Mentalism

A banker walks into a bar and finds 20 thousand dollars in cash neatly rolled and wrapped in individual unopened toilet paper packaging in the janitors closet. The why is apparent to him, the how remains a mystery. It was the bartender who tipped him off when he walked in, pointing to the closet door towards the end of the bar camouflaged by the dim lighting. It was 1:15am, and he had walked 3 blocks through a maze of backyards, alleyways, and commercial properties to avoid being tailed for reasons he was unsure. Before he walked into the bar, Black Ice, he saw directly across the street from it the very Bank he was the Assistant Manager of; Rosewood Bank.There sat in the front window an easily visible sign of a life sized cutout poster of a model bank teller pointing directly across the street to the front doors of Black Ice. On the corner of the street, about 500 hundred feet way, the banker ran into a homeless man feeding, petting and speaking humanely to 3 cats of different shades. The banker gave him a hundred dollar bill for his hard times, and in return the homeless pedestrian handed the banker a crumpled piece of paper the size of a fortune telling slip with the address of his Bank written on it. He had spotted this lost individual with his feline friends from a parking lot nearby where he found the words MEOW MEOW MEOW spray painted on the side of an abandoned brick apartment complex. He only got here by hopping a fence through the alley way leading to it. Above the fence in the distance, right before he climbed over, the banker could see a digital billboard saying BE GENEROUS THIS YEAR. He found himself in this obscure alley way when he decided to walk through the kitchen of a closing Chinese restaurant. The workers didn’t seem to enjoy this intrusion too well as they yelled at him in their native tongue while conveniently shoving him out the back door into the desolate back street. What convinced the banker to be so bold was the old ENTER THE DRAGON Bruce Lee poster pasted on the kitchen door with the word “dragon” circled in red ink. This caught his attention, seeing as how the banker had a dragon tattoo supplanted on his left forearm. There was no one in the front of the restaurant for they were in the middle of closing, so he took it upon himself to follow his gut. He was dropped off by a cab in front of the CHINESE EXPRESS restaurant where he saw the CHEFS FOR HIRE sign and a still lit OPEN sign signaling for him to come in as if someone had purposely left it that way. The cab driver had driven him all around the city it felt like, for 45 minutes attempting to lose whoever may be following him on his journey to his ultimate destination that he was not yet fully aware of. This cab driver was waiting for him outside of a convenient store before their adventure began. The banker was instructed by the cashier to catch his cab out front after he handed her an expired Mega Ball lottery ticket. He had walked to the convenient store from his condominium about half a mile down the street, looking back repeatedly to see if he was being followed. He was certain that someone was watching. While peering out the window, the banker spoke with his girlfriend Jill before leaving. “Wow Jack, I can’t believe someone was able to steal so much money without being seen. Do they have any idea who it could have been?” The banker responded, “No, no. They don’t know yet. They questioned everybody and had us all take a lie detector test, but nobody was arrested.” “Well, at least YOU didn’t steal it,” said Jill light heartedly. The banker chuckles, “Yea, I don’t think I would have the guts to do something like that just for money. But listen babe, let me call you back in a few minutes. I just want to take a shower and relax my nerves for a minute.” “Ok Jack, I love you.” Before Jill had called, Jack had spent the better part of the night at the precinct for questioning by the local police. He entered his condo unsuspecting of anymore inconsistencies as he emptied his pockets of all his belongings. He pulled out all of the usual suspects; His keys, his wallet, and his business cards. But then he noticed an additional accessory on the inside of his jacket pocket. A little black notebook. Confusingly, Jack opened this suspicious paperback where he found hidden inside an expired Mega Ball lottery ticket and a note written on the open page that said TODAY IS YOUR LUCKY DAY. Jack repeated these words to himself that struck a cord through his brain like a hammer to the liberty bell “TODAY IS YOUR LUCKY DAY.” Jack could hear these words repeating through his mind as if someone were whispering them to him telepathically. He was frozen for a few seconds before Jill called.

A banker walks into a bar. He finds 20 thousand dollars in cash. He realizes that this is the stolen money that went missing from his bank, “but how did it get here?” He wonders. Jack looks back at the bartender, who now nods his head to a man who’s sitting at the end of the bar in a black trench coat, short black top hat, and an obviously fake mustache and nose. Jack closes the closet door and walks over to the mysterious man. “Sit.” Jack sits. Immediately the man SNAPS his fingers causing Jacks entire body to freeze up. He cannot move. “We did it Jack. We successfully robbed your bank.” Jack steady frozen is perplexed by this statement. He can’t even move his mouth. “Don’t worry Jack, you won’t be stuck forever. It’s just a little hypnosis trick. Remember Jack? Of course you don’t,” as the mysterious man in black sips Ale from his mug. “Let me fill you in. You seek Jack, this whole thing was your idea.” Jack is even more confused and panicked. “It was you that came to me with your plan to rob your own bank. Me being the great mentalist that I am, my job was to convince the minds of the guards subconscious that they were to let the new late night janitor, you, to come in and clean the inside of the vault. Of course, I provided you with a fantastic disguise as not to be recognized on camera. You took the money, placed it in the toilet paper rolls, strolled on out and stored them in this bar across the street. Very clever Jack. You later had me wipe your memory of the incident so as to pass any and all questioning procedures that you were guaranteed to face with the rest of the staff. But not to worry, you left yourself a series of clues to lead yourself back to your buried treasure as to reclaim your booty and begin a new life of upscale living. The American dream right Jack? Oh…wait,” SMACK! The mysterious man claps his hands together. Buried memories come flooding back to Jack’s forefront as he begins to remember the entire operation. “ There you go Jack, now you’ve got it. Is it clear now? Of course you didn’t tell me where you hid the money or who else you paid off seeing as how you don’t trust me, so I had to improvise. I was the cab driver that picked you up earlier. Clever right.” Jack remembers something being off about the cab driver. “ Yep, you’ve got it. I’ve been following you and now we’re here. Well, I’ll be gone in a few minutes with your money and you’re going to let me. You know why Jack? Because TODAY IS YOUR LUCKY DAY….” Another bell strikes through Jack’s body sending a rippling effect through his being. He comes back to reality confused and lost. Looking around in a daze. “Hey pal,” gestures the bartender, “we’re shutting down for the night. Time to go.” Jack confusingly responds, “Ok.” He gets up to leave then is halted by “hold up pal, your buddy said you had the tab.” “Buddy?” Jack is struggling to remember. He searches his pockets and is rewarded with the crumpling of a cash bill. He places a hundred dollar bill on the bar counter. On it he discovers scribbled in marker a cat face on top of Benjamin Franklin’s Face and the words TODAY IS YOUR LUCK DAY. Just another mysterious aspect of Jack’s night in his book, for that’s all he can remember.