The clerk looked at me nervously, and then glanced over to the phone, pondering his next course of action. His badge said that he had been with the company for six years, but he had never seen the likes of me. I leaned against the wall, my arms crossed and my eyes fixed on his, challenging him to make the next move. The sign behind me said “No Loitering,” but I didn’t care.Case 5: The Loiterer My name is Kate Bucke. I am the loiterer.
I realized the powers that I had inside me the first time that I bought the washable blue hair dye. I bought it because I thought that it looked really cool and it said that it would work on my curly brown hair. The box was right and really the rest is history. But I’ll tell you anyway.
I went home and tried the hair dye, I was pretty excited. I followed the directions to a tee. The blue streaks in my hair did more than just make me look like the anime fan that I am, but also caused me to have the amazing super powers that I have today. Most people when they are faced with superpowers would choose the path of righteousness and start to fight the bad guys, but that just didn’t suit me. I took to the dark side. It’s fun, what can I say?
Many people have asked me how I chose my super villain name. It was quite simple really. Take Doc Ock for example, the man had 8 arms/legs. How many sides does and octagon have? 8. How about notes in an octave? That’s right, 8. It’s only makes sense to call that man Doc Ock. Well, I suppose that and that his name was Doctor Octavius. The Incredible Hulk fought the Absorbing Man in the Hulk Movie. The absorbing man is called that because he absorbs things and then becomes them. It makes sense to call him that. All super beings tend to be called something that describes what they are good at. I’m no different really.
My super skill is mostly loitering. When I put the blue streaks in my hair using my new dye nothing can move me once I decide that I don’t want to stay put. That’s what makes me so good at what I do. Therefore, it only makes sense that my super villain name is “The Loiterer.”
I realized that I had these skills when someone came up to me and tried to push me when my hair had the streaks in it. I didn’t move an inch. The next day when I was substitute teaching I was easily moved by someone else. I had explained that once to someone who asked me and they asked me to describe the two people who tried to push. I didn’t mind letting them know that the one who couldn’t move me was a 2 year old and the one who could was a 10 year old. They said that their ages really explain it, but it was a really large 2 year old. Besides 8 years isn’t that much of a difference. I mean my mother married a man 8 years her senior. There wasn’t much of a difference at all.
After that day I knew that I must make my destiny. After decking myself out in the cool costume that I designed, which consisted of a Royal Blue Corset, a black velvet cape, thigh high boots, a black knee-length skirt, a domino mask, and the thing that makes it all possible, blue streaks in my brown hair, I walked into the local convenience mart and stood in front of that sign. The man with the name tag, “Sir Michael – 6 years of service” just glaring at me. I knew that I must continue this.
“Excuse me?” said a man wearing a tin foil crown, “I was just wondering if you planned on buying anything today.”
I looked at his name tag. The man’s tag read “King Connor,” I was pretty sure that the guy was crazy. “What’s it to you, crownie?” I retorted.
The man just looked at me and then toward Michael. “Kind maiden, I am the good King Connor, not Crownie, and I came to ask you if you were buying anything because you are loitering in a no loitering area.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, frankly it’s illegal and if you don’t buy something we will have to call the police on you. I can not have people hanging around my kingdom of my store without buying something, well, unless they work here.”
I glared. “I’d like to see you try.”
At that point Crownie looked over to “Sir” Michael with a confused scared look on his face. I love staring wimps like this guy in the face and intimidating them. All three of us looked at each other for about 3 minutes when the guy behind the counter shook his head, sighed, and picked up the phone.
I would call his bluff and stay here. There was no way he called the cops. He spoke quietly on the phone. I caught snippets of his side of the conversation. I heard a description of myself and my awesome outfit and also my super villain name, or maybe he said “loitering” instead of “Loiterer”, it didn’t matter either way. The point was that I was staying here.
About 15 minutes later a cop showed up and went to talk to the cashier. Since it was my first day of super villainy, I really didn’t want to get caught, so while they were busy speaking I flew out of the store and disappeared, and by disappeared I mean that I walked across the street. I looked back and noticed the cop leave the store. I quickly jump through a bush on the side of the road so that he wouldn’t be able to see me. I was safe for now.Well, I knew that I would have to try that store again sometime when that cheeky fellow wasn’t there to spoil my best laid plans for loiteration. However, I needed something else to do since I still had my super powers until I decide to take my shower this evening. I took a walk in Battery Park to clear my mind. I had to think. I walked around the part at least twice before I really started to look around.
Once I started to look around, I noticed a couple of children playing in a sand box across the way. I walked over toward the playground and sat on a red metal bench that was located near a green bush. As I sat down I noticed a small white contraption that I used to find in pizza boxes just sitting on the ground. Lying on it were bits of grass and a couple of cashews. I kicked the little plastic concoction over, stepped on it, and then went back to watching the people in the playground playing.
