The Colonial Commission’s search for my grandfather was hindered by several things, the least of which was my grandfather’s elusive nature and unwillingness to be reached. Not only had the Commission recently approved four new planets for colonization, taking up a lot of their time, but also the Separation was still in effect. It is hard to track people from planet to planet when the governments of the planets involved are at odds with each other.
    Someone reading this may live at a time when it is the normal state of affairs for planets and solar systems to be divided in their governments much like they were when I was very young. But for four hundred years or so, nearly all of the planets colonized by humans were under the same government, first under FUZ (Forces Under Zarcon), then under the People’s Ruling Council, and later under the dubiously titled Federation of Species. That first Federation had initially set up the Colonial Commission as a branch of the Federal government, to test and process all applicants for emigration, and to set up provisional planetary governments. This gave the Commission a lot of power, and the Federation continuously had to keep an eye on the goings on inside their offices.
    However, when the Federation began to split up and the 140 planets were left to rule themselves, the Colonial Commission retained its recruiting offices on many of the main planets, in cooperation with each government, and they kept their headquarters in Astropolis IV, in orbit around Blabrow. This made the Commission the only organization that still had authority on an interstellar basis.
    The governments of each planet or solar system were never at war with each other, but each was suspicious of the other, and every ship that arrived or departed from anywhere had to undergo searches, and all cargoes were subject to high tariffs.
    All of this makes it difficult for the Commission to run its business, and the business of finding my grandfather, I soon learned, wasn’t very high on their priority list. But I wasn’t too concerned, as my grief for my parents lessened with each passing week, and I became accustomed to answering to Mr. Bates.
    Many weekends, he would actually come out to the farm, and help me. We weeded the garden, and picked fresh produce, some of which I kept to eat, but most of which I sent in to the market, to sell. Mr. Bates seemed to actually like the working in the open air. He said it was a lot better than being stuck in an office all day, getting hand cramps from signing papers and migraines from trying to figure out every little problem. He told me I could call him Harry, and he gave me an unlimited public bus pass, in case I ever needed to come see him at his office or his apartment.
    When school let out for the summer, I convinced Harry to let me get a job. My friend Norman Dester said his father needed extra help with that year’s harvest, so I accepted. Harry said it was okay, as long as I didn’t ignore my own place. Every morning, I walked two miles to the Dester farm, which covered nearly a hundred acres. Mr. Dester had been overly optimistic when he had arrived, and had taken fifty acres. Five years later, after being tremendously successful, he had taken another forty-five. Of course, he had two grown sons, besides Norman and sixteen-year old daughter Destiny, but 95 acres is a lot to work, especially without expensive power equipment.
    When the Federation had still held all the planets in its grip, there had been a minimum wage law on most planets — two newdollars per hour, Harry told me. When the Federation broke apart, some planets had raised their minimum wage, while others had done away with the law altogether. In Tarkin, the minimum wage (set by the Commission) was one credit per hour, but I wasn’t sixteen yet, so the law didn’t apply to me. Mr. Dester paid me six Colonial Credits for every full day of work I put in, besides two full meals for every day I was there.
    I saved money that way, since I wasn’t buying nearly as much food as I had been, so I used the extra money I made to buy food for my animals, and every now and then I had some left over. So for the four months that school was out, I helped the Desters weed their large vegetable garden, feed their livestock, spray insecticide, build a new barn, and — right before school started again — harvest their main crops. I got off work one day in seven, when the entire Dester family attended religious meetings, so I made more than cc600. After my own expenses — feed, clothes, and other things, I had about a hundred credits left over, and I wanted to start a personal savings account at one of the little banks in Tarkin.
    My parents had never installed a vidphone in our house, so I called Harry from the Dester house, to ask him if it was okay for me to start a separate savings account. He said it wouldn’t be a problem, but he couldn’t go with me for a few days, so could I wait? Then he suggested that I just put that ccl00 in my trust fund — he could arrange it. I was about to tell him I would wait until he could go with me, but then Destiny spoke up. She had been sitting across the living room from me, reading a book, apparently eavesdropping on our conversation.
