The Golden Rule

"Shit." Arianna slipped into the room and shut the door behind her in one swift move as if she had practiced it, but more likely her gracefulness was prompted through sheer terror. Robert barely spared her a glance as she strode toward him, her eyes furious and her mouth set in a thin, angry line.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she spat, but a note of fear dulled the the edge of anger in her voice.

"It's good to see you, too, sis." Robert continued his search, rifling through his bottom desk drawer. Well, it wasn't his desk anymore, but his stuff was still in it.

"Have you talked to Dad?" Arianna lowered her voice as if she hadn't been yelling and slamming doors just moments earlier.

He smirked. "Of course I haven't. I'm here, aren't I? The police haven't been called. The butler hasn't forcibly dragged me all the way back down the drive. I hid my car up the road a bit, by the way, and I don't feel like making the walk again. Could you give me a ride?"

"I'm not giving you anything," Arianna said through clenched teeth. "You aren't supposed to be here and if Dad finds out he really will call the police, no joke about that."

"Ah-ha!" said Robert, ignoring his sister, because she wasn't saying anything he didn't already know. He triumphantly held up the little silver key that had been hiding among the pens, loose change, used staples, and other detritus that collected in desk drawers. "It's still here. He didn't find it!" He grinned at Arianna.

She narrowed her eyes. "What is that?"

"Key to my safe," he replied, still grinning. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to pop downstairs and--"

"No!" said Arianna. Robert had been moving toward the bedroom door as he spoke, and she jumped in front of him, blocking his path. "You can't have that. Dad has all the keys."

"All the keys except this copy I made," Robert corrected.

"You can't have a copy!" Arianna insisted.

"Clearly I do," said Robert, rolling his eyes. He didn't have the same issues with his sister that he had with his parents, but she did get tedious at times. Mommy's little girl, she had been lucky enough to escape the insanely high expectations their father placed on his only son. He couldn't blame her for not understanding why he did the things he did. But he also wasn't going to listen to her. "Now please move. Dad'll be home soon."

"I won't." She held out her hand. "Just give me the key, Bobby. I'll tell Dad I found it somewhere. I won't mention you, I promise. I'll even give you a ride to your car, if you'll just please leave now."

"Oh no, my little sister is going to physically stop me from leaving this room," said Robert, frowning in mock despair. "Whatever am I going to do?"

"I'm serious, Bobby!"

"More's the pity," he said, and he shoved past her.

She followed him all the way down the stairs, haranguing him, her voice carrying throughout the large marble front entryway. Robert reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around nervously; his parents weren't home, but the butler was around somewhere and if he heard Arianna's shouting . . .

"Shut up!" he snapped at her. "All I want to do is take what's mine and then I'll leave. None of you will ever see me again and you can be done with it."

"No, we won't!" said Arianna. "He won't. You're stealing from him, and he won't stop until he finds you."

"I am not stealing from him!" Robert shouted, losing his temper. He forgot about being quiet or trying to avoid the butler. "Do you know what's in those safes? Gold, Ari. He's got actual honest to god gold stashed in those metal boxes, gold that he put in there for us. I can do what I want with my share."

"It's not your share, because you've been disowned!" said Arianna, and then she went silent and wide-eyed like she'd accidentally let out a stream of curse words.

Robert could only stare at her, his anger dissipating and replaced with a cold and painful, yet familiar sadness that he didn't want to acknowledge. "So you want it for yourself?" he said quietly. "Because I guess it's all yours now, isn't it?"

Arianna shook her head forcefully, her face pale. "No. No, Bobby, that's not what I meant. I don't care about the money or gold or whatever he's got in the safes. I just . . ."

"Just what?" he prompted. Now they were getting to the real issue. He hadn't expected total support from his sister, but he had counted on her looking the other way. It wasn't like he was robbing their father blind. He was just taking what had already been set aside for him, nothing more. He was entitled to it even if his father wanted to pretend differently.

"I just . . ." Arianna looked down at her sandaled feet, shame making her cheeks color. She took a deep breath. "If he finds out that I knew you were here and I didn't stop you, he might . . . I mean . . . I don't want him to do the same to me."

Robert nodded. He knew she wouldn't understand. How could she? She was the daughter, the one who was to be molded in their mother's image. "He won't know. I certainly won't tell him. And even if he did know . . ." he shook his head sadly at her. "He wouldn't disown you. You're not important enough to him." He almost expected her to burst into tears and run off, like she had when she was little and heard something she didn't like. He hoped for it, because then she would leave him in peace and he could get what he came for.

But she just looked at him with hard but calm eyes, and said, "This is why. This is why Dad hates you. You've never tried to understand anything from anyone else's point of view."

"Well, maybe if he hadn't started it," said Robert. "I guess I'm more like him than anyone realized."

"How can you expect any of us to support you, with the way you treat us?" said Arianna. The rims of her eyes were turning red, and her voice broke on the last word of her sentence. She was clearly losing the battle not to cry. "All you do is insult us and our way of life, and if you keep rejecting everyone no one is ever going to try to understand you."

"After today," said Robert, "that won't be your problem." He raised an eyebrow at her, glanced toward the study where he knew the safes were kept, and said, "So, you're going to forget you ever saw me, right? They'll never know you were even home when I broke in, okay?"

Arianna's lower lip quivered, but she stood firm. "He'll never stop looking for you."

"I can disappear," said Robert. "It's the easiest solution for everyone." He tilted his head at her expectantly.

Arianna, after a long pause, let out a sob and nodded. "Just do it and get out."

"Yeah." He watched the retreating form of his sister as she went back upstairs, and then took a moment to reconcile himself with the fact that he would probably never see her again. Just a moment, though. His father was due back any time now, and he had some gold to steal.

"The Golden Rule" is copyright © K. B. Cunningham 2008

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