11 comments

Crime Drama Friendship

I assumed the mask was for keeping the dust out of his lungs. Here in Alva, Oklahoma it was pretty normal at the time. I hated those hideous-looking things. They always ruined my makeup and made me question what the point was. They made it hard to breathe anyway, so how was that any better than the dust? We were all sick and tired of wearing them, fed up with the economy, and desperate for any kind of change just to break the monotony of the Hoover years.


The fine, beige particles bellowed through the door of the bank in a small cloud as the young man closed it behind him. It covered his eyebrows and the tops of his shoes, and stuck to the ragged bandana like it was a cloth magnet while the vague howl of the wind outside emphasized how alone in this building we two were.

I sent a smile of sympathy his way when he approached the iron bars separating us at the teller window. His thin, short body was shaking. But knowing what I would come to know later, it wasn't only because of fear.


"Yes. May I help you?" I asked in my professional voice. I really meant more than that. I wanted to find out what was going on in his life to cause this frailty. He seemed like a nice enough guy, even with the mask and all the dust covering him.


The bandana wrinkled, suggesting he was about to speak. Then nothing.


"Here to make a withdrawal?" I asked, feeling the inklings of an uncertain day as he repeatedly alternated between glaring at me and glaring behind him.


"Yeah...a withdrawal, please."


The fabric muffled an already calm and pleasant-sounding voice, which was a peculiar contrast to his spasmodic body language.


"Alrighty," I said with my usual nervous giggle while digging out the paper for him to sign. "You'll have to excuse my slowness; I'm relatively new here. What's the name on the account?"


After a more pronounced, rapid, and mechanical switch of gazes, he reached into his musty-looking jacket. Both the loudness of the click and the icy realization of what it was made my heart skip a beat. He aimed the barrel at me - more like, around me - and the voice became every bit as shaky as the body.


"Ma'am...please."


Not the usual: 'Give me all your money or else...'; more like a plea for help. 


Confused by a half-and-half mixture of pity and panic, I allowed the threat of the bullet to lead us to the back of the bank, where the safe was. My own shaky, thin fingers battled to line the numbers on the dial correctly without him seeing the exact combination.


In total, there was thirty-two thousand dollars, all kept in wrapped stacks of one thousand a piece. That was a fortune considering the average person at the time could barely afford a loaf of bread. Most of that money had been deposited a few years ago by folks with the foresight to sell their stocks before it was too late. This was their money. They needed it now, more than ever. I glanced over my shoulder at him, conflicted over whether or not to take a chance on the gun being fake. Whether or not to trust his aim if it wasn't.


"Give me one hundred," he ordered in a way that sounded more like a request.


"Sir, we don't have that much here! I can give you thirty-two." I paused, certain he could hear my heart thumping inside my scrawny chest. "Plus my jewelry, if that's any help."


"I meant: One hundred dollars!"


I almost laughed, but his rosy ears and the little crinkle at the top of his slender nose as it protruded above the top hem behind the bandana told me he was being serious. Then, just as I was about to plead with him that what he was doing wasn't worth the consequences, I heard the back door squeak open. It was the bank manager.


His own mask flew off to reveal a gaping mouth, and before I could utter a word, he had the man tackled to the ground, punching at his face, his bald head streaking with sweat beads that turned to mud as they absorbed the dust.


"Fred! Fred!" I shrieked.


As he yanked the young man to his feet by his collar, I felt faint.


"Go get the sheriff!" he barked.


"Fred! He just needs a hundred dollars! Can't we just give it to him and forget about it?"


By the time I'd hammered out the words, Fred had taken possession of the firearm, with the barrel rammed into his bandana. "Ever heard of a thing called principle, Claudia? Bank robbery is bank robbery. Now go get the sheriff, I said!"


I took off running through the door and down the hazy mid-day street. But as the grit from all the plowed fields in America's heartland swirled in the air, pelting my eyes and nostrils - nearly choking me - a different kind of storm brewed within. To report or not? I knew this man was innocent. Yes, he had committed a crime. But he was not a criminal. Which was more important to me: My job or my morals? Technicalities or helping out a fellow victim in these hard times?


