Four months passed. Jacob had quickly adapted to life in the city. Overnight, he became almost as good as Sonny in shoplifting and pickpocketing. They were now birds of the same feathers.
Sonny had taught him the art and skills of survival. He was grateful for that. During all this time, Jacob had come to understand his friend.
It appeared to him that Sonny liked any thrillers related to crime, and he read such stories with a lot of zeal. But when a story moved him, he would ask Jacob to accompany him to the slum areas of the city where women sold local, illicit brews.
Here, he would meet some of his friends to gossip over beer. Jacob, however, refrained from drinking the local, illicit brew.
With time, Jacob knew most of the agents and their contacts. Their job was simple. It involved taking whatever goods they stole from the shops to the agents who would, in turn, sell them to their contacts.
They had to take these goods whenever nothing stood in their way. To them, it was when business was good. And they would be paid for the services they rendered.
As time moved on, they had money to rent a room in the outskirts of the city. They paid a monthly rent of forty-five thousand shillings and now slept on a small bed they shared.
There was nothing much in their room apart from a small table and two chairs facing the bed.
Sonny loved doves. So he decided they should keep some. He went to the city market, where he kept these on their compound in a cage.
Jacob observed his friend always rose up very early in the morning as he went to look for cereals to feed the birds.
Sonny also made sure he took evening strolls to go and see his contacts. But Jacob had come to learn that he was actually assessing or spying on possible areas where they could carry out their mission the following day.
But after he came from such visits, he would do a few exercises to keep his body in shape. He would tell Jacob, "Keeping physically fit is quite necessary in a job such as ours. You should also be doing regular exercises."
And so it was Jacob had followed his friend's suggestion. He kept doing physical exercises in the evenings to keep fit.
They also cooked their own meals after buying their own utensils. They did not rely on their friends in restaurants anymore.
Everything seemed to be going on very well, save for the day they went to a supermarket and found only a few buyers inside. Sonny sensed trouble instantly and whispered, "Looks like a bad day for us, but let's just go to the shelves and try our luck."
They went in different directions; Sonny moved swiftly to the right. But as he went, Sonny promptly became alert when instinct warned him they were being watched.
He had a strong antenna for danger, and
as he turned his head, he saw the supermarket attendant watching him out of the corner of his eyes.
Sonny's gut feelings warned him they were walking into danger. He decided to leave the goods he had picked up from the shelves, call off the job, and rush to alert Jacob it was not their lucky day.
Even as he was going, he turned and saw the sales assistant had stopped attending to customers and was now following him. Sonny realised he had to act fast, warn Jacob to stop whatever he was doing, and get out of the shop as swift as the wind.
"Stop it! We are being watched; it's not our lucky day," he whispered into Jacob's ear as he passed him hurriedly and headed to the exit.
Jacob was too preoccupied and focused on an attractive item he had seen on the shelf to hear his comrade's warning. It was a box of dark chocolate, which his hands fell on, and he dropped it inside his overcoat.
Satisfied, he turned his attention on the small boxes of toothpaste that lay at the far end of the shelves. He felt he was satisfactorily enjoying himself in his newfound job.
But his joy was shortlived when cold fingers like ice grabbed his hand and squeezed hard.
"Hey! What's that you have just dropped into your coat?" The voice of attendant who had been following Sonny spoke.
Jacob turned and saw cold, bloodshot, and angry eyes staring at him. He felt quite helpless as blood rushed into his veins when the realisation that he was caught red-handed settled in his mind.
He tried to free himself, but the attendant in blue uniform held his hand tightly. The service attendant was about to raise the alarm when he saw it; the necklace Jacob wore round his neck.
Greed was written on his face as he eyed the gold necklace and Marian silver medal. He started having other ideas; he would take it for himself but have the youth arrested for theft.
"Quite a stunning necklace you have here. I bet it's stolen from our shelves too," the fat attendant's grip on Jacob's hands relaxed as his other hand reached out for Jacob's necklace.
At that moment, Jacob decided to act; it was now or never if he wanted to escape and avoid a jail sentence.
He swung a powerful right hook that crushed against the man's face, and he went falling down on the cold floor. Seeing his chance, Jacob began to walk away hurriedly to the exit.
As he hurried, he was almost tempted to break into a run but, in a flash, realised it would arouse suspicions. Meanwhile, the customer service assistant gathered himself as he tried getting to his feet, but when he saw Jacob reach the exit, he shouted loudly to his colleagues.
"Stop that boy; he's a thief!"
But it was too late. Outside, Jacob broke into a run. He saw a car coming out of a corner but avoided it, running as fast as a shooting star into another street.
Then he turned his head and saw the heavy set front line staff coming after him. Jacob increased pace, running as fast as a race horse, but when he looked behind, he saw the attendant also running after him.
Then, an unbelievable thing happened. Another man stepped forward onto the road and blocked the attendant's way. The attendant fell down, and a quarel erupted between them.
The man who had appeared out of the blues and blocked the attendant's way suddenly swung at him, raining heavy blows on the attendant.
Men and women laughed uncontrollably as they watched the two fight as the man blamed the supermarket attendant for crashing against him on the road.
"Come this way! Be fast before others come for us!" It was Sonny's anxious voice, anxiety written all over him, "Run man, run!"
Jacob turned and saw his friend run ahead of him as in the street. Sonny was very fast, but Jacob did not hesitate when he saw him.
He followed Sonny, running as swift as the wind when it dawned on him that the man who fought the shelf stocker on the road had saved him from a possible jail term.
A few minutes later, they stopped running when they saw they were far away from their pursuer. Jacob gasped for breath as he struggled to talk, "It was a narrow escape; the foolish attendant saw me drop chocolates into my overcoat and seized my hand."
"But I warned you not to do it. I always have strong feelings. When I tell you not to do anything, you just shouldn't do it," Sonny spoke as he sounded irritated, "But you ignored me. I have been in this game longer than you, and I know when to pull a job and when not to."
For a moment, Jacob did not know what to say as he appeared embarrassed by Sonny's admonition but listened as his friend continued seriously, "You were damn lucky. Otherwise, you could right now be in be at the police station facing the cops and land in the cells."
"I never heard you, my friend," Jacob spoke softly. "If I had heard you, I wouldn't have waited but would have left immediately without even trying to take the chocolates."
"It's okay, then. Every dog has his day. It was the customer service assistant's day; ours will be next."