Safe?

by Yamouna Hartounian, age 16

Daniel Horatio Cooper was a paranoid sort of person. He owned a state-of-the-art safe, but all he put in it was a couple of bricks and a rubber duck. His money and valuables were hidden elsewhere. The safe was kept in fairly plain view, in his living room. It wasn’t attached to anything, nor was it very heavy.

Danny (as his friends called him) hoped that anyone who tried to rob him would just take the safe and leave, only to realize later that they’d been tricked. The trouble was, Danny’s valuables were not quite so valuable and he didn’t have much money, so this precaution was pointless. In fact, the most valuable thing he owned was the safe itself – something he realized shortly after it was stolen.

 (Page 48, Listen to Me: Shared Secrets from WriteGirl)