Riches

“Investigate more than what’s on the page,” Noah’s English professor was giving the class the last instructions on their assignment. She had asked the class to read any memoir and write a researched report on it. “Class is dismissed.”

Noah headed to his work at the town’s hardware store. Cooper, Montana was a small college town; it was quiet and simple during the summer, but it thrived during the school year. Noah enjoyed the social part of the town, which was the same reason he liked working at the hardware store.

The store wasn’t busy that day though, and Noah’s boss ended up letting him go home early. On his way home, Noah stopped at the library.

The memoir Noah picked, Riches, was written by Phoenix Malcolm; “Phoenix Malcolm?” Noah asked, thinking the name was too fictional to be real, but it was the shortest memoir he found. He went to his dorm room, and finding it difficult to sleep, he began reading.

I put my hands on the steering wheel and felt a rush throughout my whole body, and maybe that’s what captured me. The excitement, the goosebumps, the adrenaline coursing through my veins, reminding me what I was doing — it all grabbed me by the hand, looked me in the eye. I was in love.

I sat behind the wheel, I carried everyone on my shoulders and we worked. Everyone played a part.

Hunter was our leader: the bravest of us all and willing to take a bullet for any of us if the time ever came. Hunter stayed strong during tense situations, but it was Ryder who was our smartest member. Ryder organized every heist we did; if something went wrong, it was on him.

Ryder was outgoing, tall, handsome, but he never wanted to let on that he was smart. When we first started robbing banks, Ryder stayed quiet, letting us tell him what to do; he never showed signs of what was happening in his brilliant brain. Ryder was the smartest man I knew though, it’s a shame that he got caught up in robbing banks, he could have done anything. He never left us though — he was smart, but more than that, he was loyal; that made him so important.

Ace was different, he had smart moments, but honestly, Ace was purely idiotic. He made the most mistakes out of any of us; if we came close to getting caught, it was because of Ace. I think he enjoyed the times we were almost caught, the times when we literally ran from the law — doing something illegal wasn’t enough of an adrenaline rush, he needed to know that he could do something illegal, nearly be caught, and still get away.

Gloria hated Ace for this. She played a key role in our system and at certain times, she risked the most out of us all. Gloria was great. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever met — just like Ryder, she didn’t belong here, she belonged in a modeling firm or on the big screen. Gloria was our researcher. A month or two before a job, she made her way to the important people (the ones who have the codes or keys to the money vault). It was easy for them to trust her. Her long, shiny black hair, dark skin and voluptuous figure were hard to turn away from; Her eyes were the true secret: a light pastel blue and natural too — dark skin and light blue eyes, how incredibly captivating she was. One look and you were melting, praying she would walk your way or show her spectacular smile. Because of her, we knew every corner to turn, every hallway to walk down, every switch to flip and every lock to break.

Noah thought about the beautiful girls he knew. None of them came close to the description of Gloria.

That was our system: Gloria researched, Ryder planned, Ace did something wrong and weird, I drove the get away car and Hunter led. Hunter must have played sports in high school; he treated our heists like sports games most of the time. He would say “If you make a mistake, shake it off and keep focus, don’t give up.” He said most of stuff on the way to the bank. I don’t know what he was like during the robbery — I never actually went in with them. It was easier for me to drive away if my hands were already on the wheel and my foot was hovering over the gas pedal.

I didn’t want to go in either, I was a good driver; that’s what they needed me for. I didn’t need to be carrying a gun and shouting at innocent people. The only time I ever considered coming in was during our last robbery. Everyone was to be back in the van at half past four, but it was nearly five-o’clock and no sign of anyone.

It was quiet. No sirens. No shouting. I could only hear was the ringing that started after the gunshots. There must have been five or six shots in a row, then silence. It was like the world wasn’t even spinning anymore.

The next day was Saturday, and Noah was glad. It had been a long week of school. He looked at his phone and noticed a weather warning had been issued for his area, suggesting everyone stay off the roads because of the ice and snow that had accumulated overnight. Noah’s roommate was gone, so he had his dorm room to himself; it felt like a good day to stay inside and relax.

Noah cleaned up his room a little, started a load of laundry, showered and got some breakfast, but it wasn’t long before he found himself with nothing to do. He grabbed the member — which intrigued him very much — and resumed his reading.

Everyone came running out of the bank before I had to go in, but they were traumatized. I had never seen them like that. No one said a word, or maybe I didn’t hear them because of the ringing.

