The Punishment

Levi liked the sweater he was wearing today, he felt it hugged his profile nicely, but he was struggling with how the collars of his dress shirt were laying out of the neck hole unevenly. Through the morning he kept pinching and adjusting them only for them to relentlessly fall back into place, sloppy and uneven. Every time he glanced to Sonya he imagined he might catch her eye, and maybe she'd be seduced by his fashion sense. He wasn't bold enough to actually engage her, and always hoped she would approach him. He hoped she might notice his beautiful food at lunch or the book he was reading and he'd have her attention fleetingly before fading into the background.

Distracted with these thoughts he paid little attention to the line that had formed in front of his teller window. A line of non-descript faces doing routine transactions all day. Rarely would a customer's financial dealings be extraordinary enough to break the monotony of the day. The next man approached the teller window setting down his black leather-bound notebook on the counter. He ripped out a sheet of paper and scrawled some words. Sonya walked behind Levi to the drive thru at that moment, her purple blouse and smile were entrancing.

With his attention back to his customer Levi spoke, "Welcome to Grand Avenue Bank. How may I assist you today?". The man nodded his head gesturing to his note and for an instant Levi thought about the silent alert for robberies. This man didn't look the type, not dressed poorly, or nice, average, and unalarming. He spun the sheet of paper off the top of the black notebook and read. "I HAVE A GUN. THIS IS NOT A ROBBERY. THIS ENVELOPE HAS $20,000. TAKE IT NO ONE WILL BE HARMED! DO NOT SET OFF AN ALARM!!!".

"Sir?", Levi fumbled to speak, "I don't understand.". With that he noticed an envelope on the counter. Should he press the alarm? They had explicit training to press the alarm button if there was an attempted robbery, but this wasn't a robbery. With an abrupt turn and brisk exit the man left Levi puzzled calling to him, "Sir?". The bank manager approached asking if Levi was okay, which he was, and stated such. The next woman in line moved forward ready to conduct her business. Levi unsure what else to do took the envelope and set it below in front of him.

The line of customers finally cleared after half an hour. The range of thoughts going through his mind ranged from thinking it was a mistake to a high-level conspiracy. There were cameras covering all areas of the bank. Surely, he was being watched and this was a test and he failed. Was he supposed to have hit the alarm? Would he be retrained? That was a misery he couldn't endure. If you fail the first test, is the second to notify the bank manager? Having to talk to Evan the bank manager about this was not a situation he relished going into either. "At this point they are probably going to talk to me and re-train me anyhow, I might as well wait for the inevitable.", he thought.

The "inevitable", did not come before it was time to take his lunch break. Looking plaintively at the envelope he regretted allowing this predicament and was starting to feel ill. What if it just fell off the counter into the trashcan, it's reasonable to think he might have forgotten about it, and it was just an accident. It accidentally got bumped into the trash, that's something that can just happen right? His eyes fell on the clock on the wall and the security camera by it. He put the CLOSED sign up at his window, slid the envelope into his pants pocket and left for lunch.

His home-made salmon and asparagus looked restaurant quality perfect on his plate. His copy of "Crime and Punishment" sat on the table next to it. Surely these might attract Sonya's attention, he thought while he acted casually distracted for a bit to leave them in view longer. Sonya barely gave Levi a glance walking from the microwave to another table to have lunch with Eleanor from the drive-thru. To his dismay "family man" Dan noticed his book and commented on the complexity of the story. "Fuck off Dan. I don't want to chat with you.", he thought. Catching the nonplussed reaction, Dan mumbled "Okay then.", and left Levi to bask in his own sense of superiority.

While he ate he began to ruminate on the events of the morning. Realizing he needed to give heavy consideration on how to proceed with the envelope. When he tried to recall the scene, he couldn't remember a single detail of the man who gave it to him, blank face, plain clothes, nothing remarkable at all. If the roles were reversed, Levi in his nice clothing would have surely stood out to this average forgettable man. After lunch he covertly moved the envelope to his assigned personal storage locker and muddled on through the rest or the day.

At closing Evan made his standard rounds, placing his hand on Levi's shoulder in a convivial way and wishing him, "a nice evening". Levi loathed this part of the day, all so false and contrived, always following the same cadence of this performance every single time. This was the chance to say something and put an end to the envelope problem, but he'd let it pass. He uncomfortably watched each camera as he took the envelope from his locker, made his way across the lobby giving forced smiles to co-workers as he left. He made it out the door and to the sidewalk and was finally able to force himself to take a breath. The un-nerving anxiety was now replaced with an overwhelming calm.

He hopped off the subway and fastidiously made his way home. Usually he needed some time to wind down from the day, but today he just shut all of his window shades. He'd been stressing all day over this envelope, but had yet to open it. It was sealed, but felt like it held a stack of notes. It flexed as if its contents were not new and crisp. He fished his Montblanc letter opener into the gap and sliced the fold open. He peered inside to find the familiar green of currency. Through the evening he counted through it twice, his teller's accuracy arriving at the same count each time, $20,000 exactly. He found it quite odd that the denominations varied and they were not new bills, leaving a wild guess as to its source. When he finished the examination, he hit his bed exhausted. Despite the sick feeling in his stomach and the thoughts repeating and re-calculating over and over in his mind he drifted into a heavy sleep.

Levi had decided that it was best to conceal the money and put it out of his mind. For two weeks he was able to do this and life went on as normal. Work during the week, music, books and walks in the park on the weekend. On mid-Thursday morning of the second week his co-workers were buzzing about with each other. He recalled a morose pallor to Evan's face of late as he overheard whispers that bank inspectors were visiting. Just before lunch Levi was called into the depository room. He was sat at a small table usually meant for customers to go through safe deposit boxes in privacy. Soon a well-dressed man sat down with him while another boorish looking man in a obviously cheap brown single breasted suit stood by the doorway.

The well-dressed man asked pretty standard questions about bank operations and was curious if Levi had noticed any irregularities. He couldn't help but be distracted by the unmannerly indifference of the man in brown while he spoke. Levi's answers were clear, concise, and expressed with much candor, yet this man couldn't be bothered to regard them as having importance. The bank examiner thanked him for his report and excused himself. Levi stood to leave as well when the man in the brown suit ushered him to sit down again. He immediately felt his face flush being asked to follow commands like a dog from this man. The man sat and introduced himself as a detective for the local police. He was investigating a crime, but would not give any more information when Levi pressed for detail. Surprised Levi was unsure of himself when asked about a man that came into the bank two weeks prior and had visited his line. He told the detective that he didn't remember this as he deals with a lot of customers every day. The detective's eyes narrowed as he reminded Levi that he knows this man was in his line. Levi at this moment knew that this was a game, this brutish man thought he was going to outwit him. He was determined this man would get nothing from him.

"What did the note say?", he wasn't prepared for the detective to have known there was a note. The detective locked eyes with him, "He took out a black notebook, wrote something to you and set it on the counter." He paused for the gravitas of the words to sit, "What did he write?". Levi fired through the events he could recall quickly and decided if the detective reviewed video he could only prove a few things happened. With that settled in his mind, he went on record that it was gibberish scrawled on the note. "The man seemed out of sorts, and left before performing any transaction with the bank.", Levi said. At this the detective smiled, "What if I told you I have the note, and I know what it says?" This was a possibility as the man took the note when he left, if only for vanities sake Levi stayed resolute on his answer. "You must not have the same note I was given.", he said. Angrily the detective ended the interview and said he would be visiting again.

Anxiety wracked his nerves the rest of the day. The only bright moment was Sonya showing a pique interest in what Levi had talked to the investigators about. Savoring his moment with her, he gave Sonya a drawn out version of events with some anecdotes thrown in to prolong the story. He was on a high from his lunch conversation with Sonya until he saw her in Evan's office moments later. Infuriated he knew that she was relaying information to him, he'd let his guard down and had been made a stooge.

For the next week he was a wreck, his uneasiness and mistrust were getting the better of him. Every day he would think he noticed cars with tinted windows always about a block away following him. He had an odd visit from the tax assessor questioning whether he had declared all of his earnings. His feelings of power and superiority were replaced with worry and uncertainty. It was a short time before he decided that there was only one course of action to end his torment. He visited the pawn brokers shop and chose a snub-nosed revolver from the case. It was a with a foreboding cold sweat that he made the walk to the inevitable end to this circumstance. He tore a page from his black notebook and wrote the note and slid it to the teller. "I HAVE A GUN. THIS IS NOT A ROBBERY. THIS ENVELOPE HAS $20,000. TAKE IT NO ONE WILL BE HARMED! DO NOT SET OFF AN ALARM!!!".