I watched the children for over an hour playing their games in the sandbox, which was mostly just building roads and towns and then driving their small matchbox cars through the roads. They played other games too, such as one game where the children played a game of hide and seek with the cars. The two children, one boy and one girl, would bury all of their 26 cars, I know because I counted, and then find them all one by one. Some of the cars gave them some trouble. Due to the fact that I was watching them so carefully I knew where each and every single one of the cars were. I could have helped them find the ones they couldn’t find, but if I did that I wouldn’t be a good super villain, now would I? Instead I just studied each of the cars.
After a little while the kids’ mother came over and after giving me a look of surprise (she must not have expected to see a super villain hanging out here) ushered her children out of the sandbox and told them they were heading home. I watched the children pack up their cars and bags and head out. The children made one mistake though. They only packed up 25 cars, they had forgotten about one of the cars. I was in luck too as it was my favorite of the bunch. I walked over to the sand box and sad down. I reached in one of the corners and pulled out a small red matchbox convertible. After pocketing it and thinking about how easy grand theft auto was I left happier than I had ever been.
I decided that although I was still inexperienced I wanted to try a bank heist that very day. I decided to head to the closest bank in the area, Bank North. The Bank North in my town was the largest one in the country. It had large black safes and probably a ton of money, I know because that’s where I do my banking so I’ve been in there plenty of times. On the way out of the park I saw two mothers having a conversation with their toddlers just sitting in their strollers looking quite bored.
I looked at the children and got a wonderful, evil, great idea. I sat down on the bench about 2 yards away from one of the toddlers. The one I was watching was special you see because she was eating smarties, a candy that I loved. I watched the candy, I watched the little girl with the short blond pigtails, and I watched as she began to get quite cranky. I knew that it wouldn’t be too long. Within two minutes the child began to throw and temper tantrum. When she began her candy accidentally got thrown around and a couple of pieces landed in the dirt not too far from my feet. I scooped up one piece and stuck it in my mouth. Let’s just say that I hadn’t eaten smarties in a long time, so you can only imagine how tasty it was. After one piece I couldn’t stop so I had to grab the other piece. It was delicious. That was easy I thought, now I understand the old saying “easy of stealing from a baby.”After eating the candy that I stole from that bratty child I wandered away smirking at my luck. Loitering, Grand Theft Auto, and stealing from a baby; how could my day get any better? I was sure the bank thing would make my day, but I felt that I should keep my schedule open for any other opportunities.
Like in a badly told story, another opportunity did show up. About two blocks away I found a small child using sidewalk chalk on his driveway. I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was drawing a picture. He asked me to draw with him, and because I like to draw and no other reason whatsoever, I sat down. I drew a picture of a green cow eating pink grass. It was a masterpiece, I’ll tell you that. The best part is that since I drew it and I had my superpowers at the time the chalk would never come off, silly kid. I hope he liked the cow.
It turns out that the kid did like the cow, of course he didn’t know that I have super powers and that it, like me, has staying power. Hmm, I thought, Loiterer… staying power… maybe I should make myself a bunch of business so I can leave them at the scene of my heinous crimes. Before I left the child’s house he gave me a piece of chalk to keep. He was a good kid, maybe I could use him for evil. He’d need super powers though.
I continued on to the bank. Since I had the chalk I decided to write my name and motto on various parts of the sidewalk. The city would forever know the name, “The Loiterer.” I felt empowered as I dirtied up the city with my chalk drawings. Being a graffiti artist had its high points. The power and the fact that everyone knows your name is pretty cool. I mean, almost everyone has heard of Borf at least once.
As I reached the block that the bank was on I ran out of chalk. I wore it down to the point that I couldn’t write with it any more. I felt okay about it though because I had reached where I need too. Time for action, I thought to myself.
I looked up at the large building looming in front of me. The building was fancy. Part of it had been built so that it reflected the sky and made the building look extremely fancy. Around the thirteenth floor were the words “Olim habeas eorum pecuniam, numquam eam reddis: prima regula quaesitus” I didn’t know what it meant, but it sure did look impressive. There was an engraving in the cold looking gray stone above the black doors that told me that this was in fact the Bank North building. I took a deep breath and walked into the door. I couldn’t believe that I had just done that, but I didn’t want to lose my chance. I took another deep breath, opened the door and walked inside.