    Norman’s older sister put the book down and said, “I could go with you, Phil.” When I told Harry to wait, and looked at her, she went on. “I’ve got a savings account in town, and the bus will be out this way in an hour or so. You could start your account at my bank.”
    I told Harry what she had said and he said that would be okay, so I hung up. Destiny grinned at me, and said, “Let me know when the bus shows up.” Then she stuck her nose back in her book.
    I wasn’t sure what I should do for an hour, until the first evening bus came out from town. We had finished the first half of the Dester family harvest, and they had fed me lunch. Basically, I was unemployed now, and school was starting back up in a few days. It would be a waste of time for me to walk home, and then come right back. Norman was doing his chores outside. So I just sat there, glancing outside every few minutes, and alternating that view by looking around the Dester’s living room, and down at my nails. A few times, I looked at Destiny.
    I guess it was about the fourth time my gaze swept over Destiny when I stopped and really looked at her. I suddenly realized that I liked girls, and especially this one. For the last couple of years, I had been vaguely aware that girls were different, and I had known Destiny merely as Norman’s older sister whom I saw around the school from time to time. But now I was looking at her in a decidedly different light.
    Her hair, the color of straw, with light brown roots, hung in loose curls around her suntanned face and down over her shoulders. Her light green eyes brightly reflected the light from the lamp next to her and her full lips were slightly pursed, as if in deep thought. I turned away and blushed deeply when she suddenly looked up at and smiled. I realized when she smiled that I also liked her teeth. When she looked back down, I looked at the rest of her. Her breasts weren’t fully developed, but I could see the bulges under her shirt, and her shapely legs were folded under each other on the couch.
    I think I may be the only man alive who can point back to the exact moment when his puberty kicked in. A lot of men have told me over the years that they can’t remember when they switched from avoiding girls to being attracted to them. I know. It was that moment, in the late afternoon at the end of Persiphones summer, in 2483.
    I was a little relieved when I heard the bus approaching, although I had forgotten all about my boredom. “The bus is coming”, I managed to say, and got up, realizing that my pants were tight in an unusual area, where they had never been tight before.
    Destiny closed her book and stood up, in one beautiful motion. “Let’s go.”
    When we got on the bus and found two seats next to each other, I realized that she smelled good too. I remember wondering to myself if I was in love, then shutting off the thought. Of course I wasn’t in love! She was three years older than I was, and I would have to be a fool to think she’d ever reciprocate my feelings. Besides, I’d worked right beside her for six days of every week for four months and never noticed a thing, even on the days when she was just wearing shorts and a halter-top. And now, all of a sudden, I loved every thing about her. Then I realized she was talking about something.
    “I’m sorry, Destiny, I wasn’t listening. What were you saying?”
    “Oh, nothing. I was just wondering how you do it.”
    “Do what?”
    “Live by yourself. Isn’t it hard? I mean, everyone else around has families, and I don’t think I could live without my family, even though they bug me sometimes.”
    Maybe it was the fact that school was starting the next week, but I said, “Isn’t that a run-on sentence?” Immediately I felt stupid for saying it, because she looked at me very strangely. I wondered if it really was a run-on sentence.
    Then suddenly she laughed, and patted my knee. “You’re funny, Phil. But seriously, don’t you ever get lonely out there?”
    I found it hard to speak, since her hand was still on my knee, but I did. “Sometimes I wake up in the morning, and wonder where my mom and dad are, but after a few minutes I remember they’re dead. It’s a lot easier to cook and clean house with just one person, though.”
    She raised her eyebrows at that last, then asked me, “Did you ever cry, Phil? I think I would cry for days if my mom and dad were dead.”
    “I cried a little, but I got over it. ‘Life goes on’, my dad used to say. He also used to say, ‘You can’t change the past, unless you have a time machine.’ There’s nothing I can do about it, and crying doesn’t help a whole lot.”
    We fell into silence then, but she left her hand on my knee for a while. When the bus reached the end of the line and headed back toward town, she rested her head on my shoulder. That’s when I realized what a difference four months of hard work can make. When I started working for the Desters, I had been very skinny, but Destiny’s head on my shoulder made me realize that I had put on some muscle. Suddenly I felt very good about everything and didn’t want the bus ride to end.