Usually the drive back is celebratory and exciting, dollar bills flying through the air; this time it was somber, spine-chilling. I drove slowly; no one told me to speed up, no one told me anything at all. My imagination ran wild and I thought I knew what happened in there, but I wanted them to correct me, tell me it wasn’t what I was thinking. I wanted them to say that everything was fine, but nothing. No one spoke until we hid the money and were safe. It wasn’t until then that I learned about what had really happened. So here it is, our very last bank robbery:

Gloria drew a rough blueprint of the bank, “It’s easy to access the vault if you use the entrance by the parking lot instead of the one by the street.” She pointed to the doors and led her hand to the bank lobby, “On the left are a few tellers, but you’ll have the most difficulties to the right. There’s about twelve tellers there. You’ll have to move past them to get to the vault.” Gloria cleared her throat, “So from the entrance, you’ll go right, left, left again and then straight and there’s the vault.”

“Right, left, left, and straight,” Hunter repeated, “You can make a plan with that right?” He asked Ryder. Ryder nodded calmly.

“The lock is in the upper right-hand corner of the door, it’s a combination lock without numbers. Turn it eight clicks to the right, five back to the left, and one more to the right. That should work,.”

Hunter wrote the sequence on the palm of his hand, “Okay, is there anything else we should know?” Gloria shook her head.

“Tomorrow’s payday everyone,” Hunter said with a smile.

I should mention that this bank robbery was different from others we had done, those had been a few towns or even states over; this one was local. It was the first and last time we robbed our local bank, in Romona, Montana.

Noah lifted his eyes from the page in thought. Romona was only about a forty-five minute drive from Cooper.

No one slept that night. It was more than jitters and butterflies we felt; it was sympathy. No one said it, but we felt like we were betraying something, as if robbing a local bank was treason. It was a long, restless night — Ace didn’t even sleep.

It was nearly four-o’clock when we made our way to the bank the next day. Ryder went over the plan — the tenth time or so — and Hunter repeated Gloria’s directions, “Right, left, left and straight.”

Ryder tapped my shoulder, “Park on the corner by the thrift store, when we’re done, you’ll drive us to that abandoned house on 11th, that’s where we’ll drop the cash.” I nodded.

“This will be great you guys,” Hunter said in his huddle-up tone, “if anything goes wrong just shake it off, we got this.”

I drove us around the bank, the four were going to jump out of the van when we drove by it again, “We’ll be back at four thirty,” Ryder said to me.

They jumped out, and walked stealthily to the entrance of the bank; I made my way around the block one more time and parked on the corner near the thrift shop.

Noah had been in Romona once for a school project, he remembered the thrift shop Phoenix mentioned, but he didn’t think there was a bank in the town. He remembered Romona being rundown and depressing. He wondered if this story was even real.

We dropped the money off at the abandoned house somebody finally spoke. “I’m sorry,” Ace said softly. His voice was shaking and he looked like he wanted to cry, “I’m so sorry Hunter.”

Hunter lifted his arm to reach out to Ace, but immediately brought it down in pain; I noticed enormous amounts of blood on his side, he had been shot. He crunched his body down and I could almost hear him breaking. I imagined his skin aching and crumbling off in pieces; his rib bones cracking a little, then giving up completely and shattering, allowing sharp bones to pierce into his lungs as his breathing grew heavier and disturbed. Hunter still stood tall. “How are you?” He asked Gloria, “Are you hurt?”

Gloria looked at Hunter, but quickly dropped her eyes back to the floor as if looking at him pained her, “I’m fine.”

“What happened?” I asked.

Gloria shook her head, stifled a small cry, and hugged herself before letting go altogether and collapsing to the ground with a soft sob.

Hunter’s words were pained,“Everyone was already on the ground when we got in there,” he coughed and a small firework of blood erupted from his mouth. “Someone else was already there.”

I tried putting the pieces together myself: Somebody else was robbing the bank before us; we ended up with the money. Hunter had been shot, but several shots were fired.

“There were only two of them,” Ace was talking now, “but we decided to stick with the plan and be fast.”

“Right, left, left and straight,” Hunter groaned.

“Gloria led us right to the vault.”

“Right, left, left and straight,” Hunter repeated again.

“We made it to the vault…”

“Eight clicks to the right, five back to the left, one more to the right,” Hunter interrupted Ace, the plan was engraved into his mind.

Ryder took over now, “Once we got the money, we tried to make a plan to get out, but Ace dropped his gun and it went off.”

The first shot.

“We grabbed everything and ran, Hunter was the first one, and as soon as we turned the corner, they shot him.”

The second shot.

“We killed them both,” Gloria said, her voice was flat, lifeless Ryder and Ace nodded slowly, staring at the ground now.

The last shots.

