PG-13

It was a beautiful day, sun shining, birds singing . . . well, she guessed birds were singing . . . she couldn't actually hear them over her Walkman.

She skipped into the bank and into the short line. There was a short blond woman and a tall guy  with curly brown hair in front of her. They were talking to each other but with the music she was  listening to the two seemed to be arguing about remote controls and Geraldo. That's what she got  for listening to her cousin's Veggietales tape.

She was enjoying watching the tall man and the short woman unknowingly lip sync the rolls of Larry the cucumber and Bob the tomato performing the traditional Argentinean Ballad: The Dance of the Cucumber but her attention began to wander and she moved on to more captivating things.

"So I was thinking Ange, We could shoot the scene with back lighting and candles to make a-" Rollie Tyler pitched yet another idea to his friend and partner Angie Ramirez who cut him off again.

"With all that wind for the storm? Do you realize how hard it will be to keep those candles lit?" Angie shook her head. She glanced behind her and smiled a little. "Rollie," she said under her breath, "Have you noticed the girl behind us?" Rollie glanced at the object of Angie's curiosity and grinned.

"You mean the one whose Walkman is so loud that she couldn't possibly hear us?" He asked in a normal voice. Angie smiled again, slightly embarrassed and nodded. The girl looked about 12 with red hair in short pigtail braids that hung down to just past her shoulders. She was slightly bouncing to the music and Angie could just barely make out some . . . Spanish? And something about . . . a cucumber? The girl was smiling and her blue eyes sparkled mischievously as she looked around.

A gunshot rang through the bank and then another and Rollie and Angie hit the floor. The girl, who'd turned to read a poster on the wall beside her was obliviously standing there, still smiling and bouncing to her strange music.

"Bloody Hell." Rollie cursed as he jumped up and grabbed the girl. She screamed and flailed around, smacking Rollie in the face with an errant hand.

A black masked bank robber stalked over and pointed his large, semi-automatic rifle at the girl and yelled at her to shut up. She screamed again. Angie snaked an arm past Rollie and the flailing girl to poke at her Walkman, which was clipped to the side of her overalls.

The music shut off and the girl finally heard everyone telling her to be quiet.

"Shut the fuck up kid!" The masked robber growled, shoving the gun in her face. The girl whimpered quietly and stopped struggling, letting Rollie hold her close to him. The robber walked back over to the two others and Angie glanced around the bank. It had just been closing so it was almost empty. Besides Rollie, herself and the girl there were only two other customers, a young pregnant mother with a squirming but quiet child who looked about two. There were four bank tellers cowering behind the counter.

"Come on, hurry it up." The tallest of the robbers barked at the tellers who were getting as much money as they could and shoving it into duffel bags that the robbers had provided.

"We gotta get outta here before the cops come." Another of the robbers hissed. They grabbed the bags and conferred for a second, then they walked up to Rollie, Angie and the kid.

"Get up." The tall guy leaned down, grabbed the kid by her overall straps and hauled her up. The other two kicked at Rollie and Angie who scrambled to their feet.

"Leave the kid." Rollie told the man as he stood.

"Ok, I'll take the pregnant lady and her baby instead." The man said snidely, about to drop the girl and go towards the others.

"No!" The kid blurted out, eyes wide with fear. "Take me instead." She tried to keep her voice steady but the fear in her eyes gave her away. The robber smiled.

"Brave kid." He laughed and began dragging her towards the back of the bank. The other two robbers grabbed Rollie and Angie each by an arm and hauled them after the first. "Any of you move at all in the next five minutes and these three'll be dead in seconds." The leader called back as he kicked open a back door and they all exited the building.

"Bubye." The child called after them.

The robbers shoved the three into the back of a large green van and slammed the door, plunging them into darkness. The van shook a little as the robbers jumped into the front and drove off.

"Rollie?" Angie called out in the darkness. "Are you Ok?"

"Yeah Ang, I'm Ok, You?" He responded carefully crawling towards her voice.

"I'm fine." She answered, reaching out to him. In the darkness her hand brushed the top of his head. "I'm over here." She said, ruffling his hair.

"Hey Kid, are you Ok?" Rollie asked tentatively.

"Yes sir." She answered quickly. Rollie placed a hand on the side of the van, feeling for a window. He felt a cold, smooth surface that felt like glass and scratched at it. "What'r ya doin?" the girl asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"I'm trying to scrape the paint off this window so we can get some light in here." he answered. He heard some scrabbling around in the dark and felt someone bump into his chest. "oof." He blurted out involuntarily.

"Sorry." The girl pulled back from him and put her hand on the window near his.

"What's your name kid?" He asked as he continued to scrap with his fingernails at the paint.

"My name's Chip." She said as she slid her hand over the window. "And, uh . . . you're trying to scrape paint off the inside off a window eh?" she asked. Rollie made an affirmative noise. The girl pealed something off the side of the van and light poured in, revealing the girl holding a strip of duct tape. "That's not the window." she told him. He looked where we was scraping as Angie giggled, he'd succeeded in scraping a little paint off the wall . . .