January 12 2020

I decide that the best course of action is a little bit of chaos. Charging my phone at three am was a risk I was going to take. When I left their house with all their keys tucked in my pocket, I thought it best to walk briskly. I could not put the heater underneath my jacket and though I would attract attention to myself, I had no choice. I sort of jog-walked the ten minutes. Alert, I didn’t let my mind wander too far but truly, how the fuck is everyone sleeping?

You’d be shocked to know that I left my front door key under my front step black kitty cat face place mat but I had. An exercise of trust. I did not want any keys jangling and I knew no one, not even myself, would look under the front mat for my key. Unless they did, but I felt secure placing the heater down for a moment, lifting it up, grabbing they key and unlocking it quickly. Safely inside, there was no safe inside, but we were all pretending and so was I.  I set the heater down next to the door, walked to the table, snatched the charger and proceed to re enter the night. I had an inch of a plan: start their car, charge my phone, return all keys and walk back. Tired? Maybe. I took my key this time. As I said, that was an exercise of trust. People get lucky twice, three times, multiple times but best to be smarter every time.
“When you start the car,” I began to myself, “be prepared to steal it.”
You cannot do these things if you are not prepared to run. As I turned the corner, I met the first stranger of the night.