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THE BIG CATCH

by Sagheer Bin Faiz
JIMMY was a mugger. You could call it his profess ion. A black boy raised tn the repressive neighbourhood of Harlem by an alcholtc father who was often violent, he had learnt one thing: money wasn t everything — it was the only thing.
And having never been taught the value of hard earned money as he grew up In a street habituated mostly by hardened criminals. he learned to make a living the easy way.
He was just 19 years old and already a master In his trade. As he sat on his haunches against a wall on the dark New York night, waiting for a victim hopefully loaded with cash to come his way. He stroked the glistening blade of his knife against his l.ither
glove. The job often required patience, though the patience was usually rewarding. Jimmy heard footfalls round the comer and stood up. ready for action. Just as the passerby rounded the corner, he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the wall, brandishing the weapon
"Your money or your life." he snarled.
He gave his victim a critical go-over. The man was tn casual wear, with a rucksack slung over one shoulder. Jimmy pulled it off his back.
Before he had time to ask the man what else he had. lie heard the all too familiar sound of a police siren and saw iIk-beam of headlights round the
corner. He ran off into the darkness along with the rucksack The police never even saw him.
Jimmy was tn his pigsty of an apartment, half an hour later. He sat on his bed. looking eagerly at the rucksack. He reminded himself not to get his hopes up to high: after all how much could that guy carry around In a rucksack anyway?
He went over to the fridge to get himself a can of beer and then came back to the ruck sack. He unzipped it and was forced to draw his breath. His jaw dropped and so did th-can of beer from his hand He couidn i believe his eyes, as he upturned the rucksack to let all of its contents fall on the bed.
Again, he sucked in his breath what had fallen out of the rucksack and now lay on his bed were 20 stacks of ten 50 dollar bills?
He never bothered to wonder what kind of fool would carry 10.000 dollars tn a ruck sa k at night, tn New York city
Ills mind was loo ubuss with so many possibilities, so many open doors. He couidn I get the prospect of a new apartment, possibly a penthouse. out of his mind. He would get a sportscar to go with It!
A whole new wardrobe to make him look like one of those posh Wall Street bookers would be nice too. He could run his own operation In something more profitable than mugging
He hardly slept that night He was afraid that if he fell asleep he'd wake up and find that this was all a dream. He simply lay on his bed looking out at the slum he lived in. holding the rucksack close to
He slept late the next day very late. He woke around six in the evening, and he switched on the TV out of habit.
The six o'clock news was on and Jimmy, the 19 year old mugger, received his second shock in barely 24 hours as he saw what he couldn't have pos slbly known
The face of the man on TV was that of the man he had mugged the night before The police had been on his tall and had arrested him late last night "Must've got him when I ran off." Jimmy thought as he stared at the screen In stunned disbelief The incrim tnatlng evidence that the man possessed had been stolen Um him. the newscaster said
The man was carrying • 10.000 in counterfeit cash.