The Living Nativity
by: Swanky

Rating: PG-13 (for some Language)
Word Count: 1,139
Drabble Challenge / Author's Note: Written for a drabble challenge given to me by a friend of mine. The challenge included: Characters: Original; Idea: The three kings in a nativity set are living - and robbers;

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Living Nativity


“It’s fucking cold out here! How much longer?”

“Keep your voice down! Stop moving! You wanna get caught before we even start?”

“Sorry.”

Rufus looked back and forth between his brother and sister, being careful not to move his head. He could understand his brother’s impatience; it had been more than an hour since they had left the relative warmth of their van to stand out in the cold. His feet were numb, his fingers felt frozen to the tall plastic staff in his right hand, and he desperately had to pee. But this was what Susan had said they needed to do. And so, unlike his older brother Stanley, Rufus stayed quiet and waited to be told what to do next.

That had always been Rufus’ strength in life; doing as he was told. He did not question Susan when she told him to go to the costume shop and get these costumes; he just did as he was told. He did not protest when he was told to clean out the van, even removing the long bench seats from the back; he just did as he was told. He did not complain when Susan and Stanley told him about their ridiculous plan; he just did as he was told.

Last year Susan had come up with a good plan. A plan that didn’t require standing in the cold, wearing a stupid costume, staring at a little plastic baby doll out side of a church for hours. Last year, they had done well for themselves. Last year, Rufus was happy to continue their childhood tradition. This year, Rufus thought he might be getting a bit too old for this game. But, as it had always been, and most likely always would be, Rufus just did as he was told.

“Alright, that was the last of them.” Rufus heard Susan hiss from his left. “Let’s get to work boys,” she whispered, discarding her costume and climbing out of the little wooden covering.

“Stupidest idea you have ever had, Sue,” Stanley grumbled as he followed her. “What made you think it would be a good idea to camp out as the three wise men in a church nativity set?”

“Hey, we can see everything from there, and no one paid any attention to us!” She shot back, obviously annoyed at her brother’s condescending tone. Rufus carefully removed his costume and gathered the others before trailing after his siblings. They were always leaving things behind, Susan and Stanley. Luckily, Rufus was around to pick up after them.

“I’d like to see you come up with a better idea.” Susan rubbed her hands together as she approached the first house, trying to get the chill out enough to work the lock. Carefully, she pulled her kit from her jacket pocket. Slowly, she pushed a long slender piece of metal into the lock, followed by another wire-like piece which she wiggled about. With an audible click the door swung open and Stanley rushed inside. Pulling a crumpled piece of paper from his jeans pocket, Stanley pressed a few buttons on the alarm, and turned back to his sister.

“All clear,” he announced. So far things were going quite well. Rufus was glad. Stanley had hated pretending to be a carpet sales man for the past two weeks to get all the necessary inside information for their game. Rufus was glad it was working out. He would hate to see Stanley loose the game after all that hard work. “Come on, buddy.” Stanley threw a brotherly arm around Rufus’ shoulders and led him into the house. “These kids got some real cool toys you’ll like.”

With a wink to Susan, Stanley ushered him down a long hallway to a wide staircase. Rufus looked around in awe; there had to be eight or nine rooms up there. He had noticed that the longer they played this game, the more rooms the houses had. When they had started this game, while they were all still in high school, there had only been three or four rooms in each house they went into. Susan had told him once that the houses with more rooms were harder to play, like in Mario; the harder the level was the more places you could chose to go. Looking around now, Rufus thought they must be getting close to the last level.

“All right, buddy,” Stanley said, grabbing Rufus’ shoulders and turning him to face him. “You know how to play. Ready? Set? GO!”

Rufus quickly opened the first door on the right and stepped inside. He’s learned that even though he got more points for going fast because he could get more things, he lost a lot of points for being too loud. It was better to take his time and pick the things with the highest points first; things with lots of wires. Looking around, Rufus noticed that there were quite a few things in this room with wires; a TV set, VCR, DVD player, a big stereo with extra speakers, and four different video games. He could hear his brother cursing in the room next to him and smiled to himself; it looked like Rufus had gotten the good room this time.

Rufus made his way to the entertainment center in the corner of the room and began to unplug things. He heard his brother stumbling back down the hallway. Perhaps he would have to be a bit faster if he wanted to win after all, he thought as he began piling things in his arms. He decided to carry down the game systems first, since they were little and he could take all of them at once. As he made his way down the stairs, carrying at least 100 points in his large arms, he heard his sister shout for them.

“Shit! Out! Get out! NOW! The cops!” Rufus ran down the rest of the stairs, dropping the precious equipment as he went. He stumbled into the hallway to find that Susan and Stanley had both been caught by police men on their way out the door. Confused, he looked between his siblings and the officers. This had never happened before. What should he do now?

“Game over, pal,” One of the officers spat as he grabbed Rufus’ arm tightly and pulled it behind his back. As the officer cuffed his hands together and started ushering him out of the house behind his siblings, he could hear Susan telling him not to say anything, not to answer any of their questions, to just stay quiet until she could tell him what to do next. Rufus wanted to ask her what was going on. Were they in trouble? Did they lose the game? Where were they going? But Rufus didn’t ask questions. He just did as he was told.

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