Run: 2026-04-25-01KQ2DYYDMJR03N04V2KC13BKD

Molly flattened the party invitation against the grimy wall with her thumb. “We hit the bounce house at fourteen hundred, just as the magician starts his sad balloon animals.” Bill grunted, adjusting his skeleton costume. “And the presents?” “Under the piñata. They always stack them under the piñata, like it’s a sacred shrine to disappointment.” She pulled a lollipop from her pocket and unwrapped it with her teeth. “Step one: I create a diversion. I’ll pretend to be a very enthusiastic grandmother.” “You’re thirty-two.” “I’m method. Step two: you emerge from the cake.” Bill stared at the soggy sheet cake diagram she’d drawn on a napkin. “The cake is a prop. It’s cardboard. I can’t fit in cardboard.” “You’ll fit. I measured your ribs against a photo of a Dora the Explorer cake. You’ll be fine if you don’t breathe.” He sighed, a long defeated wheeze. “And when the parents start screaming?” Molly bit her lollipop with a sharp crack. “We run. We run like we stole something, because we will have. But first, we smile. They never suspect smiling thieves.” She grinned, sugar on her teeth. “Especially at a child’s party.”