*

At the First Bank of Tarkin, North Branch, Destiny showed me where the applications for savings accounts were stacked, and helped me fill one out. Then a nice lady at the counter took my money and application, and gave me a handful of brochures describing other accounts.
    The lady said, “Just wait here, Philipp, and look over these pamphlets. I’ll get a balance book for your savings account, and then I’ll explain to you how it works, okay?”
    I nodded, and she wandered off. I noticed that she stopped to pour herself some coffee, on her way to get my balance book. Everyone needs a break from time to time, but should you really take one in the middle of helping a customer? Even if he’s a kid?
    Destiny bumped me, and I looked at her. “What?”
    “Shhh. Look over there.” She pointed with her eyes, then became very casual. I looked where she had been looking, and my eyes widened. There was a stack of bills sitting on the counter, apparently left there by a careless teller — the bank was near closing time. Thinking back, I assume that someone must have been counting down their drawer and become distracted.
    I looked back at Destiny; she was scanning the room. “There aren’t any cameras,” she whispered. “No one’s looking.”
    I realized then that she wanted to take it. Or she wanted me to take it. I forgot for the moment that my dad had taught me that stealing was wrong. I was still enraptured by the presence of this 16-year-old girl next to me. I looked around the room, and thought that maybe the cameras were hidden behind mirrors or something. I had never before actually been inside a bank, but I had seen movies on the Dester’s video in the evenings. I knew banks were supposed to have cameras to avoid just this situation. The thought briefly ran through my mind that maybe there weren’t any here since it was a colony world and the city was only seven years old. This bank branch had only been here for maybe two or three years. There wasn’t a lot of crime on colony worlds. Most people moved to the colonies to avoid things like crime. And the really big criminals stayed in the big cities, where it was easy to disappear, and where there were plenty of choices. Then suddenly, I thought of a way to get the money, whether or not there were cameras.
    “Move over here”, I whispered to Destiny, pointing. “And open your purse.” She moved quickly, and was then in a position where she would block two possible camera angles. “Don’t move.”
    I noted the position of her purse then turned away from her, setting my stack of bank brochures on the counter, directly in front of the bundle of bills. From there I could see that it was at least cc2,000, in two bundles of 10-credit bills. I waited, with my hand on the brochures. As soon as the lady with my bank balance book and her coffee came out of the back room, I slid the brochures off the counter, on her side. Oops! I called out, and reached over for them. But two had fallen all the way to the floor. I leaned over the counter, reaching for them, letting my arm block the stack of money from the ladys view.
    “Oh, that’s all right”, she chirped. “I’ll get them.” She hurriedly set her coffee down and bent down for the papers. As soon as I saw the back of her head, I snatched the money, and reached back, slipping it into Destiny’s purse. I felt her hands cover the money and I immediately put my hand back over the counter. The lady teller put my brochures back in my hand, and then she handed me the balance book.
    “Do you need me to show you how to use it?” she queried, indicating the balance book.
    “Well”, I said, trying to keep the shakes out of my voice, “we’ve got to catch the second out-bus. Maybe I can get my dad to show me.” Wow! I had lied without even trying.
    “All right then, young man. I hope to see you again.”
    We left as quickly as we could, maybe too fast, but no one followed us. Once on the bus, Destiny suddenly grabbed me in a bear hug. “Oooh, you’re great! We did it!” All this in an excited whisper. After looking around, she pulled the money halfway out of her purse. “How much do I get, Phil?”
    “You carried it out”, I said to her.
    “You took it, and told me what to do”, she pointed out to me.
    “Fifty-fifty, then”, I said, shrugging. “How much is there?”
    She looked at it, then shoved it back into her purse, zipping it up. “Let’s count it at your house.”
    “My house?” My eyebrows went up. “How are you getting home?”
    “Oh, I’ll walk.” She smiled at me. “We’ve got to keep the money at your house, anyway, you know. I can’t be bringing in that much money to my house! Either Norman would find it when he’s snooping, or my mom would find it when she’s cleaning. After we’ve split the money, youll have to keep my half at your house, and give it to me when I’m ready to spend it. That’s okay, isn’t it? Since you’re the only one living there?”
    I shrugged, and was content to ride home in excited silence, with Destiny’s hand on my knee and our traded looks of badly suppressed anticipation.

*

There were indeed 2,000 Colonial credits in those two bundles, and we counted every bill. I put my half in a small box, and taped it to the underside of my dad’s old dresser, behind the footboard.
    For Destiny’s half, we thought a while. I thought of all the places where I would look for money if I were burglarizing someone’s house: under the mattress, in the underwear drawer, under seat cushions on the sofa or chair, etc. Then I hit on a bright idea. I had a full loaf of bread in the refrigerator, which I hadn’t even opened yet. I took it out and carefully opened the seal, then poured the slices out on the counter, telling Destiny to wrap her money tightly in a plastic sandwich bag. While she did so, I gingerly tore a small hole in the very middle of about ten slices of bread, toward the middle of the loaf. Then I began replacing the bread into its plastic sack. When I got to the middle of the loaf, I stacked the ten slices with holes together on the counter, and placed Destinys jury-rigged moneybag in the cylindrical hole I had created, then put those slices back in the bag. When all of the bread was back in place, I replaced the seal; the loaf looked as if it had never been touched. All of the extra bread I put outside for the birds, then wiped the crumbs off the counter into the trash. I promised I would keep that loaf until it was too old to be inconspicuous, then I would replace it, using the same method of concealment. In more than seven years, our house had never been broken into, but I figured that even if the improbable happened, the burglar would never find that money, even if he or she stopped to have a sandwich or two.
    We promised each other that we would never tell anyone else about our theft, then I walked her home since it was getting dark. Just before we came in sight of her home, she stopped and kissed me lightly on the cheek. “I had fun, Philipp. Maybe we can do something like that again, sometime. Bye now.”
    And she trotted the rest of the way to her house, leaving me standing there in a daze.

