Dorsai

Moving Violation

For the first time in three days, the Taylor family was able to sit down and have a meal together.

That was how long they'd had their new home after moving halfway across the country when Vic, the father, had been transferred several months after receiving a big promotion. Also at the table was his wife, Ellen, and their two kids, Richard (aged fifteen) and Carla (fourteen).

After spending the last three days and most of the evenings in between getting the moving truck they'd used emptied out and then getting everything unpacked and arranged, all of them were more than a little tired and glad to be done with it-which wasn't the reason all of them were so quiet. Though neither Vic nor Ellen knew it, the kids were fully aware of the arguments the two of them had had in the time between Vic learning of the transfer and when they actually started packing up to move: while Ellen had been delighted by the significant increase in Vic's salary, and had encouraged him to accept the promotion when it was offered, she had ignored his warning that the promotion likely meant they'd have to move to a different company office more in keeping with his new responsibilities. So when the transfer had come, Ellen hadn't appreciated being reminded of that fact; on top of that, she was more than a little resentful that she was being called on to give up a job she loved to follow him-thus the arguments.

For Richard and Carla, it was as much having to listen to their parents arguing as it was having their own lives uprooted: leaving their friends behind and moving to some strange new place where they didn't know anybody.

That left all of them to suffer the gravid silence while they ate. Neither of the kids wanted to say anything that might get their parents arguing again, while neither Vic nor Ellen was willing to speak for fear of having the other take it wrong and having the arguing start again.

They were nearly finished with their meal when the doorbell rang. Welcoming the opportunity to escape the silence, Ellen said that she'd see who it was and quickly left the table. A few seconds later, all of them could hear it as she answered the door.

Instead of the conversation they expected, the rest of the family was surprised to see Ellen come back into the dining room-closely followed by a man wearing some kind of mask. Even more surprising was that there were two more men behind the first, all of them with their faces covered.

Demanding "Hey, what's going on here?!", Vic started to get up, only to have the man behind Ellen club him with a pistol that Vic hadn't seen. Knocked to the floor, Vic could only lay there, stunned, as the man behind Ellen told all of them "This is gonna go easy as long as all you folks just stay still and don't make any fuss. Once we get what we're after, we'll be gone, and you can all go back to doing whatever. Got it?"

Terrified, Ellen and the kids said that they did; Vic could only nod weakly.

Still watching the four of them, the man behind Ellen told his companions "Okay, go to it."

From where she stood, Ellen could see as the other two men headed for the stairs to the second floor before the man behind her told her "Okay, lady, go ahead and have a seat. This might take a while, and I don't need anybody getting frisky and trying to get away." When she was seated, the man backed up a little bit, then pointed his pistol at Vic and told him "You, too, buddy-off the floor and on a chair, where I can keep a good eye on you. No more trouble, right?"

Again, Vic could only nod as he slowly got himself back onto the chair he'd been in.

Each minute that passed seemed more like an hour to the family as they waited under the watchful eyes of the masked man. It was roughly twenty minutes after they first saw him that one of the others came in and whispered something to him. He became visibly agitated, and they heard him say "Then one of you look again, only don't be too neat or picky. I want the other one to start hauling out anything else valuable; the TV, stereo, computers, that kind of shit. Go on, get moving!"