Snow Globes and Hand Grenades by Kevin Killeen

He was getting his breath back and told her a little about the holdup. “Same thing happened to me at Bull Shoals,” he said. “You have to keep the line tight, or it might break.”
    Patrick and Tony got dressed, ran back to the bridge, ditched the masks and gloves there, and sped through yards like Dillinger after a bank heist to get back before recess was over. When they arrived in the gap of the back playground fence, their classmates were lining up to go up the gym steps for graduation rehearsal. They ran up last in line, wiped sweat from their faces with their uniform ties, and climbed the steps into the gymnasium.
    â€œWhat do you think Mimi will say?” Tony whispered.
    â€œI don’t know, but whatever she says, I’m not going back again tomorrow.”

CHAPTER 16
    THAT NIGHT AT DINNER, Mimi sat in her place next to her dad. She was wearing shorts with knee high socks, and the second fake letter from Holy Footsteps Academy—the letter saying they were looking forward to her coming—was tucked neatly out of view inside her right sock. It was licked shut inside a stamped official school envelope addressed to her parents. To make the postage stamp look canceled, Mimi had drawn squiggly lines across it with a blue ink pen.
    Mimi’s mind was racing, because her mother had told her about the mailman being robbed—but somehow their mail got through. Somewhere in the house that first fake letter was lying around. Mimi knew her mom hadn’t read it or she would have said something. So Mimi had scoured the first floor looking for it—under the couch pillows, in the desk, on the mantle, in the den—but couldn’t find it. Now she and her dad were at the dinner table alone waiting for everyone else. Mimi’s sister was playing scales, up and down, on and on. The only good thing was no one had noticed the missing hand grenade.
    â€œMimi, have you seen the mail?” her dad asked.
    â€œWhy, no. I haven’t. Have you?”
    â€œNo, but I’m expecting an important letter from the office and your mother just told me there was some kind of hooliganism with the mailman.”
    â€œTime for dinner,” Mimi’s mom called as she emerged from the kitchen.She was holding a supper dish and stood at the end of the dining room table. “Come on, guys, time for dinner.”
    Mimi heard her brother switch off the TV, and her sister stop playing scales. But Mimi didn’t see her sister put away her scale book and close the lid on the piano because if she had, she’d have known exactly where the missing mail was. When Mimi’s sister had come home from school, she’d flipped up the piano lid to practice, obscuring the mail from view. Now that she’d stopped for dinner, the mail that had been hidden from view flopped into sight and the letter from Holy Footsteps Academy fell on the rug. She picked it up and tossed it back on the piano with the rest of the mail.
    Mimi’s sister and brother came in and they all sat down. “Hurry up, let’s eat,” Mimi’s dad said. “Smells like your mother’s made a us another wonderful dinner.” He looked across the table at her with respect. “I don’t know how you do it.”
    â€œOh, it’s nothing,” she said with a smile.
    â€œIt’s not nothing, darling. It’s like you run your own successful corporation right here.”
    Mimi’s mom blushed at the compliment and set down the apricot chicken casserole with white rice. For sides, there were green beans and fresh baked crescent rolls. It was quiet, like a golf tournament, as Mimi’s mom looked at her dad to signal him to say grace.
    â€œIn the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,” he said. Everyone made the sign of the cross while looking down at their plates bright with dishwasher shine. “Bless us oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy