"Good evening to you, Mr. McDonough," the coachman at the Lincoln Park Holiday Lane Tours Carriage Company told Blaine as he and Andie stepped aboard his carriage.

"Likewise, Charlie," Blaine told him. "How about a slow ride around the park?"

"As you wish," the coachman climbed on board and cracked his whip.

"I'm surprised as many people in this town know you that well," Andie told her boyfriend with amazement.

"Well, there are some advantages to being rich," Blaine said with ever the slightest smile.

"Not all that much though," Andie glanced at a Christmas display of several snowmen sliding down a hill of blue Christmas lights. "I'll bet a lot of the people you used to hang out with took Christmas for granted."

"And how!" Blaine exclaimed. "When I was eleven, I spend Christmas Eve at Ira Newborn's, remember him, and all he talked about all night was how much his folks had spent on him. I went to bed early that night so I wouldn't have to listen to him."

"Typical," Andie commented. "But why were you there and not at your own house?"

"My parents were at an all-night Christmas party in the city," Blaine explained.

"Nice parents," Andie muttered. "They'd have been good friends with my mother."

"Now I'm sure she wasn't that bad. After all, she."

".only failed to come to church when I acolyted on Christmas Eve at age nine even though I'd pleaded with her to come for days on end," Andie finished the sentence for him. "In fact, she didn't come home until four a.m., heavily intoxicated, and I could easily tell she'd been with another man. It took me three weeks to even start getting over that one. But did my father even notice? No, he kept telling himself over and over again that everything was all right, and he still keeps doing it today, three and a half years after she's gone."

"Don't you miss her at all?" Blaine asked with some concern.

"Every now and then, but I've put the past behind me long ago," Andie told him. She decided to change the subject. "So, are we still set with your folks Friday night? I've been wanting to meet them for some time now."

"Yeah, I suppose so," Blaine said, but there was a slight bit of apprehension in his tone that Andie picked up on. "Is something wrong?" she asked him.

"Well, Andie, you know how my family's the biggest supplier of electricity to the Tri-State area, and how we've been one of Chicago's biggest and most powerful families for almost a hundred years, and." Blaine started to say.

"And you're worried they won't accept me just because of my background?" Andie implored. "I thought we went over this a while ago? Let's not make who I am an issue here."

"I know, but I still can't stop thinking about what might happen if."

"Then don't think about it," Andie reassured him. "Just think to yourself, 'Nothing is going to keep me from the girl I love,' and here's a little help toward that." She planted a big kiss on his lips.

"Thanks. That'll go a long way," Blaine said with a smile.

"See that it does," Andie said. "I can't go for another long period of time without you."

"Now up, Shermer's Clark versus Oak Park's Breiner," the PA addresser announcer to the crowd in the Shermer High gym.

Andrew slowly got up off the bench. This was the big moment. In a few seconds he'd be going up against the best wrestler in the state of Illinois for the last three years running. This was for all the marbles. He started toward the mat. His father, an assistant coach with the program, cut him off first. "Well son, it's all up to you now," he said with a somewhat sickening expression of exhilaration. "You've got to pull through for us!"

"Yeah, pop, I know, I." Andrew started to say, tired of his father constantly saying these things before EVERY match, but the man wasn't finished just yet. "I want you to pin him in less than three minutes, you here me, three minutes! He's got nothing you've got!" He gave his son a parting pat on the shoulder.

"Now go cream him!"

"Right, right," Andrew shrugged it off and headed for the ring. He stopped about halfway there and glanced up toward the stands. Off in the far corner, he could make out Allison reading a program. She looked up form it momentarily and gave him a thumbs up. Andrew smiled to himself as he took his position. He never thought he'd be love with someone like her, but he was. His opponent stepped onto the mat in front of him. Nobody had beaten Tommy Breiner in his career, and he'd left four opponents knocked senseless along the way. He was now giving Andrew the most unpleasant of glares. "Think you'll last the whole match with me, tenderfoot?" he asked he Shermer wrestler.

"Let's just keep our fingers crossed and see what happens," Andrew said optimistically. He had a game plan in mind-take him low in the legs and pin him down while he was still surprised. He dug in and prepared for the referee's whistle.

It was immediately following the blast that it happened-Andrew lunged forward to try and do fulfill his game plan, but Breiner somehow anticipated this and jumped skyward, causing Andrew to fall basically flat on his face. Moments later, the full weight of the Oak Park wrestler came down on his right leg, causing the sharpest pain Andrew had ever felt in his life. Worse yet, he found that he was unable to move from his current position. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl.

"GET UP YOU FOOL, GET UP!" his father was screaming at the top of his lungs from the bench. Andrew tried as hard as he could to do so, but fell back down. It was no use. He'd have to wait for the medical crew. This was not what he'd hoped the evening would come to.

Claire was lying on her bed trying to do her Trigonometry homework. It was not her best subject.

"Let's see, if x is the square root of y, and z is the cube root of f of x, and a divided by b is 3 than what's." she groaned in frustration and tossed the book aside. The problems she'd been assigned for the next day were real killers. "Brian, where are you when I really need you?" she asked out loud. From downstairs came the sound of loud shouting. Claire was used to her parents yelling and screaming at each other for the longest time now, but over the last couple of days the bickering had seemed to grow more and more intense. Every now and then something would be thrown as well, echoing throughout all of Standish Manor, one of the oldest residential homes in the Chicago area, dating back to the early nineteenth century. As used to the fighting as Claire was, she wanted an escape from it at the moment.

"Almost as if reading her mind, the phone in her room rang. She picked it up. "Yes?" she said into it.

"Guess who?" came Bender's voice on the other end.

"Hello," Claire said to him. "Aren't we grounded for this afternoon's little stunt?"

"Delbert went to New York this morning and hasn't come back yet,' Bender explained, "so he doesn't even know yet."

"He'll be ticked when he does find out," Claire warned him. "You're pushing your luck with his patience nowadays."

"How would you know, you've only met him once?" Bender posed. Anyway, the reason I called is I was wondering if you're up for a night on the town."

"What kind of time frame are we talking about here, because I have to be back here at eleven on Wednesday nights," Claire explained.

"Why?"

"I don't know; it's just some stupid family rule that they've never bothered to explain to me. And we're not going to some cheap inner city bar like last time, are we?"

"Nope, this time we're going to spend a few hours at Delbert's house. "I'll put a movie on and we'll enjoy the Christmas season," Bender explained.

"All right, but remember, no sex; if 'Delbert' as you call him came back and found us at it, I'd never hear the end of it from my own folks," Claire said firmly.

"No problem; I'll be there in about ten minutes."

"Fine with me," Claire hung up and grabbed her coat off the bed. This was just the stress reliever she'd been waiting for.

She hurried downstairs. The yelling had stopped for the time being, but it wasn't all clear just yet.

"And where do you think you're going, little lady?" Mrs. Standish yelled as her daughter rushed by.

"Oh what do you care for, Vanessa, you don't." Mr. Standish started to yell from the living room.

"Don't tell me I don't care, Louis!" Mrs. Standish shot back, "You let her have too much as it is!"

"And you give her too little, so were even. No wait, we're not even, I'm a much better parent than you've ever been!"

"Oh no you're not, you're.come back here you, we're not finished." Claire all but slammed the front door behind her. The hostile home environment was driving her nuts at times, and she hated being the topic of it so frequently.

A loud honk from down the street indicated to her that Bender was in fact already there. He pulled up alongside her. "What happened to ten minutes?" she asked him as she got in.

"Oh, I just forgot I happened to be closer to your place than I realized," Bender admitted. "Shall we go?"

"Yes anything to get away from this loony bin," Claire commented as he pulled away.

"If I have to walk one more mile, my legs are going to fall off!" Neal moaned. He was losing the ability to hold up his end of Del's trunk after a half hour walking through the woods.

"Don't worry, Neal, I think I can see the end of the tunnel," Del called out, gesturing toward a highway at the top of the embankment ahead of them. Cars zoomed past at about ninety miles an hour.

"You don't seriously expect to cross that!" Neal fairly shrieked.

"Well, I'm sure they'll let us go by, and from where I'm standing I think I can see a motel sign just across the way," Del said. "Unless you think we should keep looking for a more conveniently located one, that is."

"No, no, I guess we'll take this one," Neal sighed. "I can't stay out here in the cold one more minute without getting frostbitten!"

"Oh come on, pal, it's not that bad," Del said. "Put this thing down for a moment; my back's killing me from lugging it."

"Thank you; so's mine!" Neal practically fell forward onto Del's trunk from exhaustion.

"Just hang in there; we're almost at a bed for the night," Del reassured him.

"If it's another one-person bed, I'm sleeping on the floor!" Neal stated firmly. He couldn't forget how the motel he and Del had checked into last Thanksgiving had only a room with a one-person bed, which had led to a very embarrassing night's sleep.

"Now what are the chances of that happening again?" Del inquired with a wink in his eye. "Okay, I see things are clearing up here now, so let's go check in."

He started across the highway with his trunk, but a loud blast from the horn of a semi coming from the opposite direction sent him scurrying back toward the shoulder. Only he didn't make it quite that far; a string of oncoming cars left him stranded near the median. "Uh Neal, I could use a hand here!" he cried out as an RV barely missed his feet.

"Hang on Del; I'm on my." Neal started out but dove back to the side of the road as traffic came at him fast and furious. "Oh COME ON!" he yelled at the motorists as they roared by him, "give me a sporting chance!"

