Mizrah's Ladder Ch. 05

This doesn't make any sense.

What was that thing he'd used to crack and break the poor ATM? Security-wise, they were ironclad and should have not only taken far longer to open, alarms should have been making a grand fuss all down the street.

By the time all the cash had been disgorged, the two of you were bailing with over $8k...more than twice your monthly salary. This sort of petty-yet-grandiose theft leaves you nervous and casting your gaze about for cops, descending blaring red and blue shame...but they don't, and you're sitting in the rapidly cooling interior of your car with cash flipping out your pockets.

Mizrah for his part had been laughing the whole way, an infectious and generous sound. "See? It's that easy. Fuck the man, fuck working a job you hate, fuck anyone who ever told you to do something you didn't want to. I'll show you how to make them later."

You're still shaking your head, and your pale hands are shuddering just a bit. "You're unbelievable! We just broke at least seven laws and..." You can't help but feel a thrill. "Stole thousands of dollars from First City!"

"They have another few billion lying around from laundering coke money, they'll live to fuck people another day." He leans back in your passenger seat, grinning oh so proudly at you. "Come on babe. Quit worrying, let's go down to Emporio and snag some new threads."

"Ok, ok just... give me a moment, I don't even jaywalk, let alone steal."

"What's got you so nervous?" His hand rests gently on your thigh...it's calming, and you reach down with both of your hands to take his own, thumbs running over his knuckles as you admire his long instrumentalist's fingers. There's no judgment in his tone, he sounds like he's having a great time and he's surprised you're not.

"Whenever I try to do anything I'm not supposed to, I get caught, or something goes wrong. Every time, so I'm just...waiting for the 5-0 to show up."

"Don't worry about cops, or recordings. Or the law, fuck the law too."

Fuck the law?

Fuck your job?

You weren't so sure yet...not entirely sold but a lot of strange things had happened in the past few days, so who was to say what was possible anymore? You still expect some sort of trouble to arise from what you've done, but maybe you can take a page from your handsome passenger's book and lighten up...go with the flow as people here said.

Why not live a little?