Chapter nine
The next time I visited Alan, he was in a better mood. I had no idea why, maybe he had captured a criminal? But I was glad, because like that he wasn’t as quiet and grumpy as before. Quite the contrary, he even agreed as I suggested a game of twenty questions. I mean, it wasn’t easy to get him to talk, so something like that, where we could ask each other something in turns, one question at a time, was really a success. And of course, I inwardly hoped that it would help my goal of him starting to like me if he got to know me first.
So we sat in his living room, facing each other, in silence.
Great.
I motioned Alan to start, because I had no idea what to ask as I didn’t want him to snap at me again or something like that.
But of course, Alan didn’t care about small details like that as he chose his question.
“Why do you steal?”
I bit my lip as I thought how to answer. I had to be honest, as I had suggested the game and that was one of its rules, but the question itself wasn’t easy.
“Let’s say... it’s the fault of the society. Isn’t it always, though?”
Alan frowned. “Society? Why is that?”
I shook my head. “My question first. You write, right? So... what exactly do you write?” At least I had found an innocuous topic. I hoped. And I really was interested in it after I had seen him typing something the last time I visited him. It didn’t look like it was the most comfortable topic for him, but he still answered. “Mystery, mostly. Or detective stories. Experience certainly helps too, you know? And now tell me why you think it’s the fault of the society that you steal.”
“Fine, fine...”, I mumbled. Now, how to explain...? “Well, I’m sure you know how it is if you’re not exactly... liked by the people, don’t you? But the problem is... I’m not only disliked by society, believe me. No one would be able to tell you, since it has been a while that anyone saw me as myself, but I’m... different. And you know how humans react if there is something they don’t understand. So I guess, that’s the main reason for... how do you call it? ‘Drifting into criminality’? Or simply ‘stealing’.”
I suppressed a sigh. I really didn’t like talking about my reasons and so on, but I had to try and make him understand at least somehow, right?
“Whatever, it’s my turn again now. Do you have finished stories? Anything published?”
The policeman still looked in thought before he shook his head. “No. Well, I do have finished stories, but nothing published. I’m the only one who reads my stories anyway.” I furrowed my brows. Why was that? I was sure the stories couldn’t be that bad...
“But, what do you mean with ‘different’? You say people dislike things they don’t understand, but it can’t be that bad, can it?”, he continued and I laughed dryly.
“It can. I can’t really explain how I am different, it’s nothing you normally see when you meet me. It’s not my appearance or even my personality. It’s nothing I can change, it’s just who I am. But you know, the ‘Sapphire Phantom’ is pretty popular with everyone, even though he steals. And if you research a bit, he only steals from rich people witch dark secrets. You should keep that in mind.”, I explained, smiling slightly. It seemed to get Alan to think, which wasn’t bad. But I still wanted to ask my next question.
“Hey, can I read your stories?” But the answer came immediately.
“No!”
“Why not? I do know a little bit about literature and if no one else reads it anyway, what bad could it do?”
He looked to the side. “It’s... nothing for other people.”
“How would you know if no one else ever read it? Also, if you write, it’s stupid if you never let anyone read it. Come on...!”
A sigh. “You won’t give up, will you?” “Nope...!” “... Fine. Read it, but don’t say I haven’t warned you!” “Okay!”
After that little ‘quarrel’ our little game went on, with him trying to get more information about me, mostly about why I was stealing, what I was doing with the stuff and how I chose my targets. Of course, I didn’t give him all the details, but I tried to tell him most of the stuff. At least the one that I knew wouldn’t harm my chances of continuing to steal successfully. I myself on the other hand mostly asked about simple stuff, like favorites, hobbies and so on.
And everything went pretty well, with him warming up a little after a while, giving longer answers and so on. Maybe it was connected with the fact, that he and I surprisingly were quite similar in ways we both didn’t thought we ever could have been. (For example, we both loved music and even if his favorite was classical music while I adored rock, we could find certain positive facts each other’s style of music.)
But then, of course, he asked the one question we both knew I could not answer honestly without getting problems.
“Who are you really?”
I sighed. “Come on, did you have to ask that? You know that I can’t answer that without putting myself in danger, right?”
He stayed silent, waiting for an answer.
“Let’s put it like that: I’m just a more or less normal boy with a slightly dysfunctional family and a small criminal twist. And that’s about as detailed as I can get without having to watch out what I’m saying to not give you any information about my identity. Sorry about that, but you are a policeman and I quite like my freedom.”
He nodded slowly, though I wasn’t sure if that was an understanding nod or more something like ‘I’ll get you anyway’.
“So... can I ask you one last question?” I mean, I would’ve done it right away, but first I didn’t really give an appropriate answer to his question and second it was getting late and unlike me Alan had to get up pretty early.
“You just did, but go on anyway.”
I nodded before looking him straight in the eye, leaning a bit in his direction. It was my last question and probably the most important one. At least, it was for me.
“Say... do you still hate me?”
That seemed to surprise him, but he looked like he was honestly thinking about it so I stayed quiet until I got an answer.
“Um... I didn’t actually hate you to begin with. Dislike, yes, maybe even strong dislike, but not hate. And now... well, I guess you can be okay if you try to. But don’t think that this will hinder me while trying to catch you! You are still a thief and you will pay for your crimes!”
I smiled happily, relieved at the given answer and nodded. “Alright, I can live with that! And you know, I like you too!”
“Hey, I never said I particularly like you either!”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong, right?”
I grinned, suddenly in a very good mood. I wasn’t sure if he really liked me, but as he didn’t answer, I guess he felt at least something like that. And hey, one day I’d get him to admit it!
But for now it was really getting late, so I just ruffled his hair one more time - having come to like it even though he always got annoyed by it -before saying my goodbyes and leaving for home. Ah, I really could repeat stuff like that more often...!
