have breakfast with your family.”

“Ethel you are part of my family.”

“You know what I mean, I’ll be back.”

“Ok I’ll see you later then.”

Martha made a list of things she would need and stopped at the grocery store first. She purchased a jar of mayonnaise and a bottle of baby powder

The she went to the hardware store there she bought some masking tape, 3 small plastic buckets, rubber glue, a quart of paint, Sawdust, a padlock set with hinges, a clear tarp, toy spring activate handcuffs with keys, a hand buzzer, and a screwdriver

This is going to be fun, she thought. She had not gotten a chance to pull pranks on anyone in a long time. Looking for mischief guys? I got your mischief right here; she chuckled to herself. Ethel made one more stop at the UPS station and picked up some string and a box.

“That should do it.”

She placed all of her goodies in the box and put the cover on it before she started back to the house. Ethel looked at her watch, it was 11:00 am, perfect timing she thought. The boys have baseball practice across town at 11:30, they would have already left when she returned. Ethel carried the box inside and got to work. She put the hinges on the closet door. Then dabbed rubber glue on the bottom of the doorknob inside her room, put everything back into the box and locked the box in the closet. Too bad I will not get to see their faces when they discover this little device, she thought. It’s a good thing that Charles put the light switch on the wrong side of the door when he made the window. You need to push the door open then close it a little to reach the switch on the other side of the door, inside of the room.

“Well that’s that” she sighed. Martha and the boys returned. “How was the first day of practice fellows?” she asked.

“It went really good, we have a good team this year,” Clayton offered.

“That’s good,” Ethel replied.

“Go on and get out of your uniforms, then come down for lunch,” Martha said. The three of them headed for their rooms.

“Where’s Charles,” Ethel asked Martha.

“He went to help one of his coworkers lay new carpet at their home.”

“He’s a regular handyman, isn’t he? Ethel remarked, I love they window he put in the guest room.”

“I thought that was pretty original,” replied Martha, when he described it to me I didn’t understand, but it turned out good.”

“Yeah, it did, what’s for lunch?”

“Tuna salad, a veggie tray and a fruit salad, sounds good.


Will the boys be staying here?”

“Yes I called Sylvia, she is a daughter of a friend of ours, and she’s in high school and watches DVD’s and eats while she’s babysitting. I trust here not to have company stopping over; she’s a good kid.”

Sylvia arrived at 7:50. “Help yourself to the frig and there are some new DVD’s on the entertainment center,” Martha said to Sylvia.

“Thank you, have a good time and don’t worry about the boys,” Sylvia said.

“Boy’s, we are leaving,” called Charles. “

Ok dad, Clayton called back.”

“Have fun,” Timmy called.

”Have you boys eaten yet?” Sylvia asked.

“No, but I’m not hungry,’ said Clayton.

“I’m not hungry either,” said Carlton.

“Me either,” said Timmy.

“Well let me know when you are, if there’s something you want me to cook.”

“Ok,” they said.

Sylvia put herself together a plate of the leftover lunch, looked through the DVD selection, and chose “The Mask”, starring Jim Carrey. She was not easily distracted while she watched anything on the television screen. Fifteen minutes later, Sylvia was zoned into the movie. The brothers gathered in the twins’ room and waited for the time to explore Ethel’s room.

“I’m going in this time,” Carlton reminded them.

“Ok,” the other two agreed.

“Look for some change while you’re in there,” Clayton said.

“I will,” Carlton said as he started down the hallway.

He slowly opened the door to the room and stepped inside, then pushed the door closed behind him, felt for the light switch and turned on the window lamp. He opened the drawer where he knew the candy would be and took four pieces from the jar, and put them in the left front pocket of his jeans, then searched other drawers and in the drawer directly under the candy drawer, he saw a pretty Japanese painted vase. He reached his hand into the wide mouth vase and found where she stashed some coins and took three dimes, one for each of them, and put them in his right front pocket. He turned the light back off and grabbed the doorknob. He felt a shock.

