The Scheme

Sandra was staring at the book in front of her, longing for the peace that had been absent all day at work. She hoped that if she ignored Ted long enough that he would go away. She knew that there was no way she could be that lucky. Ted had never been the type to go away.

“I have this brilliant plan! It can’t fail, I swear. Not this time. I thought about this one really hard.”

She sighed, placing her book on the table, knowing that Ted wouldn’t leave unless she humoured him for a moment. “What scheme have you concocted this time?”

“Scheme sounds so evil. It’s a plan and it’s a good one. Are you going to help me or not?”

“I’m afraid I’ll agree to nothing until you tell me what scheme you have up your sleeve today,” Sandra told him, shooting him a glare. He couldn’t seem to get it through his head that these plans of his had stopped being cute and started to become annoying.

“All you have to do is use your employee discount when customers are paying, make them pay full cost, and keep the leftovers. No one will even notice,” he informed her with a grin, extremely proud of his criminal plot.

“That’s a crime. And you don’t need that kind of money.”

Ted looked baffled by this. “Of course I do. Everyone does.” He sighed and finally got to the point of his scheme. “I need money for the ice cream truck, mom.”

“Get a paper route.”

“But mom,” the eight-year-old whined. “Newspapers suck. I want to deliver chaos!”

Sandra tried not to grin. She didn’t want to encourage Ted and his absurd plots. “Deliver chaos somewhere else. Without crime, please. I’ll pay for ice cream today.”