Read The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules for Free Online Page B

countered.
    ‘Politicians ought to end up in prison,’ said Martha as she dropped a stitch. She found it hard to knit and watch TV at the same time.
    ‘Prison? But that’s where we’re going,’ exclaimed Brains, and Martha had to give him a quick kick on the shin. They had agreed not to proceed with too much haste. If they did, they would never get the others to go along with them. But during the entire program, sharp comments could be heard and finally Anna-Greta couldn’t keep silent. She rearranged the bun on her neck, put her hands on her knees and looked around her with a stern expression.
    ‘But if prisoners are better off than us, why on earth are we sitting here?’
    A deathly silence ensued. Martha looked at her in amazement, but soon adapted to the situation.
    ‘Exactly. Why don’t we do a little burglary tour and end up in prison?’
    ‘No, you are joking, aren’t you?’ Anna-Greta answered, giggling strangely. It didn’t sound like her usual horse-like neigh.
    ‘Burglary tour? Over my dead body!’ exclaimed Christina, her Free Church upbringing having left its mark. ‘Thou shalt not steal, amen, and that’s that!’
    ‘But just think. Why not?’ said Martha, getting up and turning the TV off. ‘What have we actually got to lose?’
    ‘You’re crazy. First you make us all do physical exercise, and now you want us to become criminals. Is there no end to this folly?’ said Rake.
    ‘I just wanted to see your reaction,’ Martha lied.
    A collective sigh of relief could be heard all round, and soon the conversation moved in other directions. But when the others had left, Brains stayed behind a few moments with Martha.
    ‘I think that gave them something to ponder,’ he said. ‘Now they’ve seen another world outside the retirement home.’
    ‘Yes, this was the first step. Now we leave the dough to rise,’ Martha replied.
    ‘You know what, we’ll soon be on the run from here.’
    ‘Yes, we will,’ said Martha.
    A week went by without anybody mentioning the TV program. It was as if the subject frightened them, and nobody really dared bring it up again. But while Martha read her new crime novel,
Murder in the Retirement Home
, Brains was busy with preparations. He had made reflector arms to attach to their walkers so that they wouldn’t get run over in town—and he was also adding the final touches to his invention of the week.
    ‘Have a look at this, Martha,’ he said, handing her a red cap with five small holes at the front. ‘Press the peak and then you’ll see.’
    Martha took the cap and pressed, and a bright ray of light shone across the room.
    ‘Better than a headlamp. Caps with LED lights are just what you need for robberies.’
    Martha burst out laughing.
    ‘You are clever,’ she said, not without some tenderness in her voice.
    ‘But now we need some more LED lights.’
    ‘Well, if I can buy fruits and vegetables in the corner shop, then I’m sure I can sneak round to the hardware store too. But really, it is crazy that we have to do our shopping in secret,’ she said. ‘Do you remember the advertisement for the retirement home?
A gilt-edged life after seventy.’
    ‘If everything goes according to plan, then we’ll do better than that,’ said Brains as he put his cap back on again. ‘And in prison they’ll certainly be nice to us because we are so old!’
    ‘It does sound exciting to become a thief, doesn’t it? First you have to plan and carry out the crime, which is a thrill in itself, and then there will be all the new experiences in prison.’
    ‘Exactly. We aren’t fit enough to do parachute jumps or to travel around the world, but with this we will make things happen anyway.’ Brains looked out of the window with a dreamy look on his face.
    ‘But we must find an innocent crime that doesn’t hurt anybody,’ Martha went on.
    ‘Economic crime is serious enough to warrant a prison sentence, and then we’d probably get the others to go alongwith