A series of shrill horns was his only response. Spotting a break coming up, he backed up a few steps, and then charged across the road as fast as he could once it came by him without bothering to even look both ways.

"What now?" he asked once he reached Del.

"Well, I guess we just wait for another hole and go from there," Del shrugged.

"And suppose that takes a half hour as it usually does with us?" Neal inquired, but Del gestured toward the far end of the road. "I see a big break coming now; get ready!" he stated.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Neal said. He had a bad feeling about this one.

"One, two three, go!" Del yelled as the break passed them. They got as far as the white passing line before he jerked Neal backwards and shrieked "STOP!" at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately, he wasn't in time with this command, and a camper ran right over their feet at about a hundred miles an hour.

"YEEEEOOOOWWWW!!!!!" both men hopped around like kangaroos in the passing lane, clutching their feet in agony. A loud horn blast told them that a tractor trailer was coming right at them. Grabbing each end of Del's trunk, they rushed across the road as fast as they could, diving in desperation into a ditch on the side that they discovered only too late was full of mud. "Oh this is just perfect!" Neal shouted, looking at his now ruined suit. "This cost me eight hundred dollars!"

"Well, look at it this way, Neal; years from now, you'll look back at this moment with great nostalgia," Del said optimistically as he gotto his feet.

"I sure hope so!" Neal growled, wiping off as much mud as he could. "Let's just go check in for the night!"

"Right," Del led the way toward the motel. Neal was hoping to be able to take a quick shower and go straight to bed, as this had been one of the worst days of his life.

The lobby was a rather ornate place for a small roadside motel. The drapes on the window were made of rich red velvet, and thick Persian carpeting covered the floor. Del rang the bell at the desk, and a small, weasel-like man appeared. "Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked them.

"Yeah, we'd like a room for the night," Del told him.

"Will that be in cash, check, or credit card?" the man asked.

"Credit card," Del took his brand-new Master Card out of his wallet and handed it to the clerk, who looked it over and ran it through the system.

"That'll be Room Thirty-three then," he said, taking a key from the desk.

"Follow me."

He led them down the hall for about a hundred feet, then turned right and pointed at the room. "Okay let's see what we've got here," Del mused as he unlocked the door and looked inside. "Oh this is nice!" he commented. "Come take a look at this, Neal."

Neal took one look at the room and turned to the clerk in disgust. "Absolutely not," he said firmly. "I am NOT staying in another room with a one-person bed!"

"Sir for your convenience, this room has a cot in the closet if you're not comfortable with our accommodations," the clerk told him. "Have a nice night." He walked off before Neal could raise another objection.

"Well, at least it's better than nothing," Neal sighed as he took off his coat and hung it up in the closet.

"Don't worry about it, pal; the night'll go by so quickly you won't even notice it," Del reassured him. "And soon you'll be back in your own bed, where."

"I sure hope so," Neal said, taking off his tie. "I'll be in the shower; don't mess up the room too badly while I'm in there."

"I won't. I've got to call John and see what he's up to tonight," Del said, picking up the phone.

"He's probably busy cleaning out some convenient store, and I don't mean with canned goods either," Neal commented.

"Now come on, Neal, your opinions of him are getting too negative," Del argued. "He would rob a convenient store."

"Then what would he rob, a pharmacy?" Neal inquired. "Have fun trying to call him, Del, I've got to clean off." As he walked into the bathroom, leaving Del to dial the phone while muttering something unintelligible under his breath, he thought to himself, "I hope we lost those army guys for good."

"What do you mean you lost them, major!?" General Blum yelled over his phone.

"Don't get too excited now, sir; we've put checkpoints up within a ten mile radius of the train site, and we should have them in less than an hour, two hours at most," Sherman said in the best attempt to relieve his father's rage.

"That's not good enough!" the general fumed. "You had all day to bring them in, major! Consider yourself relieved of your command! I'm sending Colonel Champlin out to take charge of this operation; he'll get the job done efficiently!"

"With all due respect, sir, I can handle this assignment without that.that.gorilla looking over my shoulder!" Sherman protested.

"That's an order, major!" the general yelled and slammed down the receiver before the point could be argued further. He pressed the intercom button on his desk. "Colonel Champlin, report to the main office immediately!" he announced. He had total faith in his second-in-command; Colonel Champlin in his thirty-plus years on Blum's staff had never failed to complete a task no matter how impossible.

A loud screech came from the corner of the office. Douglas was tearing apart a mouse he'd found coming out of the wall. General Blum made a whistling sound, and the hawk flew over to his perch on the desk. The general reached into a drawer and pulled out some hamburger meat. "Good work there, Douglas," he told his pet as he fed him some of the hamburger, "Soon you'll be able to hunt for mice out in the real world instead of this hellhole."

Colonel Champlin entered the office. "You called, sir?" he asked the general.