***


My name is "806". That's the only name I've known for the last thirty years. I walk around with it printed on the front and back of these plain-looking clothes all day, every day. Even the stripes seem sadistically designed to remind me that I'm in. When you've seen nothing but bars for ages, you tend to get a little eccentric about analyzing things. 


I heard about the world here and there. How we recovered from the stock market crash finally after a second World War; how glorious the entire fifties were, with everyone free now living middle-class lives with perfect nuclear families, eating apple pie and playing baseball; how exciting this new-fangled music called Rock & Roll was; and speaking of "nuclear", how we're now in the middle of a crazy, unheard of type of war which involves seeing which country can build up the biggest stockpile of these "peace-keeping" weapons.


I heard about the concentration camps, and it saddened me and still does. Being a prisoner myself, I don't have to imagine what that was like. The conditions here are unspeakable. I truly feel no one should have to go through this. The only difference between those prisoners and myself is they were prisoners of war; I became a prisoner by choice.


I still have nightmares about the month they put me in solitary confinement. They were remodeling Cell Block 12 (so they said) and solitary was the only empty space they had for the time being. The last thing I saw before the echoing iron door slammed shut was the smile. I don't think all of those spiders were there on their own, I think he put them in there as a form of retribution.


He had this thing for my best friend in the whole world, Claudia, and he was jealous. I say "best friend" because she's been there for me as much as humanly possible these entire thirty years. She writes, she visits, sends me gourmet food that I have to hide and guard with my life in order to enjoy. She's tried more than once to help me appeal for a reduced sentence, on the grounds that the amount of money I stole was so trivial it couldn't technically count as bank robbery; on the grounds that this was a crime of desperation and temporary insanity rather than a crime of pre-meditation; and on the grounds of my record of good behavior before and since. All appeals were denied.


It was a crime, and there was no excuse for it. Fred was right. Just like there was no excuse for whoever had broken into my house and stolen my stash of money the week before I walked into that bank. I'd been jobless for months because of this depression, and that stash was the only thing standing between me and starvation. I reckon whoever stole it was probably in about the same shape as me, so I've long since forgiven them.


Just as I've long since forgiven Claudia. She was simply trying to save her skin like we all were in our own ways. Honestly, I'm glad for her sake that she did what she was told. The old bank, with all its dim memories, was torn down in '52 and rebuilt to be more modern. Claudia is now the manager there. I'm so very proud of her.


I wish I could say I've come a long ways myself, but that's kind of hard to do when the farthest you can ever get is that gray, life-draining, wire-crowned wall surrounding your yard. But if I seem a little less miserable today compared to my normal pale, dead self it's for good reason.


Tomorrow morning, those walls will no longer separate us. Tomorrow morning, I will be starting my life all over again at age fifty-one.


***


We're both speechless at first. Smiling from ear to ear as the ice of the past three decades of my dear friend's life begins its slow, trickling thaw. Without a doubt, we both would have done things very differently that dungy, dust-saturated morning had we to live it all over again. As we examine each other while seated in my '59 Chevy with its sweet power-steering, my eyes see a prematurely-aged man who's still as frail as he was when he so reluctantly and hesitatingly carried out his crime. But in my mind's eye, I see a real gentleman whose tearful glint sparkles with hope. I already know he's forgiven me as I've forgiven him. I will spend the rest of my existence doing what I can to help him move past this dark chapter. 


A dry heave from the motion sickness doubles him over for a moment as we merge onto the newly-paved "interstate" highway. Of course it does! He's never experienced sixty-five miles per hour before. I reach over and pat him on the back. Slowly, a starry expression forms on his face as his equilibrium adjusts.


"It's...it's so beautiful!" he remarks with childlike fascination.


To me, it had been just another road. But now, I join him in the admiration. The angelic white of the smooth concrete as the warm sun caresses it. The ambient lullaby of wheels and road living together in harmony as the Chevy traverses this spacious stone ribbon winding its way across America. The freedom. His freedom, my freedom, our freedom.


