“Really! I hope you can earn it. Shall we get started?” Annie wanted to be done with it all so she could go on the Net to visit the tutorial the girls were talking about.

Clearly flustered, Tyson asked Annie if she wore a hearing aid or if she thought she might need one to hear the tumblers turn over.

“My hearing is as perfect as the rest of me, Mr. Tyson.”

The girls gawked, their eyes round as saucers. Annie never ceased to amaze them.

“Call me Tee.”

Her heart beating like a trip-hammer, Annie did her best to pay attention and ignore the closeness of the man beside her. She liked the smell of the man and said so, her ear pressed to the makeshift safe door.

“Thank you. I don’t think anyone ever told me she liked the way I smell before.”

“Shhh, ah, this is the first one. Keep going. There’s a first time for everything. What was it like doing two stretches in the federal pen? That’s it. Number two. I thought you said this was hard.”

“It is hard. It’s the third one you’re going to miss. It wasn’t a picnic, but once I made up my mind that I had to do the time, I did it and walked out a free man. Believe it or not, law enforcement calls on me from time to time to…help them. I do it gratis. How would you like to go dancing someday?”

“Dancing? You did that on purpose to throw me off so I’d miss it, didn’t you?”

“I did. You have to focus, pay attention, and not allow yourself to get distracted. For instance, you could be going for the third tumbler, and the guard is a little early. You have to keep going and let the others worry about the guard. Capisce? The third tumbler is always the harder one. Once it took me nine times. Start from the beginning. We have all day. So, would you like to go dancing someday?”

Annie pressed her ear to the safe door. Suddenly she felt like crying and didn’t know why. “Someday may never come, but if it does, I get to lead.”

Tyson threw his head back and laughed. “You got it! Now concentrate.”

“You may not know this about me, Mr…. uh…Tee, but I know how to multitask.”

As Annie concentrated on the task in front of her, she found herself measuring the ex-con sitting next to her against Fish. The trouble was, neither one of them was coming up short.