Quicksand Day!

Today, there's a guy named Martin, though everyone calls him Quicksand, and Martin robbed one liquor store three years ago. He has an okay job right now, driving Xerox parts back and forth between office buildings. He took about 400 dollars from the liquor store that night. And within two months he was earning more than 500 a week driving Xerox parts back and forth between office buildings.

He chose a liquor store three towns over. He cased it for months, getting every last detail of the store's routine down in his notepad. The gun was his grandfather's. It had been left to Martin in the will. Never registered. And he would do it on foot so no one could tie him to a license plate. Martin chose the Freemont Liquors because of its location just off a freeway. Martin robbed the place one minute before closing, stepped outside with the money, and ran up the hill to the freeway (very little traffic, as he'd expected). He walked home through the wooded median of the freeway. It took him seven hours.

After the success of the Freemont Liquors robbery, Martin believed he had begun a profitable life of crime. He chose his next target immediately, a convenience store with a lottery machine. He plotted some escape routes and possible timeframes. But Martin just couldn't muster the enthusiasm he needed in order to sit in surveillance for the weeks and weeks it would take to leave nothing to chance.

He was more enthusiastic about his new girlfriend, Joyce. Martin would sit in his car for a bit, watching people walk in empty handed and walk out with small parcels and lotto tickets. Taking down the numbers, noting the busy times. And he'd be thinking about when he'd see Joyce later and what movie she'd rented for them to watch. Eventually, he'd cut the stakeout short and drive over to Joyce's apartment, telling her that everything looked to be on schedule with the next robbery. A few weeks later, the job driving xerox parts back and forth between office buildings came along and Martin took it. The hours were more conducive to Joyce's schedule. Martin doesn't plan to commit any robberies in the future, but he does wonder how far he could have gone in that sort of life had he not given it up. Martin is still with Joyce today. They're very happy.

Happy Quicksand Day!