Run: 2026-07-07-01KWZ3TD87M38QTBNHSHXS1NST

Molly spread the blueprint across the kitchen table, weighting the corners with a half-empty bag of cheese puffs, a bent fork, and a salt shaker shaped like a lighthouse. Bill leaned over it, squinting like he understood what he was seeing. "Alright, genius," Molly said. "Run me through it again." "Simple. We go in through the back patio, grab the gifts, walk out like we belong." "What if somebody asks who we are?" "We're caterers." "You're wearing a motorcycle jacket and a shirt that says 'I Did Your Mom Last Night.'" "So I'll change the shirt." Molly sighed. "What about the bouncy castle?" "What about it?" "Three kids broke their collarbones in that thing last weekend. I read it in the Gazette." "We're not getting in the bouncy castle, Molly." "I'm just saying, it's a variable." "Variables are for math. This is a kid's party. There's a piñata and a cake. That's it." "What kind of cake?" "How should I know?" "Because if it's ice cream cake, we need to factor in melt time." "Melt time," Bill repeated. "If the presents are near the cake station and we get delayed, we could lose the element of surprise and the cake." "We're not stealing the cake." "I'm just thinking out loud." Molly pulled a marker from her pocket and drew a large circle in the center of the blueprint. "This is the living room. The pile of presents should be right here, near the fireplace." "What if they already opened them?" "Bill, it's a seventh birthday party. The opening happens at the end. We get in at peak sugar rush, before the candle moment." "Peak sugar rush." "I read it in a magazine." She drew an X near the patio door. "We enter here. You go left, I go right. We bag everything in under four minutes." "What if there's a clown?" "What?" "A clown. Some parties have clowns." Molly considered this. "We take the clown out first." "With what?" "You have a tire iron in the van." "I'm not hitting a clown with a tire iron, Molly." "Then distract him." "How do you distract a clown?" "Make a balloon animal." Bill stared at her. She stared back. Outside, a dog barked three times and stopped. Molly capped the marker. "We do this clean," she said. "No clown violence. No cake theft. Just the presents." "What if the presents are bad?" "Like what?" "Like socks. Educational socks." "Then we grab the good ones and leave the rest." Bill scratched his chin. "What if they're all educational?" "Then we made a poor life choice and we move on to the next plan." "The next plan being what?" "I don't know. Rob a lemonade stand." He sat down. She sat down. They both looked at the blueprint. The cheese puffs bag slid off the corner, and the blueprint curled up like it was trying to escape. "We're going to jail," Bill said. "Not yet," Molly replied. "First, we're going to a birthday party." She folded the blueprint, tucked it into her jacket, and grabbed her keys. Bill reached for the cheese puffs, shook out a few crumbs, and followed her to the door.