Birthday

"My wallet! Someone's stolen my wallet!"

The shout comes from somewhere behind you—that's all you know. The crowd around you murmurs sympathetically, but it's too packed for you to see who cried out. Not much you can do to help that poor fellow, you think as you reach into your coat pocket absently—yes, your own wallet is still safe and sound, free from the questing fingers of any pickpocket.

The bright lights of the amusement park fill the night air with a lively glow. You stroll over to the queue for a roller-coaster, chewing on the last of your candy apple, and you've already forgotten the earlier incident when someone taps you on the shoulder and you're faced with a smiling Xero.

"Hey!" they say, holding something up.. "This is yours." It's a statement, not a question. You take a closer look and see—

"My wallet!" You exclaim, taking it from them. "I—I just had it!" Had you dropped it somehow?

"Ah, yeah, you did. When you heard someone behind you start yelling, did you?" They grin. "Oldest trick in the book. Everyone who hears about a stolen wallet is gonna check their own purses and pockets and bags...and if you're the pickpocket who sounded the alarm in the first place, all you have to do is sit back and watch and remember where people keep their money. I spotted a guy lifting this off you just a couple minutes after the commotion started. Then I saw you heading over to the good ol' Blue Thunder and I figured: I can't let someone with such good taste in roller-coasters go wallet-less."

"Oh...I see. How'd you get it back, then?"

The Xero smiles and takes a bite of their own snack—a sausage and rice cake skewer, with an alarmingly spicy glaze. "Aw, come on. You know the kind of pickpockets you get at a tourist trap like this? It's total amateur hour." They do not elaborate further.

As the two of you stand in line, you open your wallet and rifle through it quickly, although you feel a little self-conscious about doing it in front of them—but nope, everything is there, just where you left it. Maybe they are telling the truth. Oh, no, wait, they saw you doing it. "Everything's there, honest!" They say, holding up their paws placatingly. "I fry bigger fish than little ol' you, I promise."

This is an odd enough statement that something about it sticks with you, despite their apparent friendliness. But the two of you keep making small talk about theme park food until it's your turn to go on the ride, and after a whirlwind of screaming intensity and three particularly nauseating loop-de-loops, you're hunched over a trash can regretting all of your earlier snacking. And the Xero has vanished into the crowd. It's the kind of mildly memorable encounter that you think about a few times afterwards, maybe bring up at parties, but that, at least for you, is that.