*

That fall, I entered high school. The school year came and went; I saw little of Norman or Harry or Destiny, since I was wrapped up in schoolwork and chores. I saw Norman every now and then, if we had a class together, and occasionally I saw Destiny in the halls. She would always smile and wave, but she was a senior then, while I was only a freshman, so we never talked, except on the sixth day, when I would take an afternoon walk with her, or help her with her chores. Harry spent a lot of time on the other side of the planet, where a new city was going up even faster than Tarkin had, as new colonists poured in from the inner planets. He blushed over the phone when he told me that the new town was to be named Batesville, after himself.
    Harry told me that the older worlds were working together again, trying to come up with a new interplanetary government, that would once again pull all the known worlds together. Tuf, Turner’s Planet, Willsworld, Junxle, Aurora, Paradise, Maze, Leech, Mars II, Ibeen, Earth II, Brellow, Poois, Grink, Mouwor, and even Yurple were cooperating, for the first time in nearly a century. He said that the colony worlds would probably be flooded for a while. Fifteen thousand people landed at our new city in just one week, all looking for homes.

*

Shortly after the winter break, I turned 14, and the Desters invited me to their house for my party. Mrs. Dester had a cake waiting for me when I showed up that evening. Mr. Dester gave me a small video unit to install in my house. Norman gave me cc10, and Destiny gave me a new shirt to wear to school. Mrs. Dester remarked that I had grown quite a lot since last summer, and Mr. Dester said I had put on a lot of weight too, and he patted my shoulder firmly.
    It all made me feel very special and happy, and I went to the bathroom and cried for five minutes, wishing my parents were around to see how well I was doing. Then I thought I heard my dad’s voice: “We’re here, son, and were proud of you. Just remember everything I told you about life. You’ll be all right without us...” Destiny kissed me good-bye as I left for my house.
    I still thought of Destiny in my free time, wishing that she could be mine. I never told Norman, since I figured he would laugh at me. I didn’t tell my other friends at school, either. I knew what they would say. And, I thought, they were probably right. There was no way a popular senior was going to go out with a freshman like me, even if I was a particularly grown up freshman.

*

A few weeks after my birthday party, Harry told me that Persiphone was going to have elections. There were now more than 250,000 people on the planet, and that was the minimum required by the Commission to set up a planetary government. I had read somewhere that my hometown of Otok, Tuf, had more than ten times that amount in one city! From then until the summer break, everyone was talking about the elections; even our math teacher broke his routine and discussed government for two or three days.
    We weren’t going to be minions of the Colonial Commission anymore. We were going to be a regular planet. One of my teachers said that it would probably be a long, long time before we were heavily settled, like the Old Worlds, but we would have equal status with them in any galactic government that was set up.
    I had read an old science fiction book during the summer, in which the Federation government didn’t like to let colony worlds achieve full status. In the story — written in the 20th century — the government bled each colony for all it was worth, until the colonists rebelled and set up their own governments. I had also learned in history that things like that had happened back on Terra, when they were still colonizing continents.
    The Colonial Commission didn’t work that way. For one thing, there were too many new planets opening up, farther out, and each planet meant a lot of work. For another thing, their big profits came from their ships, not from their planets. They could still make that profit after a colony achieved full planetary status. The Commission charged each colonist a basic fee, for transporting them to the colony, and for shipping their property, even if the planet had already elected its own government. They required each colonist to buy a substantial insurance policy for each child, in case of death or inability to provide. They made a lot of money buying produce cheaply from homesteaders and reselling it at a good profit. Usually, on a colony world, the first stores that opened were run by the Commission, and brought in huge profits. But once the society on the planet reached a certain level, these Company stores closed — colonists had a way of opening their own stores, at their own prices.
    So, it actually profited the Commission to run each planet for as short a time as possible then let it go. And that’s what they were getting ready to do with Persiphone. They had determined that the economy there was stable enough and growing fast enough to keep itself going without help. The population was large enough to continue with a relatively clean gene pool, should interplanetary travel be cut off for some reason. The Commission was going to help set up a fair election, and then they were going to get out.

