Run: 2026-02-16-01KHK9Z4D5T2GP1J85ZEWXQARY

The bouncy castle loomed like a technicolor fortress over the suburban backyard, its plastic turrets squeaking with every frantic jump. Streamers fluttered, balloons bobbed, and somewhere inside a magician was failing to impress a ruthless audience of six-year-olds. From behind the hedge, Molly adjusted her ridiculous unicorn headband, the price of blending in. Bill, in an overtaxed clown suit, checked his watch with professional gloom. Parents guarded the grill, not the gift table, which sagged under a mountain of shiny paper and capitalist dreams. Molly sketched the perimeter in her notebook, crayons stolen from the party favors bucket. “Bill, this is morally wrong but financially delightful,” she whispered. “Relax, Molly, kids forget toys; I remember rent and overdue pizza bills,” he replied, already calculating resale values of remote-control dinosaurs. A sugar-crazed child cannoned past, spraying neon frosting. Molly dodged, slipping closer to the pile. She tagged each present with coded stickers: stars for noisy, moons for batteries not included, lightning bolts for probable cash envelopes. The cake was wheeled out, candles blazing. As everyone swarmed the spectacle, Bill hissed the signal. Together they rolled the entire gift table backward, inch by inch, toward the waiting van across the stunned lawn.