Run: 2026-07-25-01KYCPM2K96JXYH9MSBA480Z61

The van smelled of stale popcorn and betrayal, mostly because Bill had eaten Molly's popcorn. "Right," Molly said, spreading a napkin across the dashboard. "Here's the layout. This is the bouncy castle." "That's a coffee ring." "It's a bouncy castle." "It's got a handle." "That's the entrance." Molly stabbed the napkin with a pen. "Presents go on the trestle table, here, under the banner. Fourteen gifts, minimum. Possibly a scooter." "A scooter." Bill sat up. "How much is a scooter?" "Sixty quid. Ninety if it's got lights." "It'll have lights. Kids love lights." He squinted through the windscreen at the community hall, where a woman in a cardigan was wrestling a helium canister. "Molly. I want to say something, and I want you to hear it in the spirit it's meant." "Go on." "This is a child's birthday party." "Correct." "We're stealing from a seven-year-old." "We're stealing from *fourteen* seven-year-olds, Bill, which is arguably more ethical because the loss is distributed." Bill chewed the inside of his cheek. "That's not how ethics works." "You did a term and a half of philosophy at a college that's now a Wetherspoons. You don't get to referee." "I know what a *child* is, Molly." He waved a hand at the hall. "I've got a niece. Last Christmas she opened a jigsaw and cried with joy. Actual tears. Over a jigsaw of a badger." "Then she's easily pleased and will barely notice." "That's worse." Molly turned in her seat. "Bill. Do you remember the marina job?" "I'd rather not." "Do you remember why we're in a van that smells like a cinema floor instead of a villa in Portugal?" "Because of the swans." "Because of the swans," Molly agreed. "So today we go small, we go soft, and we go *unguarded*. Nobody insures a pass-the-parcel." Bill stared at the napkin for a long moment. "What's the plan, then?" "You're going in as the entertainer." "I'm sorry?" "Mrs. Pargeter booked a magician called Marvo. Marvo has, tragically, been double-booked at a christening in Rotherham." Molly reached into the back and produced a purple cape, which had clearly once been a curtain. "You are now Marvo." "I don't know any magic." "You know that thing with the coin." "That's not magic, that's me dropping a coin and looking surprised." "Kids love it. Meanwhile I'm the auntie nobody can place. Every party has one. I hover near the buffet, I say 'hasn't he grown,' and I move the presents out the fire door in a wheelie bin." "There's a wheelie bin?" "There's always a wheelie bin, Bill. That's the beauty of Britain." Bill took the cape. He held it up. It said *SALE* on one corner in dry-cleaning ink. "Fine," he said. "But not the badger jigsaw." "There isn't a badger jigsaw." "If there is one, it stays." Molly considered him. "One jigsaw." "One jigsaw." "Put your cape on, Marvo."