*

Sometime during all the election talk, Destiny turned seventeen, and she invited me to her party. One of Destiny’s senior friends held the party at her house, since her parents were on the other side of the planet, campaigning for office. There were maybe seventy-five seniors at the party, and two dozen underclassmen. I felt out of place until Destiny sat on my lap and handed me a beer. She stayed there a while.
    After about an hour, and a few drinks, I loosened up and began to enjoy myself. The music was loud, the other kids were having fun, and soon most people forgot that we were in different grades and social groups.
    Since the party was being held for Destiny, many of the kids there vied for her attention constantly, and I didn’t get to talk to her much. I did, however, make a few new friends from the senior class.
    Later, though, Destiny remembered that I was there. In a way that I’ll never forget. I know she had gone on dates with a few of her male friends in her senior class, but I’m pretty sure that she never got as close to them as she did to me that night. I’m convinced that the alcohol helped a little, but suddenly we were kissing in the hallway. She dragged me into an empty bedroom, and started pulling my clothes off. At first, I was too nervous to be aroused, but when she started removing her own clothes, I didn’t have any problems.
    It was my first party, my first drink, and my first sexual experience, all in one night. After Destiny and I had put some of our clothes back on, we sat there, holding each other in the semi-darkness of the bedroom. My mind was still reeling, and I could smell her. I didn’t want to think of anything else for the rest of my life. I wanted to marry her, build our own farm on an empty planet, raise beautiful children, and stay near her all the time.
    Her mouth was near my ear and I could feel her breath in my hair. She said softly, “I want to rob another bank, Philipp. And I want you to come with me.”
    I turned slowly, until our eyes met. I looked deep into the translucent pools of her irises, and felt and smelled her body next to mine. We kissed for a little while, until I sensed that she wasn’t really into kissing anymore. I broke away, and asked, “You mean right now?”
    She nodded, and I could see the excitement building in her face. “How, Destiny? At night, the money’s all locked in the safe and the doors are locked.” I didn’t question the morality of it all; only the logistics, and the fact that it would make her happy.
    “I’ve got an idea.” She whispered her plan to me, and then we put the rest of our clothes on and returned to the party. It was ending, anyway — several people had left while we were in the bedroom, and others were passed out on the furniture and floor. She said good-bye to all her friends, and we left, heading in the direction of her house.
    As soon as we were out of sight of the other partygoers, we doubled back, and I grabbed a length of pipe out of the hostess’ barn. An hour later, in the very early hours of the morning, we were in an alley beside a bank in Tarkin that I had never seen before.
    I peeked around the corner, and saw the night watchman, just inside the door. He was reading a book, sitting at his desk. “Okay, I said, your plan had better work.” We walked into sight. Destiny was holding the pipe behind her and my arm was around her shoulders; we were wobbling just a little bit, partly from the alcohol we had consumed, and partly because of our plan.
    As we drew adjacent to the front door of the bank, we stopped, and I pointed at the night watchman, saying loudly, “Maybe he can help us.” The street was empty, except for the car parked at the corner — probably the guard’s car.
    The man looked up. I could tell he wasn’t a colonist, not in the real sense of the word.
    He hadn’t come to Persiphone to farm or to build a new life for himself. He was here as a chattel of some intergalactic banking corporation, hoping to draw higher pay or buck for a promotion on a new world. He also didn’t look happy about his new shift. But he did seem a little relieved to see us; maybe his book wasn’t too exciting. Maybe his life wasn’t too exciting. That was all about to change. He came to the heavy glass door, raising his eyebrows. “Can I help you kids with something?”