"I think I like this 'Ike' fella they got in Washington now," he states.


I turn my head to my window to let out a discreet giggle. I don't think he realizes yet that he just paraphrased a campaign slogan.


"The sky's the limit now," I say as we both look straight ahead at the grassy, clean horizon.


November 17, 2020 22:41

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

11 comments

Tom .
01:02 Nov 18, 2020

This is an interesting take on the prompt. I think the three sections need the identity of the reader fleshed out at the beginning of each of their parts. I pictured the teller as first as male, then the prisoner as female thinking and expecting a clever twist. It is well written, I love the period setting. It does feel like it might be missing something. A message to take away. Does that make sense?

Reply

Gip Roberts
20:52 Nov 18, 2020

Thank you, Tom. I did put a lot of focus on the time period. I wanted this to be more of a true-to-life sad story, with less emphasis on twists and turns. So it wasn't so much about a message as about the mood. I guess: "Whatever you do, don't ever rob a bank" would be about the closest thing to a message this has, haha.

Reply

Tom .
21:10 Nov 18, 2020

Or don't get caught...

Reply

Gip Roberts
21:36 Nov 18, 2020

That too.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
Show 1 reply
Show 1 reply
Kathy Roberts
22:49 Nov 21, 2020

Another happy ending. I enjoyed reading this story. The back and forth thoughts from one of them to the other made it more interesting.It makes me think of how hard it must have been for people back then.

Reply

Gip Roberts
00:03 Nov 22, 2020

Thanks for the comment. Me too. I learned about it in school and heard about it from people like my grandparents. I don't know if I could have survived it or not, but I was determined to see to it that these two folks did :)

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
Greg Gorman
02:30 Nov 30, 2020

Interesting story. I wonder how many people wanted to rob a bank for the sake of being able to get the money they needed. I also wonder how many people were glad to be arrested at that time so they could get a meal and not have to worry about having clean clothes. It was a tough time living in that era... Not that I was there. I wasn't. I heard plenty of stories about it. Here's another story about that time. I wonder what is going through this person's mind as he walks in with the gun. Does he have a family? Who is he trying to support as ...

Reply

Gip Roberts
21:28 Nov 30, 2020

Thanks for your feedback, Greg. I think maybe this guy either deliberately or subconsciously did want to get arrested just so he could have food. My grandparents grew up in the middle of the depression and the Dust Bowl, so I heard plenty from them about what it was like. I realize I have issues with creating character depth and I try to get better with each story. The problem is, one week never gives me near enough time to get my stories right. I always feel like I'm being rushed and it shows. I thought the combination thing made sen...

Reply

Greg Gorman
21:18 Dec 02, 2020

You're welcome. I hope what I offered helps. I know what you mean about the deadline and trying to get it done under pressure. I feel the same way. I try to offer constructive criticism. I don't mean to nit-pick on you. I wouldn't worry about doing too much telling. It's always easier to edit down. If you or a reader feels you're giving too much, just whittle here and there. It's also a short story. I ask questions to help the writer with their ideas, build on them and maybe get some new ones for that story or something in the future.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
Show 1 reply
Avery James
07:56 Nov 25, 2020

I like this a lot, it was a very engaging read. I liked the change of pov when we switched to the prison, like others I thought it was the clerk in jail to begin with and that really helps in thinking about the choice she made in turning him in, the trouble she would have been in. I also enjoyed the ‘I like Ike’ reference at the end, finishing the story with a little beat of humour.

Reply

Gip Roberts
20:53 Nov 25, 2020

Thank you for the comment! I had noticed other writers sometimes change points of view in a story like that, so I thought I'd give it a try. Yes, I'm big on comic relief and I felt like my story could use a little as a finishing touch after all the sadness.

Reply

Show 0 replies
Show 1 reply
RBE | We made a writing app for you (photo) | 2023-02

We made a writing app for you

Yes, you! Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. 100% free, always.