Confused, he jumped backward and he stopped the yell that almost escaped his mouth; rubbed the palm of his hand. He pulled his self together and reached for the knob a second time and was shocked again. He flipped the light on to his surprise saw the hand buzzer glued to the bottom of the door. He grabbed the sides of the doorknob, careful not to touch the buzzer and cracked open the door, turned off the light, wrapped his fingers around the edge of the door, and slid out of the room and re-closed it. He hurried back to his room.

“It’s about time,” Clayton said.

“What took you so long?” Timmy asked.

“Shhh,” Carlton said, “I think Aunt Ethel knew we took candy yesterday.”

“How could she?” Timmy asked. “I only took the four piece and the jar was full.”

“I don’t’ know, when I tried to leave her room. I got shocked, twice. I turned on the light and found she had glued a hand buzzer to the bottom of the door; it hurt too.”

“Did you get the candy?” Timmy asked.

“Oh, here,” Clayton handed them the candy.
“Guess what else I found,” Carlton pulled the dimes out of his pocket and gave then each one.

Clayton smiled, “where did you find these?”

“In the drawer under the candy drawer.”

“Perfect,” Clayton replied. “I’m going in next time.”

They ate their candy and played ‘Super Mario Cart’ on their Play Station 2 video game system. Forty-five minutes past before they went to explore the frig. They decided on the leftover pizza.

By the time their parents and Aunt Ethel returned they were sound asleep for the night. Ethel noticed the small footprints left on the carpet by Carlton. She smiled and thought, how did you like the buzzer? She removed the buzzer and rolled the rubber glue off of the doorknob with her index finger. Put the buzzer in the box in the closet and dropped the glue ball in a container in the box and re-placed the pad lock. As she dozed off, she wondered which of the twins found her little surprise. The footprints were too big to be Timmy’s.

“Partners in crime,” she whispered to herself, then fell asleep.

It was a month later when Clayton was able to get his turn to go in Ethel’s room.

A friend of Martha’s was throwing a birthday party for her husband, as an adult only party. Sylvia agreed to look after the boys again. She liked sitting for them, they paid well and the boys gave her no problems. Like last time, the boys waited for Sylvia to get involved in a movie before Clayton took his turn in Ethel’s room. He was careful not to touch the inside door knob as he pushed the door close behind him. He flipped on the light and headed for the change first, he got three quarters out of the vase, then the four pieces of candy, pleased with himself he turned the light off and reached for the door knob. He slid he hand up and down the door, but couldn’t find the knob. He tried several times with no luck. He flipped the light on to see why he couldn’t find the knob. His heart felt like it sank into his stomach when he realized Ethel had taken the inside doorknob off of the door. ‘Oh, no what am I going to do now?’ Clayton thought.

In the other room the brothers were getting restless, ten minutes have past.

“It doesn’t take ten minutes to get a few pieces of candy and some change,” Carlton complained. “I’m going to see what’s taking him so long.”

Carlton quickly opened the door, slid inside and closed the door behind his back.

“What’s taking you so long, come on,” Carlton said.

It happened so fast Clayton didn’t get a chance to tell his twin not to close the door. He pointed to where the knob was supposed to be.

“Great,” said Carlton. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“Timmy will be here in a few more minutes. I’ll just sit here and listen for him and hold the door. We’ll be out before they get back,” Clayton explained.

Sure enough they heard Timmy coming down the hall.

“Come on guys,” he said.

“Carlton was right, she knew all along”, Clayton said. “She’s a clever one.”

Timmy laughed and ate his piece of candy. I found these treasures, he pulled the quarters out of his pocket and Carlton, and Timmy reached to retrieve one.

The following week when the brothers were at a team picnic, their baseball coach had arranged Ethel joined Charles and Martha on the porch. She brought them a glass of lemonade that she had mad. She put her glass on the little table beside the chair she chose.

“I have something to tell you,” she said.

“What is it Ethel,” asked Charles.

“Is something wrong?” Ask Martha.

“I don’t know how to tell you this, so I am just going to say it. The boys have been stealing from me.”

“What?” Martha was shocked. “Nooo, I thought we had that problem solved. They got caught stealing from the corner store two summers ago. We had them pay for the items and grounded them for a month. Last summer went by with no incidents.”

