Molly kicked a pebble down the sidewalk, her Doc Martens crunching on the gravel. "Are you sure about this, Bill?" Bill chewed on a toothpick, adjusting his baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. "Molly, honey, relax. It's child's play. Literally." "But it's a kid's birthday party, Bill. We're stealing presents from six-year-olds." "Think of it this way," Bill said, slinging an arm around her shoulder, "we're redistributing wealth. These kids have enough toys to open their own toy store. They won't even notice a few are missing." Molly sighed. "That's what you said about the petting zoo." "Okay, maybe the llama incident was a bit extreme," Bill conceded. "But trust me on this. It's low-risk, high-reward. We're talking mountains of presents here, Molly. We could be swimming in stuffed animals and action figures." Molly pictured a mountain of plush unicorns and sighed. "Fine. But if I get covered in glitter glue, I'm blaming you." Bill grinned. "Deal. Now, Operation Crib & Crawl goes down tomorrow afternoon. You snag the loot, I'll be your distraction. Got it?" "I snatch, you...distract," Molly repeated, doing a quick mental inventory of the cat burglar gear tucked into her backpack. "Think of it as community service, Molly," Bill said, gesturing widely with his toothpick. "We're teaching these kids a valuable lesson about the value of a shiny trinket." "Oh boy, you truly are a criminal mastermind, Bill," Molly deadpanned. "What's the distraction this time? You dressed as a giant balloon animal?" Bill chuckled. "Bigger, better," he said, pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "I present to you..." He unfurled the paper dramatically. "The 'world-famous' Professor Wonderbottom, purveyor of magic and amazement." Molly raised an eyebrow. "The Professor Wonderbottom? Really, Bill?" "Trust me," he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "This guy's got enough ridiculous tricks up his sleeve to make Houdini weep. We'll have those kids begging for more and never noticing a thing." Molly shook her head, a smile playing on her lips. "You're going to make a terrible magician Bill, but let's be honest, that's what makes you so good at this." She slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Alright, Professor. Let's get this kiddie caper rolling."