The Idle Hands Of Jimmy Felon

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The Idle Hands Of Jimmy Felon

by Paul McCann

Jimmy Felon grew up an angry young man and he was very difficult to live with. He refused to go to school and in the end he dropped out completely. As the years went by he took many expensive things from his parent’s house and sold them to get some money. In the end he and his parents lost connection and Jimmy walked out of the family home. He had no friends, no family and Jimmy was homeless.

After a few weeks he was cold and hungry and started to look at ways to survive. He had never worked a day in his whole life and the thought of finding a job was the furthest thing from his mind.

Sleeping rough gave him the opportunity to see there was no one around late at night and some of the small shops around town were not well secured. So Jimmy started out to do some thieving

He was a thief in the night striking shops between three and four o’clock every morning when most people were fast asleep. After a while he started breaking into houses. It was uncanny how he could just push his way into people’s homes under the cover of darkness. He was never seen and never heard and worked very quickly taking everything he could carry in his sack.

He liked breaking into houses because there was always food and drink in the kitchen cupboards as well as the fridge.

With some of the money he had stolen from shops and houses Jimmy rented a small bedsit flat that he saw advertised and had moved in. Apart from a single bed and a table and chair the room was filled with all the stash he had stolen.

Jimmy Felon was a lone wolf and he stalked the city at night.

Like the invisible man he was never seen or heard by anyone.

During the day he stayed in his a room about the size of a shoe box .  His room had so many bits and pieces around the floor that it was getting difficult to get in and out the door.  

He was a thief in the night and only ventured out when most people were fast asleep. That’s when he did his thieving. It was uncanny how he could just push his way into people’s homes under the cover of darkness.  Breaking into people’s homes provided him with a regular supply of food and drink.

One cold winters night Jimmy climbed up to the roof of a convenience store where he broke into the shop . As he landed on the floor he triggered an alarm . A passing police car spotted Jimmy and he was apprehended and taken into custody .

He was fingerprinted and much to the delight of the police his prints were a match to hundreds of burglaries where he had left his fingerprints. The police were happy to have finally captured the thief in the night . They searched Jimmy bedsit and recovered the stolen goods he had hoarded .

Jimmy’s parents were contacted and they where there at court when he was sentenced to three years in prison. Prison life never agreed with Jimmy .  In prison he had to get up early everyday and do some work in the garden . He was placed in a cell with a hard criminal who told him about the people he had raped and murdered . Jimmy was frightened of this man asked the warden if he could be transferred to another cell but the warden refused . The warden then mentioned that some of the prison guards were impressed with the work Jimmy had done in the garden and offered Jimmy a place on a work crew who often went out in the community to mow the grass in public parks and trim hedges . Jimmy said he would like to be part of that crew as he enjoyed planting and pruning .

Each time his parents visited Jimmy they could see a difference in  him .  Jimmy wanted to change his ways and on one of the visits Jimmy said that after he did his time in prison , he would like to do a course in horticulture . His parents were overjoyed with that and even told the prison warden about that .

The warden said to his parents that everything Jimmy planted in the ground seemed to flourish and he had even started a vegetable garden that was being used by the cook in the kitchen who was very happy with all the herbs and vegetables growing in the above ground garden beds that Jimmy had created . During the time Jimmy was in prison he was able to establish some fruit trees as well .

The day he left prison the warden had managed to get him a job with a greenkeeper who looked after a holiday resort that also had a course on the property .

Jimmy was a changed man and now put his hands to good use around the open gardens on the resort and began a horticulture course .  He had seen the error of his ways and changed himself for the better .

The End   

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