Brian quietly approached his brother Joe, who was manning the ticket counter of the single-plane airline they owned. The airport on Nantucket was a small one, and Brian lowered his voice so as not to be overheard.

"Joe, we've got a problem."

"What is it now?" Joe replied, expecting some wild story from his devil-may-care brother.

"See that guy over there? He's on our next flight, and I think he just pulled a robbery."

At least he's consistent, thought Joe - more silliness from Brian. "What makes you think that?"

"He was just on the phone with someone talking about where to hide the loot."

"Loot? What is he, a '20s gangster?"

"I don't know, Joe. But we've got to find out. I've got an idea."

"I figured you would."

"See, you call him over and tell him there's a problem with his ticket, and I'll look in his bag while he's distracted."

Joe figured going along would at least mean they could make the flight on time. "Okay, but be careful." He opened the PA system. "Would passenger Geraldi please report to the Sandpiper Air counter?"

The man turned and approached the counter. "Mr. Geraldi?" Joe asked. "I need to verify your ticket info."
Geraldi looked annoyed, but confirmed his info in response to Joe's questions. His bag was slung over his shoulder and Brian carefully tried to open it and look inside. After a few more questions, Geraldi became annoyed, saying "Look, if you don't want me on your plane, there's another airline right over there," turning to point to the other airline counter. As he did, he bumped into Brian and realized what was happening. He pulled a gun from his coat and discreetly pointed it across the counter at Joe, so that only Joe and Brian could see it.

"Okay," said Geraldi, "the three of us are going in there," pointing to Joe's office behind the counter, "and if you try anything, this one gets it," he added, gesturing toward Joe.

"Okay, we're going," said Joe. "Don't aggravate him, Brian."

Brian had a distinctly non-amused look on his face. "No problem."

-------------------------

Once in the office, Geraldi locked the door to the terminal and waved his gun around. "Okay, here's the deal. No way am I getting on your plane now. You, you got a car here?" he asked Joe, who was standing against the office wall with Brian, their hands raised.

"Yeah, it's out behind the hangar."

"When it gets dark, I'm taking it and getting out of here. We'll just make friends till then."

The door into the hangar flew open and Lowell, the mechanic, entered the office. "Joe, the plane's ready for takeoff. Hey, what's going on here?" he said, seeing Geraldi and the gun.

"We're keeping this nice man company for a couple of hours," Brian quipped.

Lowell nodded. "Okay, well, one of you will take the flight, right?"

"There ain't gonna be a flight," said Geraldi. "You got some rope around here?" he asked Lowell.

"Nope, no rope here at all," said Lowell. Brian and Joe exchanged a guarded look, and Lowell reached into one of the pockets in his overalls. "I've got these, though," he added, producing a handful of long zip-ties.

"Great idea, Lowell," Brian said sarcastically.

"It is, Brian," Lowell responded. "If I used rope to gather the engine hoses together it'd get singed, but these work great."

Brian sighed. "Lowell, he doesn't want to gather hoses, he wants to tie us up!"

"That's right," said Geraldi, gesturing at Lowell. "Now you take those and tie these guys' hands and feet."

Lowell began strapping Brian's hands behind him, saying, "All right, but I'm not gonna have enough left to finish work on the engine."

-------------------------

A few minutes later Joe, Brian and Lowell were sitting with their backs to the office wall, their hands tied behind them and their feet tied. Geraldi had taken a couple more of the zip-ties and fastened Lowell's right upper arm to Brian's left, and Brian's right arm to Joe's left, to further immobilize the men.
Geraldi looked out the window into the terminal. "There's a woman at the counter. Call her and tell her to cancel today's flight." He brought the desk phone over toward Joe.

"That's Fay. She'll wonder why we're canceling."

"Then you better make up a good excuse," said Geraldi, as he held the receiver to Joe's ear and pressed the button on the phone marked "Counter".

Joe spoke into the phone. "Fay, we'll be canceling today's flight. Would you make the announcement, and then you can go home... No, we can't have that talk about the ticketing system today. I'm - I'm a little tied up right now. Just go on home, okay?"

Geraldi hung up the phone, and began looking through the room's shelves and cabinets. "Now, one last thing. We're gonna be here for a few more hours and I want to make sure you guys stay quiet. Ah, this'll do it," he said, finding several hand towels in a drawer.

"Joe, I've told you about your obsession with cleanliness. See what it gets you?" said Brian.

Geraldi went over to the three, gagged them with the hand towels and settled in to wait.

-------------------------

Some time later Geraldi was gone, having fished the car keys out of Joe's pocket, and the guys sprung to action insofar as they could. Joe leaned his cheek in Brian's direction hoping that Brian would take the hint to try extracting Joe's gag with his mouth. A few minutes later Joe was able to speak.

"Okay, guys, let's see if we can stand up." The three wriggled up the wall using their backs, and soon were standing. Joe then worked Brian's gag loose and Brian did the same for Lowell.

"Let's try to get over to my desk," Joe said, "I've got a knife in there."

The men hopped awkwardly to the desk, but when Joe got hold of the knife and tried to cut his hands free he found that the knife was too dull. "Shit. We need to find something else," Joe said.
Brian was in the most difficult position of the three, being in the center, and had had enough. "I've got a better idea." He began yelling for help loudly and the others joined in.

It wasn't long before someone in the terminal took notice of their yelling and alerted Roy, who ran the competing airline. Roy found some tools and broke the lock on Joe's office door, and soon had freed the three men.

Roy gave Lowell a dirty look. "So this is where you've been all day - we should dock your pay, you know."

"Well, if you think so," said Lowell, "but I did get some good ideas for games at next year's picnic. We should try this instead of the three-legged race - it's a lot more challenging."

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