I was friends with two brothers, Chris and William.
I used to go to their house to play card games, and I always seemed to win against William.
Then one day, William asked to see my cards so he could build a deck just like mine. I let him have a look, and then he came back with a deck full of common cards; in card sleeves with sticky notes on the cards with the names of the cards in my deck.
Anyway, I played with him and he lost again. I think he was very upset, because the next time I went over I lost one of my favorite cards, "Harpie's Feather Duster". Chris helped me look for it, and when I couldn't find it I just left.
The next day I came over to see if they had found it, but when I came over, William said he had just traded a friend for a Harpie's Feather Duster card.
He was very suspicious, so I asked to meet his so called friend.
He seemed nice enough, he said, "Yeah, I trade that to Chris."
So then I asked if I could see the rest of his card collection.
A look of panic washed over his face, he glanced over at William who looked very stupefied.
Next week I came over to just play with Chris.
Everything was going splendidly, but then I needed to use the lavatory. -In retrospect, that wasn't such a good idea.-
I left my belongings behind, and went with Chris so he could direct me to their bathroom.
When I returned, everything seemed to be right where I had left it. We continued our game; but later into the game I noticed I was short two cards.
I was very upset. I looked everywhere I could look,
-Except Chris and William, I mean, we were supposed to be friends, and I would feel very hurt if someone accused me of stealing. So I didn't ask them to empty their pockets.
But on the next day, Chris came over to visit. He said he had found one of my missing cards on his Brother's dresser.
I was very furious. And I didn't want to come over to play with them, because I was afraid William would steal more of my cards.
A week and a day later, Chris comes over again to say he had just traded some of his rarest cards to get one of mine back.
I was very happy; until he mentioned he wanted me to him trade to get it back. So I did.
I tried to discuss the matter with their parents,
but to no avail. They just didn't seem to care what kind of devious things their children were doing.
Anyway, I'm very sorry for your loss. I can empathize with your distress.
With all due respect,
~Monty Kensicle