In her excitement, Brat dragged Saul to the closest one. Fortunately for Saul, it was the one with the easiest mark. At the table, the customer had set out what coins they had brought for shopping and was currently trying to haggle down the price of his considerable purchase. The vendor being a good man of business was coming down to meet the man’s price but was doing so very slowly. Saul took a quick glance at the pile of coins. Most of them were gold mizas, and their wide placement on the table would serve his needs well.
Crowding in close to the customer with the excuse of making room for Brat, Saul pointed to the variety of baked goods. “What do you want, Brat?”
“What can I have?”
“Anything you want.”
Brat had already been excited about the prospect of a treat, but out of the corner of his eye, Saul could see her practically begin to shake at the idea that she could pick anything. Saul smiled and took his eyes away from the prize. He liked to see Brat happy, and besides, if he watched the other customer’s money too closely, he might draw his marks’ suspicion. Her sky blue eyes danced between the variety of pies and cookies that were available. By the aromas that were emanating from the shop, some of the sweets had been freshly baked.
Eventually, Brat’s eyes stopped dancing and began, instead, to shift between two items. There was a small pie- apple, Saul judged by the color of the filling- and a cookie of some sort. Brat had had them before when Saul had managed to find himself with some extra coin. Brat made a decision, but based on the speed with which she made, Saul thought it must have been the most painful thing she had ever done.
She pointed at the pie. “Can I have the pie?”
Saul shrugged. “Anything you want.”
She nodded resolutely. “The pie.”
Saul pointed out the pie to the shop keeper, and the man grabbed the desert without breaking eye contact with the person he was haggling with. When the man set the dish in front of him, Saul slid it in front of Brat, leaving the space in front of him as the only place for the shop keeper to make change. Setting a silver miza in front of him, Saul allowed the man to take it from him. The shop keeper broke his eye contact with his other customer for only a moment to see what coin Saul had paid him with, did some rapid mental math, reached into his pocket, and tossed Saul’s change in front of him.
It landed close enough to the other customer’s pile for Saul to Make Change. This was the easy part. All it required was some sleight of hand, and that was something Saul had been practicing from an early age. He swiped his hand toward his change, snagging a golden miza from the other customer’s pile as his hand passed by and quickly tucking it beneath his palm until he had his change in one pile. Then, he slid it off the table into his other hand and put it in his pocket. Pausing, he reached back into his pocket, retrieved the remaining copper mizas, and tossed them back on the table.
He pointed at the cookie he had seen Brat eyeing. “The cookie, too.”
The man swiped the coins, grabbed the cookie, and continued to haggle with his customer, both unaware that Saul had just robbed one of them. Smiling, Saul turned to Brat and handed her the cookie as well. Rather than the gratitude he expected to see in her eyes, he was stunned when he found anger and disbelief. The two people Saul had used as marks might not have been aware of what Saul had done, but Brat hadn’t missed a thing.
Saul could tell that she was anything but pleased at being used for an excuse for him to rob someone, but she kept her rage bottled as they walked away. |
|