    I acted as if I couldn’t quite hear him, made him repeat his question, and then raised my voice. “Yessir. I’m trying to find a phone, so I can call a cab. I need to get my girl home, before her dad beats me to a pulp.” Destiny looked at her watch then at me, with a worried look on her face.
    “Just go down one more block”, he pointed, “and there’s a public phone outside that pharmacy.”
    I looked at Destiny, then back at him, confused. “What? I can’t hear you man. This door’s too thick.”
    He shrugged, and pulled a ring of keys from his belt. The guard looked both ways down the street, and finding it empty of a threat, he unlocked the door, and opened it. While he was looking down to pull the key out of the lock, I took the pipe from Destinys hands, and swung. CRACK! He went down, dropping his keys.
    Like a flash, I swung the door open, and dragged him inside. Destiny followed us, and pulled his sidearm from his holster. I re-locked the door, and pulled the semi-conscious guard back to his desk. Then I traded the pipe for the gun. Destiny looked funny wielding that length of pipe, and I’m sure I looked equally harmless holding that big gun, but we were inside. Desperately, I looked at the gun; it was old, the kind with bullets. I found what I thought was the safety, and pushed the switch. The magazine fell out, clattering to the floor. We both jumped. I picked the clip up, and examined it. Fifteen bullets! I popped it back in to the handle of the gun, and pulled the slide back, like I had seen bad guys do on old movies. As I did so, I saw one of the bullets slide into the firing chamber. I flipped another switch, and a red dot appeared behind it. That had to be the safety.
    The guard was coming to, and rubbing his head. I pointed the gun at his chest. “Don’t try anything funny, mister”, I said, in my best gangster voice.
    “It’s too late for that”, he replied. “I’ve already opened the door for you. Wasn’t that funny enough?”
    “Shut up”, Destiny added, raising the pipe a little. Then she put the pipe down, and pulled a roll of packing tape from her purse, smiling. “This wont hurt a bit... Hey! Keep your foot away from that!”
    I saw his foot sliding toward a button on the floor. “I would listen to her if I were you, mister”, I said. Then I motioned with the gun. “Stick your hands out, and put your wrists together.”
    Minutes later, he was keying the vidphone, with me standing beside him, out of range of the camera pickup, holding the gun pointed at his face. Destiny stood to his other side, also out of range of the pickup, holding the pipe again. With his wrists taped tightly together, he hit the send key on the phone.
    After two rings, a sleepy male face appeared on the screen. It was, I hoped, the manager of the bank.
    “What do want, Schiller?” he growled, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.
    The guard looked down at the slip of paper we had placed on the desk for him to read. “Uh, Mister Sanders, I’ve got a problem.”
    “Handle it, Schiller”, Sanders said, and reached for the cutoff switch.
    “Wait!” The guard looked worried, and a little sheepish. “Mr. Sanders, I know it’s late, but I need you to come up here for a few minutes. You know I wouldn’t be calling if really didn’t need you.” He paused, and I shook the gun menacingly (I thought). “I, uh, you see, it’s not a security issue, sir. It’s a bank issue, and I’d rather not discuss it over the phone. But I think you’d better get it cleared up before morning, sir.”
    Mr. Sanders sighed heavily. “Okay. I guess I asked for it, bucking for this promotion. Be there in a few.” He cut off.
    I was starting to feel very relieved. First, Destiny and I had had no way of knowing that there would be a night watchman on duty — not for sure, anyway. If we had not found Schiller there, our plan was to break the glass door with the pipe. We would have waited for a security car or a tired, third-shift police officer to show up to check out the alarm. Second, we had been counting on Schiller to read his script as written. If he had tried to play the hero and tip off his boss, we would have had a problem. I don’t know what we would have done then. When I had asked Destiny about that, back at the party, shed just shrugged, saying he would do as we said. I hadn’t been sure, until Schiller read the script and the call went as planned.