Cursory glances over the place allowed me to case the joint and really see what was going to happen. First things first, I thought, I need to find a place to watch the place and really decide when to make my move. I decided upon a stone fixture in the middle of the floor. There were a few people walking around. I checked the clock and noticed that the time was around 11:40 in the morning. That would explain the ages of the people. I was by far the youngest person in the bank at this time. With the exception of the employees everyone in the bank was at least in their 60’s or 70’s with a few even older. Seeing this make me feel empowered knowing that if I wanted to, I could probably push any one of these people over and hurt them pretty badly. Ha! They would even know what was coming.
I decided that I didn’t want to make a go at the job at the moment because it wouldn’t be the right time. I knew that I would know when it was the right time. And so, I waited. I waited until finally around 5:30, an annoyingly pretty young blond came over to me and told me that the bank was closing and ushered me out. Drat, I thought, I missed my chance today. I didn’t put up a fight as the crazy lady walked me to the door, but only because I didn’t want to cause any suspicion that I was going to rob the bank. They probably thought that I was a super hero the way that I was dressed.
I walked home that night thinking all that I learned about how the bank operated and I made a plan in my head. It was a great plan. During my walk home I saw a boy wearing a ducky quilt and an aviator’s hat sitting across the street talking to a tree.
“Oh, Officer Dragosljvich, my therapy today was weird. They were trying to tell me that I’m not a super hero, but you know that’s not true. Only a super hero would have been able to turn you from your evil ways. I mean, it won’t be long before everyone knows the name of Wonder Dan.”
Wonder Dan? What an odd fellow. The good news is that he didn’t know who I was, I didn’t really want him hearing the name of The Loiterer until after I print up my calling card. Speaking of which, I decided that I should make my card that very night before I went to the bank to pull the heist. Nothing would be placing that card where the money was. I think after I pull the bank heist people should really know my name so that they can start to fear me.
I got home and first decided to hop into the shower and wash away the blue. My roommate would be home soon and I didn’t want her to know that it was I, Kate Bucke, who was the loiterer. She is a good person, and probably would turn me in if she knew the evil that was inside of me. I sat down at my IBM brand Thinkpad laptop and opened up my favorite card program to design my brand new calling cards.
I searched the internet for a great picture that would really represent me and finally decided on a picture of a brick wall with painted with the words “No Loitering.” Over the image I put the words, “The Loiterer” in really large letters, then I finished it off my adding in smaller letters, “I have staying power.” I studied the card I had just created and smiled. It was great. This would really show people who the loiterer was and that people should fear her. I printed out 10 pages of business cards. I needed a lot so that I would be able to leave them wherever I needed. I knew that 120 wouldn’t be enough, but it would be a good start, and I was pretty sure that with the bank heist the next day that I wouldn’t need 120. I only needed one. That would make me much more mysterious.
While my cards printed I decided to make myself a carrying case for them. Since my skirt only had a small pocket I knew that I couldn’t use that. I had trouble fitting my new convertible in there, so I knew that I would be able to keep them in the pocket, I mean, if I needed to pull another car theft I would have to have room in the pocket for the car.
In order to make this pocket I needed to use my imagination so that it would be useful for what I needed to do. I found two small pieces of card stock and cut them to be just slightly larger than the calling cards. I, then, sewed the bottom of the card stock piece together so that they could open like a book. Next, I attached a small amount of ribbon to both sides near the top of the sides so that the stock could open only a certain distance.
Now I needed something to make it match my skirt. I found the remaining pieces of fabric from the skirt that is in my costume, you see, I made my own skirt. With the pieces of fabric I glued parts of it to the card stock. Then with the pieces hanging off of the sides I stitched the two pieces together at the point that would allow me to have the contraption open to his biggest size. Next, I thought, I need a way to keep this closed.
I went to my roommate’s room and grabbed a small piece of Velcro from my roommate’s sewing kit. I sewed another small piece of Velcro to the top of one of the flaps and then attached the Velcro where the flap met with the other side. I now had a pocket. I stood back and looked at my handy work. I was impressed with it, but I knew that it wasn’t done. I needed glitter and I needed it badly. I used some spray on glitter that I had bought from the Halloween store the year before and sprayed a coating on the pocket. The last step was to attach the pocket to the skirt, which I did by sewing it to the left hand side of the skirt waist.
I took another look at the skirt and decided to finish the bottle of spray glitter by spraying it on my skirt. I felt that the glitter added something to the skirt and made up for the fact that the skirt, now that I had seen it with glitter, was really lacking. I felt that I was set, until I realized that something was missing in my costume, but I could place my finger on it.
I tried my hardest to think of what it was while I cut up my business cards, but it was a no go. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. As I finished cutting up the cards I could someone outside the door. Quickly, I put the cards in a drawer in my bedroom and then walked out just in time to see my roommate, Trisha, come through the door.
