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“… and the Three Bears lived happily ever after. The End.”
Nate looked up from the book to see three pairs of young eyes staring back at him, mildly confused.
“What?” he asked. The oldest child, a girl of eight by the name of Diamond (Diamond Ruby Hardison, to be exact), looked from Nate’s face, to her two younger brothers, and back to Nate.
“We’ve never ever heard that story, Uncle Nate.”
“You’ve never heard ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’?”
“Yes we have!” piped up the youngest boy, Carter. “But not like that.”
“Yeah,” continued seven-year-old Jack, “You must have read it wrong.”
Nate was beginning to understand. Of course Hardison (a security expert) and Parker (a thief) would editorialize on a story about three bears who had left their door unlocked and a thief. He imagined that the Bears would be judged for their lack of security and Goldilocks would be praised for her ingenuity, but he was curious to hear the children’s take on it. Leaning back in his chair, Nate questioned them.
“Well how do you think it goes?”
The children looked at each other. There seemed to be a kind of silent conversation going on, and finally, Diamond nodded. Without another look at Nate, the children scattered throughout the room, gathering different supplies.
Carter rifled through a toy bin in the corner, coming back to the bed with various costume pieces. Jack returned with two bowls tucked under an arm, then set these on the floor briefly while he disappeared under the bed. He emerged a moment later with another bowl and—to Nate’s mild alarm—what looked like a taser pistol. After a closer inspection, the pistol turned out to be a toy, so Nate let Carter keep it. Diamond was busy pulling a small table and some chairs in front of the window and arranging the curtains to look like a theater. Within five minutes the little group had put together a stage with set, props, and costumes; Nate was impressed.
(Then he remembered that his and Sophie’s little girl had conned herself three ice cream cones in the park one day before they found out about it and set her straight. Of course Parker and Hardison’s children would be resourceful)
Diamond stepped forward and cleared her throat, “This is the real,” she gave Nate a significant look, ”story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” Jack and Carter—both holding bowls and decked out in brown fuzzy jackets and bear ears—took places near the small table and nodded to Diamond. Once she received this signal, she began to narrate.
“Once upon a time there were three bears.” Diamond put a hand to the side of her mouth and whispered loudly to Nate, ”Just pretend there are three.” He nodded, and she continued.
“They lived in a nice house and had lots of food to eat.” The two bears sat down at the table with their bowls.
“They liked to have porridge in the morning, but it was usually too hot to eat right then.” Carter and Jack pantomimed eating and then stuck their tongues out and fanned them like they were burned.
“So the bears took walks in the woods to wait for the food to cool off.” The bears got up from the table and exited behind one of the curtains, then Diamond exited behind the other. A moment later Jack, who had removed his jacket and ears, stepped out and continued the narration.
“One day while the bears were out on their walk, a little girl named Goldilocks was close to the bears’ house, and she smelled the porridge.” Diamond, now wearing a pink, frilly princess dress and a blonde wig, came back onto the stage and sniffed long and loud.
“Now, Goldilocks was really hungry, so she followed the smell to the window of the bears’ house and saw the porridge on the table. Once she made sure there was no one around,” Goldilocks almost imperceptibly (though very effectively, Nate noticed) cased her surroundings, “she went to the door,” Goldilocks tip-toed around to the front of the stage, “and it was unlocked!” Goldilocks feigned surprise.
“Then she went into the house and made sure nobody else was there.” Nate smiled to himself as he saw Goldilocks do in miniature what he had seen Parker do countless times when casing a room during a heist. Crouching low and eyes darting here and there, she paced silently but quickly all the way around the table. Then she stopped and stood still, listening intently.
“When she was really, really sure that she was alone, and had made an exit strategy, Goldilocks sat down facing the door and ate the porridge.” Goldilocks did just that, eating quickly and glancing around herself the whole time.
“Then she heard someone outside! She stopped eating and got out quick.” Goldilocks clambered up onto the table and then executed an impressive tuck and roll towards the back of the stage through what Nate assumed was supposed to be a back window. She rolled immediately to her feet and disappeared behind the curtain.
The play went on. The bears came back to their house and were enraged to find their food stolen. Once they had stopped rampaging around the stage, they went about plotting how to catch the thief. The little bear stayed in the house, making sure no one came back, and the big bear went to get a security system, complete with motion detectors, keypad locks, regular locks, and even lasers.
The next day the bears made their porridge and announced loudly that they were going for their walk before disappearing behind their curtain. As soon as they had gone, Goldilocks poked her head out from her curtain and crept to the door warily. She tried to open the door but found it locked. Goldilocks looked around, and, to Nate’s amusement, drew a lock-picking set out of her sock. Then she knelt before the door and began to work. While she was busy picking the lock, the bears snuck up on her, and the bigger one growled, making Goldilocks fall over in shock.
“What are you doing, breaking into our house?” The Big Bear snarled.
Goldilocks trembled, “I’m sorry! It’s just, I was hungry, and you had so much food, I didn’t think you’d mind!” The bears’ faces softened immediately, and the younger one took a somewhat hesitant Goldilocks by the hand.
“If you wanted food, all you had to do was ask,” he lisped.
Goldilocks smiled. “Really? Thanks!” The other bear took Goldilocks’ other hand, and all three went behind the curtain. After a moment they all came out again and did a stage bow. Nate was about to clap, but then Carter stepped forward and said, “The moral of the story is, be generous, and then nobody has to steal. The end.” They all did another bow and this time Nate did clap. Before he had a chance to say anything though, the kids were busy putting the room back to the way it had been before the impromptu play.
Once they were all settled in their respective beds, Diamond looked Nate squarely in the eye and said, “That’s the real story, Uncle Nate. I don’t know where you heard that other crazy version, but it was wrong.”
“I suppose it must be,” Nate replied. “Did your Mom and Dad tell you that story?” Carter’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah! We like that one the best.”
Nate nodded. “And what about that part at the end, did they tell you that too?” Jack looked at him like he was crazy.
“Of course!”
Nate gave a non-committal “Hm,” and then finished tucking them in. He turned out the light and said goodnight, closing the door and walking down the hallway.
When he left Leverage Inc. and put Parker in charge, Nate had worried that she might start to be like him—only able to see the worst in people, always aware of weaknesses to exploit—but what he had seen tonight put some of those fears to rest. Heck, now he thought she was probably better cut out for it than he had ever been. Because if Parker could run the crew for more than twice as long as he had, if she could take down marks and help people for over ten years, and if at the end of all that she could still tell her children stories about kind bears and generosity and still make them believe that there was good in the world…
Nate knew she would be just fine.