*

I breathed a sigh of relief.
    I looked down the sights of the guard’s gun, making sure his chest was behind the tiny white dot at the end of the barrel. The white dot was glowing slightly in the dim light of the closed bank. I was standing to one side of the front door, with my back to the wall. Destiny was on the other side of the door. Schiller sat on his stool behind the desk, his wrists taped together, and his arms taped to his sides. Tape ran around his waist, pinning him to the stool. Not one bit of the tape showed above the ledge of his desk.
    His eyebrows raised and I heard a key working the lock. As soon as Sanders stepped inside, Schiller opened his mouth to warn him, but Destiny was already swinging. The pipe connected with the back of Sanders’ neck, and he went down. I kept the gun pointed at the guard while Destiny locked the door again.
    Then I gave her the gun, and she pointed it at Schiller while I taped up Sanders, and dragged him away from the door. Then I taped Schiller’s mouth, and Destiny helped me drag his stool away from the desk and off to the side, where he couldn’t shake himself free and hit the alarm.
    When Sanders came to, he tried to swear for a second, until he realized that his mouth was taped shut.
    “Shut up”, I growled, pressing the barrel of the Schiller’s gun against his temple. My finger shook on the trigger. He shut up. “Now listen to me, Sanders. When I rip that tape off your mouth, you’re going to give me the combination to that safe, or I’m going to place the other side of your head all over the floor. Then I’m going to do the same thing with your rent-a-cop over there. And some poor teller in the morning is going to have to mop the whole mess up. You understand me?”
    He nodded, meekly.
    “And you’re not going to say anything else, okay?”
    He nodded again.
    I pressed the gun harder into his head, and Destiny hefted the pipe, looking even more beautiful than usual. “I’m going to back away from you after I take the tape off. Then you’re going to give me the combination. Now.”
    I peeled the tape off, slowly. I figured we had hurt the poor guy enough, not to mention his damaged pride. Then the poor guy actually told me how to open the safe. I guess he thought I would go over and do it myself, leaving him free to wriggle away. Instead, I stayed where I was, and Destiny went to the vault door, and punched in the first two numbers.
    “Wait!” I said. “Hold on, girl.” I looked at Sanders. “If any kind of alarm goes off, you’re still going to get it, right? Did you give her the right combination?”
    He nodded, his whole body shaking. “I promise. Nothing will go off. Just let me live. I’ve got a wife and a son at home. I just wanna live, man.” I could see the wet spot on his pants.
    “Go ahead, darling.” We had agreed not to use our names, so it would be harder to identify us. There were thousands of boys matching my description in Tarkin, and maybe two or three hundred that would be mistaken for Destiny in a line-up. But no names, please.
    She hit the final number, and there was a hiss as the door swung outward, heavily. “Wipe off your prints, Sandy”, I said, picking the first name that came to the top of my head.
    “Sure thing, Karl”, she answered, winking. She used her blouse to wipe off the keypad on the vault door, then stepped inside the vault. Quickly she stepped back out and said to me, “Let’s take care of these two, first.”
    I saw Sanders’ eyes widen fearfully. “Get over by the rent-a-cop”, I ordered. He struggled to his taped feet, and hopped clumsily over to Schiller, who looked just as worried, and was mumbling something through the tape.
    Sanders said, “I thought you weren’t going to kill us.”
    “I’m not. Now, stand with your backs together.” They complied. Then Destiny ran the rest of her tape around both of them, one sitting in the stool, and the other standing behind it.
    She was thorough, going all the way from their ankles up to their necks. The last stretch of tape went around Sanders’ mouth, silencing him again.
    Then she dropped the empty spool back into her purse, and we ran into the vault. Inside, on a shelf by the door, we found several large bags. We used these bags, filling as many as we could with the largest denomination bills we could find. Then halfway through, we changed our minds and started grabbing fives and tens, and twenties.
    When we had six bags full, I decided that would be enough, and we got out of there, leaving the vault door open. On the way out, I snagged another empty bag. While Destiny waited, I used the empty bag to wipe the shelves we had emptied, just in case, deciding on the spot that if I ever did this again, I would wear gloves. Then I wiped off the pen I had used to scrawl Schiller’s script for the phone call. I opened the front door, then wiped off the keys, leaving them behind the guard’s desk. I wiped off the pipe, and left it behind the guard’s desk, since we couldn’t carry it. Last of all, I emptied Schiller’s clip, putting all the bullets in my pocket. I cleared the chamber, and put that bullet in my pocket too. Then I wiped off the gun and the clip, setting them beside the phone.
    With a final glance at our two taped prisoners, I grabbed two bags in each hand, and peeked out the door, ready to go.
    “Wait.” I looked at Destiny, wondering what she wanted. “The stool. We touched the stool.”
    I saw Sanders roll his eyes, and Schiller sighed. Apparently, he had been counting on those prints. Hurriedly, I rushed over, and wiped every part of that stool, then we left, careful not to touch the door with our hands.
    To throw them off track, we headed up the street toward the center of town, the opposite direction from our homes. Later, we doubled back behind the building, me carrying two bags in each hand, and Destiny carrying the last two.
    After winding our way through back streets, and sprinting across empty thoroughfares, we finally made it to the open fields of the farmland. Only two cars came near as we made our way to my house and both times, we dove into the nearest ditch, hiding until the cars had passed.
    It was four in the morning when we finally plopped down on my sofa. That’s when I started shaking. Suddenly I was wrapped up in the womanly warmness that Destiny was developing quickly, and she was kissing me all over. We held each other for a long time.

