THE HARRIS FOUR

They eyeballed the bank from across the street, parked in an alley.

“The time is 11:47AM. We have exactly an hour before we need to be in Hart Park with the money. If we don’t get it, we are dead, everyone understands?” Bek asked. Everyone nods.

All of them worked on their preparation tasks, Bek loaded her pistol, June had cleaned out the car and somehow changed one of the numbers on the license plate, Izzy’s fully charged drill sat idly in her lap, and Max emptied out his duffle bag.

“How far away is the park?” Max asked, his curly red hair falling in his eyes.

“Fourteen minutes, no traffic.” June responded, adjusting the seat warmer.

A few minutes pass and the group is ready. Everyone puts their masks on, June wears a ski mask colored yellow with multi-colored flowers, Bek wears a green bird mask, Izzy wears a blue bird mask, and Max wears a brown bear mask. June had picked something simple since she is the getaway driver. Bek and Izzy wanted to match, fearing the outcome of the planned robbery, and Max was inspired by the bear, wanting to appear strong to the crowd.

At exactly 11:53, Bek, Izzy, and Max file out of the car, weapons in hand.

“Get down on the ground! Now!” Bek yelled, deviantly. The civilians cower in fear and subtly get to the ground. Bek’s pistol pointed at different people, first the buff guy who was trying to get his check cashed, then the old lady who struggled to get down, and finally, the child holding his mother’s hand tightly.

Izzy and Max filter through the crowd to the back area of the bank. They locate the safe easily thanks to the blueprints June had been able to obtain through some serious internet scouting, and Izzy starts drilling. Max checks his watch. 11:57.

“Nobody moves, and nobody gets hurt. Simple.” Bek states. Tears fell from the child’s eyes as he tried as hard as he could to stay still, still gripping his mother’s hand. Normally, a showing of clear emotion would trigger Bek, but with the mask on, it’s like she was a new person.

At 12:10, Bek shot a civilian. The gunshot rang through the steel building, echoing off the walls. It had been a surprise to everyone, including Bek. Her finger had been on the trigger, to assert dominance, when she had a muscle spasm in her hand and accidentally shot a man in the thigh. But she couldn’t lose what she had going with the crowd, so she played it off as if she meant to.

“You were reaching into your pocket! How was I supposed to know you didn’t have a gun?!” Bek screamed at the man, who now cowards in a growing pool of blood.

“I was just adjusting myself on the ground! I have arthritis!” The man wallowed in pain. Bek’s emotions were high and she was thankful for the mask in this moment so no one could see the fresh tears in her eyes. She hadn’t meant to hurt the man, their plan never involved casualties.

With the smell of fresh blood in the air, Izzy and Max came running from the vault area, their duffle bags now weighing down significantly. They take in the scene with the man and the blood. Izzy starts to walk to the man to help him but her brother holds her back.

“We gotta go.” Max whispers to her. And he would be correct, with the growing sirens in the distance.

Bek took one last look at the crowd. The buff man began to crawl toward the bleeding man. The child cried into his mother’s chest as she tried to shield his eyes from the scene. All three of them shuffle out of the bank, their demeanor now rattled from seeing all the blood and actually having stolen three million from the Harris Street Bank.

“Go!” They all screamed at June. She whipped the car into drive and sped down a nearby alley.

“Did you get it all?” Bek asked quietly.

“Yes we did. Of course we did. Because we held up our part of the plan. Why the fuck was their a man who had been shot on the floor?!” Izzy yelled.

“A hostage was shot?!” June yelled.

“It was an accident! My finger twitched and it just happened so fast. I’m sorry!” Bek yelled back, her tears flowing freely down her face and dripping out the bottom of her mask.

The car stayed silent for a while. They listened for approaching sirens but they only got more distant as they drove.

12:25 comes and they pull into the secluded parking lot of Hart Park, off where the trees are denser.

Way ahead of the schedule, they go ahead and change clothes in the nearby bathrooms and June adjusts the license plate back to its original state.

“Iz, I can’t believe I shot someone.” Bek said quietly.

“It could’ve happened to any of us. I’m sure he’s fine.” Izzy said.

The drop comes and goes, and the four of them get to live another day. The next day in the papers, the ‘Harris Four’ robbed millions from the Harris Street Bank. One causality. Men are still at large and are known to be armed and dangerous.

Max dropped the newspaper on the table as June dived into the pool. He watched the girls splash around in the water, except for Bek, who sat by the pool, kicking her feet around in the water silently.

Madelyne Timmons is a 22-years-old from Athens, Georgia. She is currently in school for a creative writing degree. She is very passionate about writing and has been since she was a kid.