One night in a dingy old booth in a small-town diner, there's a low murmur of male conversation.

"Here's the deal: The girl gets kidnapped on her way home from school. She's taken to an undisclosed location in the country, maybe an abandoned house. The next morning, a call is made to 'Daddy Moneybags.' A ransom of five hundred thou is demanded or else."

"Sounds pretty good to me. When are you going to work out the details?"

"I'll get started on it first thing tonight while it's still fresh in my mind."

"Good idea. I can't wait."

Meanwhile, a young couple in the adjacent booth overhears the two men talking.

"Wow! Did you hear that Carla?" the young man whispers to his girlfriend.

"Hear what?"

"Something about Daddy Moneybags and five hundred thousand dollars."

"WHAT!"

"Shush... Keep your voice down. It sounds like those guys are planning to kidnap a girl and hold her for ransom."

"You can hear all that?"

"Yeah, most of it. They're right behind me."

"Who do you think they're talking about, Jack?"

"I don't know. Probably no one we would know anyway. I doubt there's anything we could do even if we did know who it was. Believe me, it's better we don't know any more about it."

"Don't turn around now, Jack, but they're leaving. They're going out the door. Now they're getting into a big black sedan parked right in front of the diner."

"Good. Let's forget about it and hope they don't come back looking for eavesdroppers like us. Did you get a good look at them?"

"One of them was about middle age, short, chubby, crewcut. The other guy was younger - maybe early thirties, thin, bearded, and long hair."

"Sounds like they hardly fit the description of kidnappers."

"And just what do you suppose kidnappers look like?"

"I don't know. Like mobsters, I guess."

"You watch too many old movies, Jack."

"Well, I wouldn't expect them to be a short, fat, old guy and a skinny, long-haired hippie."

"Oh crap!"

"What?"

"They're getting out of the car."

"Yeah, so?"

"They're coming back this way. They just came back into the restaurant."

"Alright. Just be cool. Eat your sandwich. Keep your head down. Act natural. And whatever you do, don't make eye contact."

"Okay, now you're making me nervous. The guy with the beard just looked right at me. Oh, Jack, I'm scared shitless!"

"Okay, okay, okay. Be coooool."

"He's coming this way. He's coming closer. What'll we do, Jack? What do we do?"

"Nothing. Relax. Shut up, and maybe they'll leave as quickly as they came in. Maybe they forgot something."

"Yeah. They forgot to kill us."

"Don't be crazy, Carla."

"Oh, now I'm the crazy one?"

"Alright, alright. Calm down. Let's not make a scene and draw attention."

"Wait. He's leaving a tip on the table. He's saying something to the fat guy."

              -  "That sounds like a pretty good idea for your Wattpad story for this week, Fred."

Story and Cover Illustration Copyright © 2021 by Michael DeFrancesco