By: Emma Lu
Ever since Swiper was nine, he was in the business of stealing, or as he liked to call it, “swiping.” It didn’t hurt anyone—it was just harmless stealing such as food or money. At least, he thought it to be harmless. At least he didn’t steal weapons or bombs! As he was a fox, he was good on his feet and hands—people even said he had four hands because of how sneaky he was. Swiper was good at what he did, and he never got caught—until she showed up.
They adored her. She was perfect in the publics’ eyes—a young girl determined to rid the town of evil. She was Dora Marquez, the bilingual seven-year-old adventurer. What kind of seven-year-old girl is able to catch one of the town’s best thieves? Dora, apparently. Swiper hated to even think of her. Not only did she actually enforce the very laws he was breaking, but she also talked in a way that anyone would hate. She would announce her presence in the loudest, cheeriest voice possible, “Hola, soy Dora!” God, Swiper hated that. She would then start asking no one in particular, “Do you see Swiper? Where is he now?” Swiper never understood why she acted like that. It was as if she was on a children’s animated TV show!
How she caught him every time was just astounding. Somehow, she would always be able to pinpoint Swiper’s location. He knew for a fact that he didn’t have any tracking devices on him.
Whenever he felt that he’d outran Dora, she would always catch up somehow. It shouldn’t be humanly possible to run at those speeds! Swiper was convinced that Dora was crazy. The girl even had a pet monkey that acted as her sidekick. He didn’t even know if that was legal. Sometimes, she would bring her equally crazy cousin, Diego, on her chase. It didn’t help that Swiper was their target most of the time.
The worst part was that Dora would always paint him as the villain. It was as if Swiper had chosen his life in the first place! Seriously, everyone in town would see Swiper as the no-good, scheming villain of the town. Dora had to go. Swiper didn’t know where he would start or how he would execute his plan, but his days of stealing were now over. He needed to get rid of Dora Marquez once and for all.