“They’ll be grounded for the rest of their lives, which won’t be long went I get my hands on them.” Charles said.

“I want you to let me handle it my way,” Ethel said, “but you mustn’t let on that you know about it or it won’t work.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Martha.

“Well, you remember when we went line dancing?”

“Yeah.”

“I glued a hand buzzer….”

“Ethel you didn’t,” Martha laughed.

“Yes I did, and last week when we went to that party, I took the inside knob completely off.”

“Ethel you always were a practical joker.” Charles joined in.

“I haven’t had this much fun in ages, so let me handle it this time.”

“It’s all yours,” Charles chuckled.

Martha nodded her head in agreement.

“The annual bakeoff is Thursday evening,”
Martha said.“I came in fourth place last year with my almond, caramel brownies. I’ll enter my peach cobbler this year.”

“Then plan to bring home the gold metal, your peach cobbler is the best.”

“Thank you, Ethel.”

“I made two prizewinning cobblers, one for the bake of and one for us,” Martha said. “Are you going to the bake off with us Ethel?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Ethel winked.

“We have a few hours yet do you want to play a game of scrabble while we wait?” Asked Martha.

“I love scrabble.”

“I remembered.”

Let me see, what tactic will I use tonight Ethel thought to herself. I know what I’ll do. She prepared her new prank after she dressed.

“What time does the bake off start?” Carlton asked.

“5:00,” Timmy said. Timmy always hung around to hear what time events started. “They planned to leave at 4:00; in twenty-five minutes.”

“What’s dad going to do while they are at the bake off?”

“He’s going to watch baseball with the coach.”

“Who’s going in this time?” Asked Clayton.

“I will,” offered Carlton.

“Ok, just remember to check if the knob is back on before hand,” they all laughed.

“Ok, its clear,” Timmy said.

Carlton cracked the door, reached around and felt the inside doorknob in tact. He opened the door, all is good so far the thought. When he stepped inside the room, he bumped something with his shin, in a little more something else hit the side f his knee. Cold, he thought as he rounded the door to turn on the light to see what was going on, he slipped on something, then something else hit him on the forehead.

“What in the world?”

He reached the light, found Ethel’s booby trap was a string taped about a foot from the floor, that triggered the a bucket of water that hit him on the side of his knee. The sheet of plastic taped to the carpet with packing tape had mayonnaise smeared on it and the string that his foot hit on the way down pulled a bucket of sawdust down on him.

“Look at this mess!”

“What’s all of that noise guys,” Sylvia yelled from down the hall. Without turning from the movie.

“We’re just playing,” Carlton yelled back.
“You guys know better than to rough house inside.”

“We’re sorry.” Carlton took off his shoes and leaped onto the carpet. He walked around the plastic and to his room.

“What happened to you?” Timmy asked.
“She set a good trap this time, I need help getting the mess up after I change clothes.”

They all went down to Ethel’s.

“WHOA!” Clayton said.

“Timmy get some towels, Carlton get the wet-vac.”

“Aunt Ethel will know we were in here when she see its been cleaned.” Timmy said

‘Look around you, she will know if we leave it like this,” Clayton said.

“Yeah, and we will be in giant trouble if it’s not clean when they get back,” Carlton said.

After they finished cleaning the mess, they went back to their room.

“Did you get candy?” Timmy asked.

“NO I didn’t get candy,” mocked Carlton.

They asked Sylvia to cook some potpies for them. They ate and went to bed. Cleaning up tired them out.

The adults returned from the party at 9:15, surprised to see the boys were all sleep. Ethel took her shoes off, went to her room. She was not cautious about opening the door because she was sure the boys had been in it. What she didn’t know was how much of the mess they were able to get up. She was pleased that they had gotten the room spotless. When she turned and saw the buckets stacked neatly, she silently laughed until her sides hurt.

The last month of summer, one more big bash, to attend before Ethel leaves for home, Martha planned a full day. She scheduled the end of the summer parade, the boys’ last baseball game, an ice cream social, and the end of the summer masked ball.

