‘It’s for business purposes’ Nolan Whitby told the TSA agent as he accounted for the large amount of money in his carry-on. ‘I’m going to start a new business in Belize. Why didn’t I just make an electronic funds transfer? Because I don’t trust people with my money’. He showed them his passport and legal credentials that he had in a side pocket of the bag.  

After filling out the required paperwork, Nolan sat at the gate clutching the faded brown, but sturdy, leather bag that he bought from Goodwill.

That bag held all of his his money. 

The bag was a nod to irony in the fact that the $10.00 bag held half a million dollars in cash. Sitting there, he chuckled at that fact and the verbiage of ‘Good Will’ that contained stolen money.  

That was all that was in the bag. All along, Nolans plan had been to start completely new. With nothing but the money that he had taken from his job earlier that day.  

‘Taken’ is a nice way of saying that Nolan Whitby stole the money earlier that day.  

In his early 40s, Nolan was just a normal man. His dark hair gave him the look of being younger than he was, but his receding hairline told the real story. His dark mustache, now known as a ‘porn stache’ made him feel masculine even on his weakest days. Confidence was not Nolan’s strong point. He had struggled with this possibility of his escape for years, but once he saw the possible loopholes he could work with, he grew the ability to finitely plan the theft. Nolan fit in the general public nicely with his normal height and weight, jeans and a green polo.

After getting seated at the gate he secured the bag to his jeans belt loop with a small, sturdy, chain that he had brought. With clips on both ends it held tight to him in case anyone would get any idea of stealing from him what he had stolen from someone else.  

Watching the plane taxi to his gate, his heart jumped a little in excitement. He was nearly there.  

His new life and freedom were right there in front of him rolling up in a big, long blue and white bullet full of people about to deplane and go their own ways. He wasn’t envious of the people hugging and greeting people coming off the plane. Those relationships came at a cost. His new life would be much the same as his old life; alone, happy and safe.  After several failed relationships, Nolan felt more peace and security without those pesky things in his life. The longest of his test runs at a relationship lasted a little bit over one year. It took her that long to decide that Nolan wasn’t a good fit for her ‘appetite for adventure’.

Sitting there at an airplane gate with a bag of money he’d stolen chained to himself and headed to a far away place that he’d never been, he wondered if his current status would have been enough adventure to hold her. But that ship had sailed. In this case, the plane had flown.

He hadn’t drunk or eaten anything since midnight, and it was 10 am and now he was so thirsty. But being NPO was simply part of his plan. It was best to not need to get up during the flight and leave his Goodwill bag. 

After the airport announcer announced overhead, ‘now boarding non-stop to Belize City’, Nolan walked to the gate, scanned his boarding pass and walked through the jet bridge to his next life. He could clearly see the steward welcoming people into the aircraft as he followed the line to board. Trying to remain calm, he got a little bit cool and clammy with excitement of what lie ahead.  

Taking his window seat, he settled in. The chain he secured the bag with was long enough to meet the rules of tucking it under the seat for take-off.  

As the nose lifted, the plane tilted back some, and the wheels retracted, Nolan Whitby’s heart relaxed.  

Part one was done successfully. 

Now on to a new life where he knew nobody or anything. A life where he can live comfortably without working as a finance manager at a bank where his nametag read ‘William Gilmore’. 

A bank where most of his coworkers called him ‘Good Will.’