Tonight was the night. Vela had been over the blueprint, what felt like a thousand times already, buzzing with adrenaline. With pursed lips and a flushed face, she looked to her partner in crime for the night and invaded his thoughts. "You look nervous. Are you nervous?" She asked quickly with an inquisitive mind, but feeling hopeful that he would be better than her at calming the nerves. A mixture of excitement and extreme paranoia rushed over her as she was seated in the front with Joey_Merlino in a white, unimposing van, which Vela hoped wouldn't be beat up by the end of the night. Who knows who she might run into, as she remembers the last time she organized a heist, she met with two other people that helped her. That ended... badly. Now, meeting Joey, well... let's say that was last minute. She had once met him at a networking event, where she thought she would just be seeking business opportunities and gathering information from young, vigorous entrepreneurs but later she found herself exiting the building with a potential idea to burglarize one of the richest art empires in America. It would begin a week after their first meeting, with the help from her newfound criminal associate of course. Doing this alone would be entering social suicide, as the gallery was heavily guarded by a secret electronic surveillance scheme. From Vela feeling clueless about how would that pose risks for her and Joey, she made enquiries about the security program. 

Top secret, but she managed to scavenge corrupt agents and awfully mannered, yet competent investigators, to finish the job. In addition to this, one of the conditions she had for this bold move of breaking and entering an exhibition centre was that, if she was to find herself in a very unproductive matter, she would tell herself and Joey that they needed to get out of the mess - fast, and without disruption. Even though she wanted to make a good and strong impression on Joey, Vela knew in her mind that she would rather exit the museum with all her body parts intact without the paintings than successfully taking the prized possessions, but leaving with a missing arm. Or even being left for dead by Joey. She had just met him, and didn't know if she could fully trust him yet, but the interesting exchange of words from their first encounter at the business meet was promising. Unlike her first organized heist, there were many ways for her to escape. The majestic, white art gallery stood tall with four white pillars that supported the front part of the building, and a mahogany solid wood front entry door that hoped to block off money-hungry, fiendish individuals in the evening time. One of the handlers she hired, reported to her that the owner, a proud citizen of America and who had an insanely large figure in his bank account, closed the gallery at 10:00 pm on the dot. 

Surely he wouldn't mind just one painting being stolen from his prestigious art gallery, that contained multiple, expensive pieces? Vela wondered how he would react the next morning to find his famous 'Reigning Men and Women' painting, a beautiful example of a masterpiece. A day after planning with Joey, she decided to take him with her downtown to see the painting that everyone and their mothers were so hyped about. She never had a particular interest in artistic design, but thought maybe Joey would like to admire what they were planning to rob. She was speechless at first sight, and if she were to describe it to a stranger, she would talk about the accurate strokes that were deliberately smudged by the artist to add a realistic effect. The mise en scène was a busy city street, and a large umbrella being held by a lady who had a worried expression on her face, trying to get out of the pouring rain that was coming down hard against her shield. When Vela looked closer at the painting, she could see black cabs that were whizzing past the lady. Around her, there were many people, their faces which were painted similar to hers. Dull and distressed by the rain. Men and women of the same compost heap as rain splattered against the car windows. Vela felt that it was depressing to look at, and she had a pretty good idea why it was such an esteemed piece of artwork. Perhaps to the artist we are like that lady in the rain, who blended extremely well with the sea of sad faces. The depression era reigned down on everyone.