Ethel made another trip to the hardware store and picked up 4 more handcuffs. At the grocery store she purchased a few more vases and the bags of candy. When she got back to her room. She filled each vase with candy. She broke the handcuffs and attached the cuffs in side of each vase, making sure the lock faced the bottom of the vases, so they could not be seen.

“PEFECT,” she smiled as she placed the vases around the room.

The parade was a treat. Ethel had not gone to a parade since she was a child. It was fun to see the children scurry for the candy tossed from the floats. Timmy and the twins were not allowed to chase the candy. They had to be content with waving at their favorite characters and speaking to friend who followed their favorite characters on the sidelines. The boys barely won their baseball game. The score was tied in the last inning until Clayton knocked one out of the park and three teammate filed into the home plate. The ice cream social turned out great. Ethel met a few people she intended to keep in touch with. Ethel recapped the summer in her mind. She had a wonderful summer, she really did need a break and spend time with people that were full of life. She looked forward to the masked ball tonight. She hadn’t been to a costume party is eons.

“Martha, are we ready?” Ethel waltzed into the living room, turned then posed. Everyone turned towards her voice, mouths fell open and eyes widened at her entrance.

“WOW!” Charles exclaimed, buttoning his Zorro cape under, the collar of his jacket.

“Let me help you with that,” Ethel said

“Thanks.”

Just then Martha entered the room,

“We are a good-looking bunch,” Ethel said.

“I agree,” said Charles.

“Shall we?”

He looped his arms through Martha’s and Ethel’s one on each side. He held the door open for the ladies, then jogged to the passenger side and opened the door for Martha and the rear passenger door for Ethel.

“Should we see what we can find in Aunt Ethel’s room,” asked Carlton.

“After he last time, do you want to try it again?”

“I do” Timmy chimed in, “I’ll do it.”

“Take this light and if you see anything suspicious, don’t go in.”

“Ok,” Timmy taking the small flashlight from Clayton.

Timmy cracked the door; peeked around with the flashlight leading his sight, and decided it was clear. He turned on the light and turned the flashlight off and stuck it in his back pocket. He looked around the room at all of the new vases, peeked in three of them then decided he needed help. He went back to the twins’ room.

“That was fast,” Clayton said.

“I need help with this one,” he said

“What do you mean by help, what kind of trap has she set this time?” Carlton asked

“I didn’t see any traps, but there are a lot of new vases, all filled with candy. We can get more than before, but without your help it won’t be an in and out job. We have to hurry, remember get in and get out.”

“Ok,” they agreed.

They reached both hands into two vases each, happy to have discovered the candy the newly installed handcuffs clamped around their wrists. They tried to take their hands out to pocket the treasure and could not get them out of the vases.

“I knew something was wrong when we didn’t see any booby traps,” said Clayton.

They looked at each other, “what are we going to do now?” Timmy asked, with candy in his hand that he could not retrieve from the vases to eat. We can’t break the vases; we’ll be in trouble big time.

“We are in trouble big time, we can’t get our hands out.” Clayton said. “We just have to wait until they get back to get the vases off. Aunt Ethel would not have made this booby trap without a way to get out of it.”

They sat on Ethel’s bed and tried to figure out another way to get out of the mess. Neither had a loose hand to work with. Timmy steadied a vase between his knees and tried to wiggle his hand out. After several attempts, he gave up, sat there and waited for the adults to return.

“Turn the light off,” Carlton said.

“What difference does it make, we are still in trouble.”

“I don’t know, I just didn’t want to raise suspicion before she opens the door.”

“Yeah,” Timmy said, “postpone the punishment as long as possible.”

Clayton reached to flip the switch with his elbow and noticed two switches instead of one.

“When did this get here?”

“I don’t know,” said Carlton.

Clayton brushed down on the first switch, the lights did not turn off, instead it turned on the newly install ceiling fan full blast. Little Dixie cups of baby powder rained down on them and blew the powder all over the room, all over them, all over everything.

“What in the world?” Clayton said.

Followed by Timmy’s, “Ooh noo.”

“Turn it off; turn it off,” Carlton said.

“There’s no need to turn the light off now,” Clayton said.

