The boy took a few halting steps towards the vender, his gait was awkward, with his arms held stiff and close to his body, and his knees hardly bent during his timid steps forward. This could be it – the moment of triumph – or it could all go wrong and be the beginning of even longer nights, and even darker days. If the boy was caught here there would be no sympathy – thieves deserved none. He was too young to pay off his time with physical labor, so the boy would be thrown into some rank cell to rot. But at least they don’t chop off the hands of thieving minors, as they would do if he were older.

The boy gave his head a forceful shake, trying to dispel his nervousness. It wasn’t as if he had much of a choice, steal or starve. Besides, even prisoners were fed, if only irregularly. Conjuring courage, that fringed upon desperation, the boy started back towards the stall. At each step his heartbeat seemed to quicken, and rivulets of sweat ran down his face, cleaning away layers of dirt as they fell. Then with nervousness still rampant within him, the boy reached the stall.

The boy stared down, slack-mouthed, at the stall. Each slightly bruised fruit and dirt-covered vegetable seemed to be gilded with gold. He stood there for a second, at a loss for what to do. Was it really going to be that simple?  Would he just have to reach out and take the food? Was the hunger that had beseeched him for weeks this easy to defeat?

Glancing around, the boy checked to see if he was being watched. He saw no one. Then he simply reached out and grabbed an armful of the food. The boy shoved apples and carrots and other poor man-delicacies into the crooks of his elbows, trying to carry as much as possible. When he could hold no more the boy made his exit, quickly stepping out of the crowd and into a small darkened alleyway. The boy’s mouth broke into a rare smile. It was done. With the food the boy could survive the week, and with stealing he could survive for years.

The only problem was that the boy really hadn’t done it. He didn’t see, and didn’t know, that someone had been watching.