A scribble I did back in April just for topical fun.
Lockdown.
by Angharad.

The covid-19 virus had been running amok for nearly a month. If you watched the news every night then it could really depress you, the numbers of cases were growing exponentially and the numbers of deaths were also rising by too great a margin. Over 4,000 in the UK alone, Italy, Spain, China and the US were worse and all of them had taken too long to react to close down the country because each government had acted with more thought on the economics than the human cost, because this is how government thinks. Money is far more valuable than human life--unless it's one their family. Anyone who thinks differently will be disappointed in their government.

The approaches of different nations also varied. Some of the British whipped round supermarkets buying huge quantities of food, possibly just as a panic or perhaps an eye to the long term and the black market. In the US, they queued outside gun shops. Obviously, Americans have better eyesight than Brits because they were going to shoot the virus, an M16 should kill it pretty dead. Well, why else would they want to buy a gun?

Gary Sutton had his hands full with his six year old twin daughters and a self isolating wife, to notice that his twelve year old son, Arthur, was missing. Arthur's best friend and partner in crime was Ollie Boswell who lived in the next street. So as soon as the coast was clear they met behind his garage, which was hidden from most possible vantage points.

It was now eight o clock and would soon be dark enough for them to continue their recent crime wave. Both boys were quite clever and had realised that certain types of double glazing opened after a quick sharp press against the lock. Try enough windows and one or two would open then you could gain entry, and assuming no one was at home, do or take what you liked. Usually they only took cash and tried not to leave any mess.

This night they discovered their plan was flawed. If a house had no lights on or noises from TV or other electronic device they assumed it was empty. However, if you have a sleeping woman martial arts expert, who had just finished a double shift at the local hospice, then the house is very much occupied but may show no lights, no car on the drive or any other way to gauge it.

Ollie soon found one of the weak windows and five minutes later was helping his mate through it. Unaware, Annie Perks, the owner slept upstairs while the boys wandered about in her downstairs rooms, using very fine pen torches to see where they were in the rooms.

They soon saw her purse and helped themselves to half the notes in it, about forty pounds--not a bad night's work for the two juvenile burglars. Their goal was originally to each buy the latest X-Box but the thieving became more fun than playing computer games, where the biggest dangers were boredom or eyestrain.

"Wow, checkout the size of this screen, " said Arthur in Annie's lounge where he discovered a rather large screened television which had all the up to date gizmos and gadgets.

"Oh wow," agreed Ollie and turned it on.

"What're you doing?" asked his friend trying to grab the remote control.

"Relax, there's no one home at the moment, let's just give it a try."

Unfortunately for them, the loud music it produced before Ollie could mute it, woke Annie who having come from deep sleep wondered what day it was. She could hear hushed voices but assumed she'd somehow left the telly on. As she sat up in the bed trying to clear her head, she realised that she had company. Instead of frightening her as it would some women, she just saw red. Uninvited guests, presumably with malice aforethought would get short shrift from her.

The boys continued to channel hop and watch bits of different shows as Annie crept down the stairs and planned how to neutralise the threat to her property. So involved in watching the screen the boys didn't realise she was there until she switched on the lights, tripped one as he tried to run and grabbed the other as he got to the window.

It became very obvious in a less than a minute or two, that the woman was very much in charge and the boys were nabbed. They were scared, ashamed and felt rather stupid. Their perfect plan had let them down, all because Ollie had wanted to watch the stupid telly was a thought forming in Arthur's mind. They could have taken the money and moved on, possibly found another sucker. Now they were in deep doo-doo.

Calming down, Annie, made the boys kneel on the floor with their hands on their heads partly because she was still annoyed and knew that it was a very uncomfortable pose and she wanted to punish them.

So frightened and surprised were the two juveniles that they told her about their activities and she grew angrier. If she called the police they'd just tell them off and let them go and possibly caution her for illegal detention of two juveniles. If she made them send for their parents, they'd get similar as if from the police. She needed to punish them in a way they'd not forget in a hurry and yet would do no long term harm. Then she had a plan.

An hour later, after a very reluctant phone call to their parents, two irritated fathers rang on her doorbell. She invited them in still maintaining social distancing.

"What's going on?" asked Gary, "Where's Arthur?" Ollie's dad simply stood and listened. Annie explained how she'd caught them in her lounge making free with her television. She also reported that they had stolen money from her purse and had apparently been on a nightly crime spree. Both dads felt ashamed and angry with things of a draconian nature being muttered.

"Oh, I've already punished them."

Each father looked at the other unsure of what they thought about she was claiming.

"Don't worry, they aren't hurt - except perhaps for a bit of teenage hubris. Come down girls." she called up the stairs and two bodies each dressed in a majorette costume, with garish makeup and nails, stumbled into the room. Their fathers were astonished and then burst out laughing.

"My nieces were majorettes and I discovered their costumes the other day. I had put them in the charity bag when I decided they could be used one last time. Take a curtsey girls, they did each other's make up and nails."

The fathers weren't quite sure what to think or say, but somehow giving them a kick in their egos may be just what they needed to break them of their newfound activities which if they continued would sooner or later have an encounter with the law, which neither wanted for their sons
.
"Have you brought the car, Dad?" Arthur pleaded of his father.

"No, we're walking home," said Gary much to Annie's approval.

"I can't go home like this?"

"Wanna bet, son, and if you don't shut up I'll walk you back tomorrow to apologise to this lady.

"I feel sick," gasped Ollie and dashed out to the cloakroom.

Both boys took ages to live down their appearances that night, especially as both fathers took photos on their phones for reinforcement if they even breathed out of line for the next six months.

The sisters of our hardened criminals had the most fun teasing the boys who spent some time in purgatory as a consequence, but a few months later, things had gone back to normal with the exception of the two boys' behaviour, their dads only had to meet with the slightest dissent and reached for their phones and the boys suddenly became compliant, very compliant but it showed they were capable of learning new and better behaviours and perhaps something more important, the frisson of excitement of visiting other peoples' homes had been lost before it got them into real trouble and criminal records.