He was almost to the counter. He felt the note he planned to pass to the teller in his pocket like a lead weight. He wondered how things made it this far, or got to be this bad. This was always the point in the robbery he heard the nagging voice in his head tell him ‘it’s not too late, you can still turn around and walk out the door. No harm no foul!’ But he was next in line there was no turning back. The person in front of him finished and walked off. The teller was a polite young woman who smiled at him, waiting for him to step to the counter. He had specifically chosen her to be his next target. She was too young to have been there long enough to know what to do, and he could easily scare her to the point of doing what he asked quickly and without question. He stepped to the counter, pulled the note from his pocket and slid it to her like he’d done a few times before. She picked up the slip of paper, still smiling. A few seconds later the smile fell from her face and shifted to a grim frown, mouth slightly agape. She looked up at him. He said nothing, he had found it better to just let their mind run wild then make empty, meaningless threats. Tears sprung to her eyes and he immediately thought of his own daughters. He had a sudden urge to console her, but refrained.

“Why are you doing this?” She stage whispered to him.

That feeling sprung to his chest again and radiated out to his neck and stomach. Pity, remorse, sorrow. He cleared his throat.

“Just put the money in a bag, no trackers, no dye packs, no silent alarms, no games and everything will be fine. I’ll be on my way and you’ll never see me again.” He replied, sympathetic, yet stern.

He could tell her how he was in debt, lost his job due to the pandemic, how he was barely keeping his head above water, marriage in shambles because of it, but none of that would matter to her, rightfully so. All she’d care about is that a man is stealing from her.

She shoved the money into a paper bag as fast as she could and handed it to him. He wanted to apologize and explain to her this was the only way he saw out of this pit that circumstance had dug for him, wanted to explain to everyone his nose was just under the surface and if he just had an influx of cash he could get to the surface and take a breath, however fleeting.

“Give the note back.” He said flatly.

She looked at him in confusion but shoved the crumpled piece of paper back in his hand. He always did this to throw the cops. He wasn’t going to tediously plan this robbery, or the ones before it to then be caught by a hand writing analysis. He walked out the door, down the sidewalk, and out of sight. Never running, running drew too much attention. He was several blocks away until he breathed a sigh of relief. He heard sirens but none this way, he was going to get away with it again.