“Bad Characters” by Jean Stafford
What I find most amusing about stories of this kind is being able to see through the naivety of a child’s eyes. The narrator is a loner, a little girl who befriends a thief whose brilliance is unmatched, which we learn near the end of the story. The narrator has never stolen before, yet she is intrigued by her new friend (who is only her friend because she was caught red-handed trying to steal cake out of the narrator’s kitchen) and joins her on her quest to steal from the Five and Dime.
This quest leads to ultimate betrayal from the narrator, but there is no doubt in the reader’s mind that she pays for this. A lesson for her to learn to never go against the mind of a brilliant thief.
This story has become a classic, and rightly so.
--Simon Owens
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