I was walking home late one night and I took a shortcut through a park. Halfway through the park and I was accosted by a mugger. Not a very smart mugger, in my opinion, as I was two to three times her size. Still, she had a very wicked looking knife and a mask that covered most of her face.
"Wallet," she snapped at me.
"I know you, don't I," I observed. "Ah, let's see, Danae, Dianne, Deb? That last one sounds close. Yeah, Deborah, more commonly known as Debbie. What do you think you're playing at, Debbie?" I asked with a sigh.
"I'm not this Debbie," she snapped, "and I'm not playing. Wallet."
She waved the knife around to emphasize her demand.
"Yeah, you are," I told her. "Come on, you're the only girl in the neighbourhood with boobs like that. If you're trying to disguise yourself you'd be better off using tape to flatten those mountains. Do that and the mask might work."
"I'm not Debbie and my breasts are not under discussion. Your wallet. Give it to me. I'm serious."
"Actually your breasts are frequently under discussion. Natural or not? I know some guys who'd pay good money if you care to show them off."
She just waved the knife closer to my face and I held up my hands in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I get the message. Did you know that I'm a bit of an amateur magician?"
While talking I pulled a folded white handkerchief from my pocket, giving it a slight shake to let it unfold.
"From this totally empty handkerchief," showing both sides to her, "I will produce a wallet."
I crushed the handkerchief into a ball and then shook it open again.
"Hum. That didn't work. Hold your horses, I'll get it this time."
I crushed the handkerchief into a ball again and flicked it open, with the difference being that I let it go when I flicked it open and it sailed straight into her face. This resulted in three things. First, it momentarily blocked her view. Second, she instinctively raised her hands to protect her face. Third, it left her wide open when I reached out and caught her hand in mine, and mine was a lot bigger and stronger than hers.
She screamed and tried to pull away but I just held her firmly, calmly extracting the knife from her grasp.
"This is a very nasty knife," I told her. "Do you have a sheath for it?"
Her eyes flicked to one side for a moment and I smiled.
"So you either carry it in that shoulder bag you're carrying or the sheath is in it. I'm betting on the latter."
Seeing I still had a firm grip on her hand she couldn't really prevent me from snapping open the bag and extracting the sheath. I put the knife in it and put the sheathed knife into my pocket.
"I'll just look after this for you," I told her.
Reaching up I tugged her mask down, revealing the furious face of, surprise, surprise, Debbie Morrison.
"Run along now, Debbie," I said, releasing her hand. "Thank your lucky stars I'm feeling generous."
"Generous? You're a rotten sod. You nearly broke my wrist. Give me back my knife."
"I don't think so," I said. "You'll just get yourself into more trouble if I do. Now scoot."
To encourage her departure I took her arm and turned her around, delivering a smart spank to her bottom. She squealed and jumped away from me, hands on her bottom.
"You can't keep it," she protested. "It's not yours. That's stealing, that is."
"I suspect that it isn't yours, either," I said with a grin. "Why don't you just tell whoever you borrowed it from that I've got it and they can collect it from my place?"
"Oh, I get it," I said, seeing a rather hunted look on her face. "The owner doesn't know you've borrowed it, does he? I guess you'd better learn to act innocent when they ask where their missing knife is."
I continued wending my way home, leaving Debbie swearing and casting aspersions upon my parentage.
I went home and eventually went to bed and to sleep. Something woke me, even though I didn't know what. I was about to roll over and go back to sleep when I heard a noise from somewhere in the house. I very quietly slid out of bed and went to investigate.
My first thought was to call the police, but the intruder would probably hear me talking on the phone and depart. I decided to bail whoever it was up and then call the police. The noise seemed to come from the front room so I slipped my phone into the pocket of my pyjamas and headed in that direction.
From the door I could see someone was trying to quietly check all the drawers in a buffet that stood against one wall, a small torch helping them look.
"My shotgun may only be loaded with birdshot," I said cheerfully, "but at this range it will still make a mess of you. If you try to run you'll find out how much of a mess."
My visitor went dead still, apparently not wanting to see what bird-shot would do.
"Sit down on the floor," I said, "making sure you're sitting on your hands and that your legs are crossed."
There was enough reflected light from the torch for me to see that I was being obeyed. When he was seated I reached over and flicked on the main light.
"You liar," came the indignant cry from Debbie. "You haven't got a shotgun."
"True, but I do have a burglar and a very nice knife. Now if you'll excuse me I guess I have to call the police. They can remove both burglar and knife. Good luck explaining yourself to them."
"Wait. You can't. I only came to get my knife back. If you hadn't stolen it I wouldn't be anywhere near here."
"I can, you know. That's what they're for, to arrest burglars and muggers and such. I might point out if you hadn't tried to mug me I wouldn't have taken your knife. You were just lucky you didn't mug someone who didn't just punch you out. You were standing so close to me I could have broken your jaw before you could use that knife. Think of the police as protection, keeping you from hurting yourself."
"But I'll go to prison. I'll be a criminal."
"Now that I think of it you are an adult, aren't you?"
At her sullen nod I smiled and continued.
"Then it's probably your lucky day. As a first offender you'll just get lectured by the judge and given community service. No jail time for you."
"Oh, please, you can't call the police. My dad would kill me."
Now that struck a chord with me. Her father was a nasty piece of shit, a vicious little bully who was reputed to be a bit free with his fists. I could easily see him beating the crap out of Debbie if she caused him any inconvenience and her being arrested was something he would consider offensive.