*

I woke up with the morning sun hitting me in the face. The first thing I realized was that I had slept on the couch. Then I realized that The Only Girl For Me was laying with me, our arms around each other. It was after that when I saw the six bulging bags of money piled across my living room floor. So that’s why my shoulders and arms are so sore, I thought. I must have moved, because She woke up then. Then her lips were on mine, and my pants were coming off. I wasn’t ready for her blooming libido in those years, but it sure didn’t bother me a whole lot.
    After I cooked her breakfast, she said she had to get home, since she’d told her dad she’d be home first thing in the morning. “But don’t count it without me, Phil. Please?”
    “I’ll wait.” We kissed, and she skipped out the door, heading home.

*

It was Monday afternoon before we had a chance to count it, since we both had a lot of chores and homework to do on Saturday, and on Sunday she had to go to church. I went to church with her, and sat on the other side of her dad. I didn’t move for a full hour and a half, except when we were asked to stand up or sit down. The preacher hollered a lot about how mankind was perverting the plan of god, and how every man, woman, and child would be destroyed in a nuclear fire unless we repented and paid a lot of money to the church, and were nice to every one.
    I didn’t know what repent meant, but I figured I was nice to most everybody, even Schiller and Sanders. A lot of people get shot during bank robberies, so I guessed that I had let them off pretty easy. And I figured I could afford to give some money to the Church, now that I had so much, and if it would keep me from such a horrible end.

*

What? I can’t believe you, Phil. You mean you actually believe all that garbage?” Destiny’s gorgeous eyes widened in disbelief.
    “Well, don’t you?” I was unsure of myself, then. Sitting on my couch again, with a wad of money in my hand, I had been trying to impress her with my newfound knowledge of god.
    “Of course not.” She laid a stack of ccl00 notes down beside her. “Well, I mean, I don’t believe that God would send us all to Hell, or anything. But I believe in God. I mean, someone had to build all of these planets...” She waved her arm around, as if indicating the whole universe. “I know that in school they keep saying that it all just happened. But how could all these beautiful things just come into being? And how could we humans be self-aware, and intelligent, and able to appreciate all the beauty? And the Trayaks, the Grangers, the Strangers, the Kelvods, and any other intelligent races that may be out there; did they just happen?”
    I shrugged. “I guess not. But if God made all of everything, then why couldn’t He choose to send us anywhere He wants, if we don’t do just like He says?”
    She laughed knowledgeably, then answered. “Philipp, I can’t imagine a being that’s powerful enough to make all of these planets. But logic tells me He’s real. And if He is that powerful, but still made everything beautiful, and made all the races able to communicate and get along, and if he created sex—” she winked at me and giggled “—then why would He also be so mean as to want to destroy us after it’s all over?”
    “I think maybe there are some people who deserve to burn in Hell,” I said, not meeting her eyes. “Like maybe men who get drunk and beat their wives and their children, or murderers, or rapists...”
    She got serious then. “You know, Phil, my church teaches that sex outside of marriage can send you to hell too. And drinking. And robbing banks. And hitting people on the head with metal pipes. So do you think we’re going to hell, too?”
    Thats when I smiled. “Maybe you’re right, girl. But I’ll still need to look into it, just in case. How much money do we have here?”
    It took us three hours to count the money; it would have been three times that long, but most of it had been bundled. We took a break to eat supper, then continued counting. Our first take — in broad daylight — had netted cc2,000. This time, in the dead of night, we had come up with — I couldn't believe it! — over two million Colonial Credits!
    We celebrating by doing what she later told her father was homework. Then she asked me if I had seen the paper.
    She pulled an article out of her purse:


I handed the slip of paper back to Destiny. She was smiling. “You see, Phil! They got our ages wrong, they got my eye color wrong, you’re not near that much taller than me, and not quite that heavy. They actually believed that nonsense about our names. And they think we’re professionals from the old worlds. They’ll never get us.”
    She hugged me excitedly, and I returned it; then suddenly I had a dark thought. I pulled away. “Destiny”, I said soberly, “you know we can’t spend this much money on Persiphone; people would talk...”
    “I know”, she replied, her face darkening along with mine. Then she brightened, “But all the colony worlds use Colonial credits! And at the ports on most of the Old Planets, they have banks that will cash in the credits for newdollars, at a slight loss of value. Besides, we’re not going to be a colony world much longer, from the looks of it; and we’ll start using newdollars here too, unless Persiphone starts printing her own money...”
    “So we just hang onto it until we’re old enough to leave?”
    “I guess so, Phil, but it was fun, wasn’t it?” Her face was close to mine.

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