A group of boys were pouring over the local paper, gasping as they read the article. ‘Local Boy Jailed For Armed Robbery.’
Reminiscing, the boys thought back to their school days. Owen had always been a chancer. Selling cigarettes to anyone behind the bike shed for tuppence for one, nicking them from his brothers’ hoard in the shed. He unscrewed the clasp on the door, bypassing the padlock put on after an unfortunate incident with some mushrooms.
Nothing was sacred. He nearly set fire to the school caretaker’s shed, again unscrewing the clasp to have a cigarette. Petrol cans in the corner smouldered from a discarded butt.
Then there was their trip to the zoo when he almost got away with a penguin. Nobody was allowed on another trip after that. The committee at the social club were up in arms that paying for it brought their club into disrepute.
When Owen’s brother disappeared everyone thought he would settle down, which he appeared to do until Mair, a wild child, moved to the village. Owen fell heavily in love for the first time. Flowers started going missing from the graveyard and local gardens. The finger pointed again to Owen as Mair always had a houseful. Catching on quickly, he changed. Now he would leave small trinkets on her doorstep stolen from nearby villages.
Charming as he was, Mair wouldn’t have anything to do with him. She was planning to wed a wealthy man who would keep her in furs and jewellery.
Heartbroken, Owen disappeared. Nothing was heard of him; that was a couple of years ago. Some rough looking hulks would turn up periodically at his parents’ doorstep demanding to know where he was, his parents pleading ignorance.
Now this shock in the papers. Who would have thought a chancer like Owen would go on to end up in prison for twenty years?