“We couldn’t move, it was like we were paralyzed, and once we were able to, it took us a while to get Hunter up, he was unconscious,” Ace’s hands were shaking now. He didn’t say anything else, no one did.

On Monday, Noah planned to drive to Romona, just to see it again, he even skipped work (even though he knew he needed the money). It hadn’t occurred to him that Phoenix Malcolm may have been using fake names and fake towns.

We were caught only four days after the robbery, but Hunter died shortly after. I’m not sure if anyone has found the money we hid, even after I was released, I never went back to that town and I haven’t heard from the other three since.

Noah saw the thrift shop that he remembered, but again no bank. Nobody was out; only one car was parked at the grocery store, the open signs in restaurant windows were flickering on and off.

Noah noticed a museum, HISTORY OF ROMONA.

It was cold on the inside and had a wet smell. The woman sitting behind the counter looked surprised to see someone, “Hello,” she said, not taking her eyes off of Noah.

Noah smiled at her and began walking around the museum. He saw the usual exhibits: the industrial age, the building of local monuments, the founders of the town etc. Turning the last corner of the loop, Noah saw it all. Four large mugshots blown up to poster-size, each one had a name attached to it: GLORIA DAVIS was the first. She was even more beautiful than Noah had imagined, even with tears in her eyes and down her face. ACE KELLY, the second, was scrawny and Noah could see him fidgeting through the photograph. RYDER PRICE, the third, looked strong in his photo, and sure. Lastly, PHOENIX MALCOLM. Phoenix’s face looked worn down, but Noah couldn’t help but notice how handsome and brilliant he was.

He was shocked; he realized the reason the town was so desolate was because all this had happened to them.

The reports were long, and Noah only skimmed over them, he started to pay close attention when the charges were mentioned: THE FOUR WERE CHARGED WITH BANK ROBBERY AND MURDER, THEY ARE SERVING 20 YEARS IN FEDERAL CUSTODY AND WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE IN 15. THE MONEY THAT WAS STOLEN HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND.

Noah left the museum and drove around the town for a while just thinking.

Nearly every house had chipping paint and weeds overwhelming front yards, elbowing each other for room in crowded lawns. Turning onto 10th Street, Noah was aware of the sidewalks; although the trees were dying and gray, their roots had invaded the ground beneath the concrete forcing the sidewalks to be in the shape of small mountains, deep cracks forming at the tops. He ended up on 11th Street, but thought that he had exited the town.

11th Street was barren, only on house stood, surrounded by waste — trash filled the side of the road, old couches and bed springs scattered on the ground; even lawn mowers and broken-down cars were sinking into the untouched earth.

Suddenly, Noah was aware of where he was, you’ll drive us to that abandoned house on 11th. Noah stopped the car where he was, only a few yards from the house; this had to be it — if everything else had been true, could this be any different?

Nervously, he stepped out of the car. His palms were sweating even as the cold wind pierced his skin, begging him to get back in the car. Each step felt forced until Noah stood inches from the door — the hinges were rusted, and the doorknob was missing. Noah pushed the door slightly to reveal dusty floorboards, and shattered glass. Taking his first step inside, Noah’s heart jumped at the sound of the creaking floor, but he kept walking.

Was he actually going to look for that money? Where would he start? Again, the book came back to him, right, left, left, again, and then straight; after seeing her picture, Noah could imagine Gloria saying the words. Right, left, left and straight.

He took a right down the first hallway, it was darker now, but he still managed to see. Right, left…; Noah took the first left, the open door displayed a downstair. Right, left, left again…; Noah reached in his pocket for his phone and turned on his flashlight as he made his was down the steps. At the bottom, to the left, was a small walkway, Right, left, left again, and then straight. The hair on the back of Noah’s neck lifted as he turned into the walkway, each step grew more curious and frightening.

Those steps ended abruptly, as Noah reached a dead end. He was disappointed to find that the walkway only led to a wall, not even a cabinet or picture interrupted is dullness. Thinking he was silly for believing that he would find anything, Noah laughed to himself, reached up and patted the wall. Only he didn’t leave.

Even through the layers of dust, Noah could feel the cold steel body of the wall, it was undoubtedly led somewhere. The lock is in the upper right-hand corner of the door.

He reached up until he found a nob; Turn it eight clicks to the right, five back to the left, and one more to the right. Each click in the nob persuaded Noah’s heart to beat faster until the door unlocked with a loud clunking sound and his heart had seemingly stopped.

He pushed the heavy door open, took three careful steps, and lifted his flashlight, bringing light into the room. A smile larger than Noah knew grew on his face and he didn’t feel so bad about skipping work.