Just My Luck…

From the diary of Penelope Halwind:

March 17:

I feel like I found a pot of gold! I was alone at my desk, as usual, when The Question knocked at my office door.

“What are you doing this weekend, Pigeon?”

I wasn’t entirely comfortable with someone else calling me that, but I could let him slide. We always had a good time (at least I did) when we went out. I almost replied, “What do you have in mind?” but instead said, “I have no plans right now.”

“I could use some help on my next… caper. I want to get into the museum across town where they are keeping a particular Monet.”

This caught my attention. “Very nice. (6 figures, easy) I’ll see what ‘my boys’ are doing and get back to you.”

He laughed. Looking back on it, I was a little annoyed, but he does have a nice laugh. “I meant during the day. We could have lunch afterward.” I had looked at him quizzically, not entirely believing my ears, which only made him laugh again. “You’re so serious, Pigeon,” he said, as he hugged me. After a moment, I hugged him back.

We went to the museum and found they were discounting tickets in honor of the Monet. If I had been thinking straight, I might have wondered WHICH Monet they had. Instead I was pleasantly surprised when Stanley covered my eyes before going into the room it was in.

“Ta da! Impression: Sunrise. It IS your favorite, right?”

I was in awe. “How did you find out?” By the time I finished asking, I had become curious as to how far he had dug into my life.

“I ran into Lady Panther one night leaving your office,” he whispered. “She was all 20 Questions. She related to you? She seems to either really care or is very nosy.”

“Curious is more like it.” I shook my head and smiled. “Do you mind if we stay here for a few minutes?”

I had spent many hours as a child looking at a print of Impressionism: Sunrise that was in my folks’ trailer. As they would fight or ignore me, I would sail off in the boat in the painting.

As we walked hand in hand out of the museum, we passed the “gold plated bachelor.” I did my best to ignore him and keep Stanley’s attention as we walked by. I didn’t feel like dealing with that topic. I felt rather lucky when he didn’t seem to notice us at all.

Then the most interesting thing happened. We had to take a detour back to my office because a nearby jewelry store had been robbed. As we turned a corner, I noticed something shiny caught in a sewer grate. It was a sapphire necklace! Only worth a couple hundred, but who am I to snub a windfall?

After saying goodbye to Stanley I went inside my office…. And found it ransacked. There was graffiti, “HAHAHAHAHA,” written in several places and my safes were all blown open. I was still staring at the mess when I heard a deep voice.

“Joker escaped. His psychiatrist helped him and took off with him. You’re lucky you weren’t here…”