“Turn it off anyway,” Carlton said

Clayton flipped the light off and sat on the bed with his brothers.

“I wonder what Aunt Ethel is going to do to us,” Carlton said.

“I’m not as worried about what Aunt Ethel is going to do, she’ going home in a couple of weeks, I’m worried about what mom and dad are going to do, We have to live with them,” Clayton said.

“Yeah,” Timmy said, “mom and dad aren’t going to be happy at all.”

“THAT’S putting it mildly,” said Clayton, “I don’t know about you guys but I’m through stealing, it’s not worth all of the trouble. Aunt Ethel would have probably given us the candy and change if we had just asked her, you know it?”

“She probably would have,” said Carlton.” I’m done stealing too.”

“Yeah” said Timmy, “me too.”

Ethel headed for her room. She really enjoyed the ball. She opened the door and turned on the light, she turned at the sight of the three sitting on the bed in a row, covered with baby powder and only their guilty eyes and lips where they had licked off the powder was that was showing and each with the vases stuck on their hands, laughed hard and long, it drew Martha and Charles to her room.

Martha rushed in, glanced at the boys, turned around, looked at Charles and said, “you handle this problem” and walked to her room. She cried at the thought of her children, stealing from the sister she loved so much, as she changed her clothes.

Charles folded his arms across his chest and stared at each of the brothers for seconds that seemed like minutes to them. You could see the angry in his eye.

“Dad, we are sorry,” Clayton said.

“You will be,” Charles cut off his sentence.

Carlton and Timmy who was too afraid to speak didn’t take their eyes off of their dad.

“First we need to get these vases off of your hands.”

“They will have to be broken,” Ethel could hardly speak, still laughing with tears streaming down her face.

“Go in the kitchen-the three of you,” Charles demanded.

Ethel picked out some clothes and changed in the bathroom, hung up her gown on the shower curtain. Charles went to his and Martha’s room where she sat on the bed with her head in her hands crying. Charles hugged her and kissed her forehead.

“I love you, he whispered, everything will be alright.” And changed his clothes. He met Ethel and the boys in the kitchen with a hammer. He instructed Clayton to ball his fist as tight as be could, quickly tapped the bottom of the vase. It broke immediately. Ethel trying to control her laughter handed the handcuff keys to Charles. He unlocked and released Clayton’s right hand. After he got all the vases off, he told the boys to shower and go straight to bed. He cleaned up the glass and brought out the air mattress for Ethel to sleep in the living for the night. He went in his room and sat next to Martha.

“What are we going to do Charles?” She cried on his shoulder.

“We aren’t going to do anything, I’m handling this remember? I gave Ethel the air mattress for the night and sent the boys to bed. I want to sleep in the problem and handle it in the morning.”

Charles woke the boys up at 6:00 a.m. to clean Ethel’s room. When they finally finished at 9:00, they had breakfast. Afterwards Charles met them in the twins’ room and shut the door to discuss last night’s event. He told them that he knew they had been taking things from Aunt Ethel all summer and had agreed to let her handle it.

“And she did Dad, she did,” said Timmy.

Charles glared at Timmy, “I’m not finished.”

Timmy lowered his head, “I’m sorry.”

“Your mother and me have been more than generous with your allowances and getting you things you wanted. Well, no more, you will do twice the chores for half the allowance and no more of that extra stuff that you’ve been used to getting. Play time is over guys, you will be teenagers in just a few short years, then adults a few years after that, and you WILL be respectable and respected young men. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir,” they replied in unison.

“You will start with the yard,” Charles continued, Timmy, you and Carlton will weed your mother’s flowerbed, Clayton you will mow the lawn. You all should be finished around the same time, and then all of you will rake and bag the cut lawn; I have a very long list, you may get started.

**Tom shook his head, “those boys worked hard, for a little of nothing the entire time they lived with Aunt Martha and Uncle Charles. They learned their lesson though, they never stole anything else and they grew up to be respectable and respected men.”

“That, they did” smiled Pearl.

“I’ll speak with the cleaning girl next week,” Pearl said, “maybe I will tell her the story of the den of thieves.”**