James Frey - Feed

As John left the window, Mary squeezed my hand. I kissed her and grabbed my M1911.

“Don’t say it,” I said as she stared at me. “I’ll be careful.”

But even as I took the pistol and tucked it in the back of my pants, hidden under my shirt, I could feel myself trembling. Still, I climbed out of the Suburban and walked back to the Skylark, where the six of us robbers gathered. Kat walked with me. She was in a T-shirt and jeans.

“I didn’t expect to be doing this today,” Kat said to me.

I put my hands in my pockets to hide their trembling. “You’ll do great,” I said. “We’ve practiced working as a team. And we have both Walter and John to help us, and they know what they’re doing. We just need to make sure we keep Eugene under control.”

“He’s done this kind of thing before,” she assured me.

“I know what he’s done.”

“Listen,” Kat said. “I know you hate him for what happened at the gun store. But we have to work together. This whole trip to Turkey and Iraq is going to be for nothing if we can’t work together.”

“I know it,” I said.

She touched my arm. “It’s going to be fine.”

“We’re robbing a bank.”

“We need to. We can’t buy plane tickets if we don’t. We have to live in Turkey and Baghdad for three weeks, remember.”

I stopped, and looked at her. “I trust you,” I said. “I just don’t know what to do about him.”

“I trust you, too,” she said. “It’ll work out. We’ll just rely on each other. Just you and me. We’ll let Eugene take care of his jobs, but think about this. It’s just you and me. We can do this, together.”

I looked into her green eyes. I didn’t know what it was. But I believed her. She hugged me and told me it was all going to be okay, and then we walked to the car.

Molly sat in the driver’s seat, her long red hair hidden under a very convincing Afro wig.

I climbed in beside John. Eugene was next to him. Kat took the front seat.

“This is going to be easy,” Eugene said as the other three vehicles pulled away on their way to Reno. “Walter, you stand outside and don’t let anyone in or out. We want customers in there. Anyone we can threaten with a gun is going to be important. John, you go in first and ask to open a checking account. Mike, take two hundreds with you and ask the teller to give you change. Kat, you go with him. Act like you’re filling out a form—a deposit slip or something. I’ll be the last in. You’re all there backing me up if something goes wrong. Make sure there are no heroes. This isn’t going to be a quiet robbery—I’m going to be loud, get in their faces. Don’t show your guns unless you have to. Kat and Mike, don’t even get into the action unless you have to. Just act normal. Molly, how long will it take for you to steal new wheels?”

“Faster than it will take you to rob the bank.”

“Okay, good.” He looked at his watch. It was 20 minutes from closing time. “Let’s go.”

Molly drove three blocks down and turned into a parking lot that was shared by the bank, an insurance company, and a Burger King.

Everyone checked their guns. John and Kat had pistols, like me, but Eugene carried the Beretta Model 12 submachine gun that he’d been practicing with all summer. All the guys had beards, and we all smelled of wood smoke. I doubted we’d really blend into the crowd very well.

Eugene put a backpack on.

John hopped out of the car and sauntered to the door. He looked so relaxed. I didn’t know how he did it. Especially with Eugene calling the shots.

I got out of the car and walked into the bank. There was a line of just two people. Three tellers were at their stations, helping customers. I made a show of pulling money out of my pocket.

The pistol seemed so heavy and so bulky against my back, only hidden by my Los Angeles Rams T-shirt. I felt very exposed, like this was the dumbest thing I could be doing. I started breathing too fast, and I tried to use the meditation techniques John had taught us all at camp, forcing myself to breathe five times per minute.

The door squeaked as Kat came in behind me. She went to the table in the middle of the bank and started filling out a deposit slip.

I watched her. Her fingers were shaking as she tried to separate one slip from the others behind it.

Eugene kicked in the door; its glass cracked with a loud pop. “If anyone touches the silent alarm I’ll kill every single person in this bank,” he shouted, waving his gun back and forth. “If I hear a siren, you’re all dead. And don’t test me—I’ve already got two murder charges in Sacramento. I’m getting the chair whether I kill all of you or not, so don’t test me.”

The bank guard, an older man with a beer belly, backed away from Eugene. His voice shook as he spoke. “Don’t do it, son.”

“I’m only going to do it if I hear a siren, or if some idiot tries to be a hero. Now give me your gun.”

The two customers in front of me had fallen to the floor and were hiding behind a narrow counter. I dropped down next to them.

The guard unholstered his revolver and very slowly laid the gun on the floor. Eugene picked it up and shoved it in the back of his pants.

Eugene pointed his gun at the first teller, a young man in a suit and tie. “Did you touch the alarm?”

“No sir.”

“How about you?” He pointed to the woman at the next stall. She shook her head. The man on the end raised his hands and said, “I didn’t either.”

“Was I talking to you?” Eugene shouted. “Now find a bag and put all the money you have in it. Empty all the drawers. Where’s the bank manager?”

The man sitting at a desk with John stood. John very calmly pulled his gun from his belt and pointed it at the manager.

“Hi,” John said, smiling casually and cocking his gun.

Eugene walked to the counter and held his submachine gun up to the customer—an overweight woman with an enormous purse. “She’s dead if I don’t see more money coming, Mr. Manager.”

“We put the money in a time-lock safe,” the manager said.

“She’s dead if I don’t see more money coming,” Eugene repeated. “Did I mention this gun fires five hundred fifty rounds per minute? But don’t worry, because it only has forty in the magazine.”

“We don’t have any more,” the manager pleaded.

John spoke. “Well, I reckon you’d better find some more. How about everybody in here empties their wallets?”

Eugene shouted again. “That’s right. Everything out of your pockets. Jewelry, too.”

The woman next to me on the floor touched a gold chain with a heart pendant on her neck, trying to hide it behind her hand, but I stood up and pulled my gun. “Hand it over.”

I took the necklace and pocketed it. Then I reached in her purse and found sixty dollars. Eugene had the bag of money and was walking back and forth with it.

“Is everybody drained dry?” he asked, and John and I said yes. Kat was still acting like a customer. She’d given her handbag to Eugene.

Eugene tossed the bag of money over to John, who proceeded to empty it on the bank manager’s desk. The manager looked stunned.

“Mr. Manager,” John said, “help me search through this mess and find the dye packs.” The manager slumped back into his chair. There was a lot of loose money, and John scooped all of that up to put it away in the bag. He took the wallets, emptied them, and dropped them on the floor. Meanwhile the manager dejectedly flipped through the bundles of new bills. He put one aside, and John looked at it. “Come on. I know there’s more.”

The manager eventually pulled five stacks of bills from the stash, and John double-checked every one.

He turned to Eugene and said, “I think we’re done here.”