“I know you won’t like this idea, but it will work if you follow my plan exactly. In the past you always targeted old ladies and soaked them for as much money as you could get, but you always were impatient and stole what you could including their car and always got caught. This time, they will happily hand you the money and think you did them a big favor so there is no way they will call the cops on you. Thanks to my aunt’s computer and laser printer I have printed out some items that will guarantee you a windfall of cash with no questions asked. First of all, I printed you a letter of credit drawn on The First State Bank showing a credit line of four and one half million dollars. It really looks authentic because I used my aunt’s notary stamp she uses in her part time realty business. I even got the name of the president and vice president of the bank and forged their signatures on expensive document letterhead. I printed you up a stack of business cards, with your name gold embossed which list you as senior vice president of a fake investment firm. You are going to go to one of those ballroom dance studios where all the rich old ladies hang out and find one that is dripping with expensive jewelry and get her off to the side and tell her she is the best dancer you have ever seen. You are then going to tell her privately that you are representing a company that is interested in opening a new dance studio and you need a spokesperson who is a wonderful dancer to be a charter member to represent how beneficial this new dance studio will be to new members. You will tell her that she will be driven around in a stretch limousine to all the charity events and other places where potential clients will be and she will be represented as Ms. Ballroom Dancer of the Year because of her unique talent. Once you got her thoroughly convinced she is the best dancer you have ever seen, you spring on her the fact that you need five thousand dollars for her charter membership fee. She will probably balk at this so you whip out a preprinted form that I have already made stating that her membership fee is fully refundable after she makes only six appearances representing the company. You will tell her that the company requires the money as good faith money so they don’t spend all the promotional money on someone who would fail to show up at the various events. You will reassure her that you know for a fact that she would never fail to show up, but the company you are representing has certain rules and you have to abide by them. I am sending you another two hundred dollars so that you can go to the Salvation Army and buy the most expensive suit you can find and shoes that will make you look like a wealthy business man. I want you to also arrive in a rented limo and take the balance of the money and turn it into one dollar bills with a twenty on each side of the stack so it looks like a wad of money. After you arrive in a limo and flash the money around, you will be a shoe in. If it doesn’t work on the first lady you approach, go to a different dance studio and try someone else. I guarantee you will find one in no time with a big enough ego that it can’t miss. I will be sending you the money this afternoon via Western Union so you can get started right away. Good luck even though I know you won’t need it.
Terry DeAngelo pushed the grocery cart slowly down the wide aisle of the super market scanning the many varieties of potato chips and other non-perishable snacks. She randomly picked items of the shelves that caught her attention and tossed them into the buggy. She wasn’t particularly hungry, she just wanted to stock up on road trip goodies so the long ride to Florida wasn’t totally boring. She hated going on trips. Especially trips that took over two hours. The only reason she could deal with this one was the money. It was always the money. She stayed broke most of her adult life and she hated it. Terry probably could have gotten a real job and maybe even put a little nest egg away, but that wasn’t her. She sponged off everyone. Her parents, her friends, her many boyfriends, anyone who had a sympathetic ear. She had a million excuses for not working. Her back was misaligned and hurt all the time. She was born with a defective digestive system and she had stomach cramps constantly. Migraine headaches were one of her most popular ailments. She could invent a new disease to a perfect stranger in about two seconds flat and sound completely believable. Terry was not destined to work.
Terry was pretty ecstatic when her cousin Stretch had called and offered her five thousand dollars for less than one hours work. The downside came when he told her they had to go to Florida to pull off the job. The money was great and what the hell, she had never been to Florida. She settled it in her mind that even with the long trip it would really be worth it. Stretch told her he would be picking her up in a really nice car and they would be stopping in Kentucky to see a friend of his and then head straight to Florida. It would probably do her good to get out of Indiana for awhile. She was really sick of Indianapolis. Stretch was due to pick her up the next morning and she wanted to get home from her shopping and take a nice hot bath and get to bed early so she was fresh as a daisy when he arrived at her door. Terry at thirty four had a well shaped body and a very cute face. She had thought of being a model in her early years but, it required getting up early and working long hours and she liked to sleep till noon and hang out by the pool at the apartment complex she had lived at when she was in her early twenties. She always had a constant flow of boyfriends and sugar daddies that kept her supplied with alcohol and drugs and always managed to supply her with rent and grocery money. Her life of leisure suited her just fine and she didn’t feel the need to have to go to work. Sure she had to sleep with a lot of men, young and middle-aged and sometimes older but, it kept her from the drudgeries of punching a time card. She stayed out late at night, hitting all the popular clubs, to keep her supply of men constant, so she felt the need to sleep in everyday. Now in her mid thirties her life style was getting old and she felt the need to do something different. This offer from Stretch came at just the right time. She could start a new life with the money and maybe actually get a real God forbid job. Things were going to be different after her trip to Florida and what the hell she might even stay in the sunshine state.
The honking of the horn woke Terry from a very deep sleep. She sat up and tried to remember where she was. Suddenly, she shook her head violently in realization and everything came into focus. Stretch, must be outside, she murmured to herself. “Shit, she shouted. “I overslept again.” She jumped nude off the bed (her usual sleeping garment) and ran quickly over to the front window and threw it open with a mighty shove.
“Hey Stretch!” she yelled out into the street. “I’m sorry. I must have overslept. You want to come in and have some coffee while I get ready?”