“Hey Kate, you’ll never guess what I got you!”
“Hey Trish, what is it?”
“Well, I know that you like to wear though skirts that you make and I know that you like to wear shorts underneath since they tend to fly up. I noticed these cute hot pants at the mall, and I bought some for you. Just a couple of colors, but I think you’ll like them. I bought royal blue, hunter green, black, and dark gray.” She pulled the hot pants out of the bag she was carrying.
“Do you like them?”
“I love them! How much do I need to pay you for them?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. Think of it as an early birthday gift.”
“Excellent. Thanks Trish.”
“Cool, by the way, I’m going out with Justin tonight, so you’ll be on your own. He’s taking me out to Sakura’s for dinner. It’s going to be great. I love their beef negimayaki. It’s superb.”
“That sounds like fun. When are you leaving?”
“Probably in about an hour.”
“Sweet, you should probably go get ready, huh? Let me know if you need anything.”
“Sure will!”
Trisha left the room to go and get ready. I picked up the hot pants and got an idea. I got an idea so brilliant that my head would explode if I didn’t act on it.
When Justin and Trisha left for the night I took my car over to Jo-Anne Fabrics and purchased some iron-on letters in white. They were small enough to fit on a small space, but large enough to be read. I drove home excited. I had finally figured out what I needed to really finish up my costume. It was going to great.
When I got home I grabbed the pair of navy hot pants and took out my iron. I prepared the letters on the backside of the pants and then proceeded to iron them on. When I was done. I looked at my work. I was pleased. When my skirt flew up and revealed my butt now everyone one would look and see the words, “The Loiterer printed on my backside. Even if people didn’t know me by my calling cards they could just look at my ass.
I went to bed all prepared for the next day. I knew what I had to do and I was positive that it was going to come my way.
I awoke early. I wanted to make sure I got everything right. I waited for Trisha to go to work before I got dressed and put the blue streaks in my hair. I made sure to put extra blue in my hair, because I found out that the more streaks of blue in the hair the better I am at what I do. When I felt that I had enough blue I pulled on my costume including the new pocket and hot pants and headed for the bank after putting the calling cards in the pocket.I made it to the bank without any problems and walked right in. I walked over to a corner and waited. I loitered for about 3 hours when I finally I saw what I was waiting for. I pulled a quarter out of my pocket and prepared for the moment. When nobody was looking I reached down and pulled up the money and put in my pocket. Then I placed the card on the floor where I found the money. Without drawing too much attention to myself I made my way to the door and turn around slowly. I then let out a cackle and swished around fast to make sure my hot pants showed for a moment and then ran out the door with the money I stole.
About half-way down the block I ran into Wonder Dan.
“Stop, Evil-Doer!” He yelled at me.
How did he know, I thought? Ah, Dragosljvich. I thought I saw a tree watching me before I walked in the door. He must have figured out what I had been planning to do and then he went and called this Wonder Dan to stop me.
“You’ll never make me talk!” I responded.
“You need help, robbing a bank? What were you thinking? Did you honestly think that you wouldn’t get caught?”
“Ha! You may have found me Wonder Dan, but you can’t make me move!”
“And why’s that, Evil Doer?”
“Please stop calling me that, I am The Loiterer.” With that I pulled out one of my calling cards and handed it to the crazy kid. “In fact, if you go into the bank, you’ll see another card. I leave them where ever I commit a crime. You should go and look!”
“I will, please stay right here. I’ll be right back!”
Ha! I thought, I beat him at his own game. When Wonder Dan ran off I ran as fast as I could go. About a minute into my run it began to rain and I was getting worried, my blue streaks were probably running at this point, I couldn’t let it get too bad, or I might look all my powers. I looked back to see if Wonder Dan was following me. I didn’t see him, so I stopped worrying so much. I turned back to face where I was going and ran right into a tree. It hurt… it hurt badly.
When I awoke Wonder Dan was sitting there next to me.
“Well, I’m glad I caught you, Kate Bucke. I’m also glad that Officer Dragosljvich assisted me in your capture. Maybe you’ll think twice before loitering in the bank next time. I have decided that your punishment for the robbery will be to have you come to therapy with me. We’d better hurry though, it starts in an hour.”
“How did you find out my name?”
“Once the blue streaks disappeared, it was pretty obvious there, you know… you might want to use permanent hair dye next time… Just a suggestion though. Let’s go.
I groaned as I sat up and reluctantly followed the super hero that had captured me… maybe I should think about joining his side. Maybe.
Group Therapy | Case 1 | Case 2 | Case 3 | Case 4 | Case 5
Case 6 | Case 7 | Case 8 | Case 9 | Case 10 | Therapy Session