"Yes Chuck, the major can't handle the simple task of getting my codes back, so I've decided to place this mission in your hands," General Blum told him. "Report immediately to the troops' current location to take command. Use whatever tactics you feel are necessary to bring those two clowns into custody and then do what you want with them, but I want my codes intact for Christmas Eve. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Colonel Champlin saluted and started to leave.

"Oh and Chuck," the general called after him, "remember, no matter how gruesome, it's all for a good cause."

"Marv, wake up, it's time to go!" Harry yelled at the tent his partner was still in. From inside came the sound of snoring. Harry rolled his eyes. This was the third time Marv had fallen asleep that evening, and it was by sheer luck that they hadn't been discovered yet.

"MARV!" he shouted and gave the tent a hard kick.

"I DIDN'T DO IT, YOUR HONOR, IT WAS A LITTLE KID!" Marv cried out as he woke up.

"Very nice Marv. Ya wanna yell it a little louder so the guards'll come back?" Harry snapped.

"Sorry, Harry, but I was having a nightmare where the kid was torturing me with a."

"I don't care, Marv. Now let's get crackin'," Harry led his partner toward the courtesy counter. Security had gone home for the night about twenty minutes ago, but he'd wanted to wait until he was sure they weren't coming back before they made their hit. Now the only thing that could go wrong was if the kid was in the mall-but what would he be doing here at this hour? The courtesy counter had four cash registers arranged in a circle around it. The two burglars jumped over into the empty space in the center of it.

"Crowbars up," Harry said as he and Marv did their ceremonial clanging together of crowbars that was supposed to bring them good luck but hadn't really done anything positive for them lately at all. They wrenched open the register drawers and proceeded to empty them of all their money. Within minutes, this phase of their heist was completed.

"So how much d'ya think we got from there?" Marv asked as he and his buddy galloped down the stopped escalator to the ground floor.

"Oh, I'd say about five hundred bucks, easy," Harry said, "but the best is yet to come, my friend. Observe." He gestured toward the merchandise below them.

"Wow! Jewelry Central!" Marv gasped, for lying ahead of them were too many earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, and other accessories to count.

"Indeed," Harry agreed. "You take over there, and I'll handle the watches."

"Great," Marv rushed over toward the nearest display case. Harry walked more casually toward the watches. Raising his crowbar in the air, he smashed through the glass and started scooping up the watches as fast as he could. This job was going even smoother than he'd hoped.

"Hey Harry!" Marv called from the far display cases. He was covered in jewelry. "Do I look sexy?"

"Marv, you couldn't look sexy if you was a woman!" Harry retorted as he picked up the last couple of watches. "Now come on, we've got the rest of the mall to hit."

"Right," Marv picked up the few necklaces in the case he was near and followed his partner to the front of the store. Harry pulled out his key, unlocked the grate, and lifted it upwards. "There's over a hundred grand, maybe even a million before us," he told his colleague. "We'll hit Radio Shack last; I don't wanna be luggin' around no TVs and stereos all night. Now let's make like Mr. Deeds and go to town, my friend."

The two burglars proceeded to clean out every store in the mall in quick succession. In those stores that didn't have any merchandise that they wanted, they simply hit the cash registers, but all others were stripped bare of their valuables in record time. Soon both men's sacks were bulging with goods.

Finally, the crooks came to Trax. "Record stores make good business these days," Harry chuckled as he lifted up the grating.

"And then some!" Marv exclaimed. "Look at that!" He pointed at the giant present containing all of Andie's charity money.

"You go handle it; I'll clear the shelves," Harry said, galloping off toward the nearest shelf of CDs.

"Right," Marv ran over to the present. "Donations to help the poor," he read off the inscription near the base. "Ah, whatda the poor need money for? They're poor." He smashed the lock with his crowbar and threw open the lid. "Baby, where have you been all my life?" he said the greenbacks before him as he began greedily shoveling them into an empty sack. As he reached into the bottom of the present, however, something snapped around his fingers.

"OOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!" Marv jumped back in pain as a blast of mace from a hidden canister shot toward his face. An alarm sounded.

"Great, what'd ya do now, wise guy!?" Harry yelled as he finished dumping a set of the latest volumes of Now That's What I Call Music into his sack.

"I didn't do anything! This guy's got a hell of a security system!" Marv shouted back, grabbing as much of the money as he could frantically.

"Come on, let's get outta here before the cops show!" Harry waved Marv toward the exit.

"Hold on first, there's somethin' I gotta do!" Marv said, making for the nearest water fountain.

"Oh no ya don't!" Harry grabbed his buddy's arm. "You ain't leavin' the water runnin' this time!"

"But Harry, we've gotta.!"

"Ain't we forgettin' that because you had to leave the water runnin' two years ago, we got hit with nine counts of burglary insteada just one?" Harry implored. "Now let's go!"