Run: 2026-07-25-01KYD7Z4Y5XMSHCKVP34Y8T60S

Molly spread the crayon drawing across the hood of the car. "Okay, Bill. The Hendersons' backyard. Saturday, two o'clock. One bounce house, one clown, and forty presents stacked on a picnic table." Bill squinted at the map. "Why does the dog have wings?" "That's a fairy princess, Bill. A kid drew this. I paid him a juice box for it." "You paid for intelligence in juice?" "Focus. We go in as the entertainment." Bill held up the costume bag and frowned. "Molly, this says 'Balloon Artist.' I don't know how to make balloon animals." "Then learn one shape and make it forty times." "What if a kid asks for a giraffe?" "Everything's a snake, Bill. A giraffe is a snake with confidence." Bill pulled out the second costume. A tutu. "And you're the fairy?" "I'm the Fairy of Gift Relocation. While you make balloon snakes, I work the present table. Presents go into the piñata." "Why the piñata?" "Because nobody suspects a donkey, Bill. At two-thirty, some kid whacks it open, chaos, screaming, candy everywhere, and in the confusion we wheel the donkey to the van." "The donkey's on wheels?" "I installed wheels." "You installed wheels on a piñata." "Preparation, Bill. That's what separates us from amateurs." Bill rubbed his temples. "What about the clown? The real one. The one they hired." Molly smiled. "I cancelled him. Told them the clown union went on strike." "There's a clown union?" "There is now. I printed flyers." "What about the parents? Forty parents watching their kids." "Parents at children's parties are zombies, Bill. They'll be by the potato salad complaining about their inlaws. Nobody watches the present table. It's the least guarded treasure in suburbia." Bill considered this. "What's our split?" "Sixty-forty." "I'm sixty." "You installed no wheels." "Fine. But I pick which presents I fence. If there's a bike, I want the bike." "Bill, it's a six-year-old's birthday. It's going to be forty Nerf guns and a Lego set." "I want the Lego set." "You can have the Lego set. Can we please get back to the plan?" "One more question." Bill held up a pink balloon. "Why do I have to blow these up at the party? Why not beforehand?" "Because a grown man arriving with forty inflated balloons in a compact car attracts attention." "A grown man in a tutu doesn't?" "That's you." "I thought you were the tutu!" Molly checked the drawing. "No, I'm the fairy. You're the Ballerina of Balloons. It's all in the dossier." "You wrote 'dossier' on a crayon drawing of a fairy princess." "Professional standards, Bill." Bill sighed, picked up a balloon, and started blowing. "What's the getaway signal?" "When the donkey bursts, I yell 'who wants candy,' and we roll." "And if something goes wrong?" Molly tucked the map into her tutu. "Then you make balloon snakes faster than you've ever made anything in your life." Saturday, Bill decided, could not come weirdly enough.