Very Brave Or Very Stupid
1972 Words
She'd seen plenty of guns on TV, but only had one experience in person. She never had a desire to see one up close again.
Now, to actually have one pointed at her seemed so unreal that she couldn't comprehend it. She exhibited the only possible reaction - denial. "What did you do? Shoplift that from the toy store across the mall?"
The robber fixed his gaze on her, sizing her up. "You're either very brave or very stupid. Or both." He banged the butt of the gun against the counter. The metal thud indicated the gun was very real, not some plastic toy.
Jasinda gulped as the gravity of the situation sunk in. "Wh-what do you want?" she stammered.
"Well, it ain't the three scoop special, sweetie." He gestured towards the cash register with the weapon.
"Yes. Right. Of course." Jasinda's fingers shook as she punched the keys on the computerized register.
"And no funny stuff," the robber snarled. The menacing look on his face indicated that he meant it.
Jasinda remembered from her training that there was a black and green key innocuously marked "hourly total" which was really a silent alarm. She wondered how anyone could actually respond in time to save her.
It's not like the key even connected to the police department anyway. It simply went to the mall security office. She knew the only one on duty that night was the elderly guard that Jasinda had personally caught taking a nap on more than one occasion outside by the dumpster in the back of the parking garage.
She let her pinkie finger brush against the silent alarm key as she entered her employee code and the appropriate numbers to free the cash drawer. It popped open with its usual electronic beep.
"Give me the tens and the twenties and anything bigger you might happen to have in there."
She grabbed a wad of bills from the drawer. "Where do you want me to put them?" The thief hadn't provided a bag or container.
"Use one of the large soda cups. A white one, not a clear one."
Jasinda grabbed a cup and stuffed it with the cash.
"Put the fives and the ones in too."
"OK, OK," she mumbled as she emptied the cash register drawer as fast as possible.
"Is that all?" the robber demanded as he peered over the counter, assuming she was holding out on him.
"I'm sorry. There aren't any more bills. At least half the customers pay with credit cards and debit cards these days."
He muttered an expletive under his breath. "I guess I'll take this too, then." The thief grabbed her tip cup and shook it into the soda cup holding his loot. The loose tips that she and Trudy had garnered since they'd come on shift fell into the cup. Because they had been haphazardly gathered in the tip cup, they took up a lot more space than the neatly ordered bills that had been in the register. The two sources of cash filled the thief's soda cup to the brim.
The most ridiculous thought passed through Jasinda's head as she watched the tip cup through its clear plastic side. For a split second, all she could focus on was seeing the twenty dollar bill that the hunky football player had given her disappear into the thief's getaway cup. She knew it was stupid, but she had thought that even if she never saw the football player again, at least she could have kept the bill as a memento of his flirting – or put it to good use towards a new pair of cute shoes!
"Give me one of those lids. So it looks like a nice normal cup of soda."
With a shaky hand, Jasinda handed him the plastic cover.
"You were a good girl today, Jasinda," the thief said, snarling the syllables as he read her name tag.
The words sent a shudder up and down her spine. She felt her body freeze in place. Jasinda couldn't tell if her heart stopped beating altogether or beat so rapidly she could no longer detect it.
The thief held the gun up in her line of vision. "Nice doing business with you."
The thoughts bounced around the inside of her head like ping pong balls gone wild. He's going to kill me. It's over. How ironic that I'm going to die in a robbery. But I can't believe I'm going to get murdered standing behind the counter at Biggie Scoops!
Jasinda gulped dry air. She breathed a momentary sigh of relief when the thief turned from the counter and took a step away.
He's leaving. This whole incident will end peacefully after all.
Or so she thought.
Jasinda's jaw dropped open.
The thief turned back towards her. He had only taken a step away from the counter to get a better angle. He aimed the gun right at her!
Jasinda opened her mouth to scream, but the sound came from behind her instead.
Trudy burst through the swinging door, screeching at the top of her lungs. "It's Eddie, the security guard! I found him lying on the ground behind the dumpster. At first I thought he was just taking one of his naps, but then I noticed blood on the side of his head. I couldn't wake him. He's either unconscious or dead! Thank God I had my cell phone with me. I already called the police. They're on the way!"
"You really shouldn't have done that, girlie," the criminal said, shooting Trudy a deadly look from under his pulled down baseball cap.
"I don't understand-"
Before Jasinda could respond verbally or Trudy could react to seeing the gun in the thief's hand, Craig appeared at the other end of the food court and whistled to get their attention.
"The cops got here fast," the thief growled as he concealed the gun against his jacket.
Of course, Jasinda felt relieved that the thief had stopped pointing the gun at her. At the same time, she instinctively knew that the man would whip around and fire at Craig when Craig got close enough.
"No!" Jasinda shrieked. "He's just another customer. He was here right before you left."
"You better not be lying to me," the thief warned her as he waved the gun where only Jasinda and Trudy could see it.
Trudy opened her mouth to talk. Jasinda stomped on her co-worker's foot. In her sternest voice, she ordered, "Don't say another word to anyone about anything until I tell you it's all right."
"Better listen to your friend, girlie," the robber hissed at her.
Craig jogged over to them with a sheepish smile on his face. "I got all the way out to my car and then realized I left my jacket here."
Everybody looked towards it as Craig retrieved the garment from the chair he'd left it on earlier.
The thief relaxed his finger on the trigger a little and concealed the gun inside his coat, but still kept it pointed in Craig's direction.
Craig noticed the soda cup in the thief's hand. There was a twinge of disappointment in his voice mixed with a bit of masculine jealousy. "Oh, I guess it wasn't too much trouble to stay open after all – for some customers."
Jasinda had to think fast. She had to get Craig out of there somehow. She couldn't expect a virtual stranger she'd met only minutes earlier to "ride in on a white horse" and save the day. Things like that didn't happen to her. The only "white horse" she'd be likely to see was the one on the children's carousel.
Even in the midst of crisis, she couldn't help thinking: How typical of my life. I finally met a decent guy who seems interested in me. Ten minutes later, I get robbed a gunpoint. But maybe the robber hadn't really intended to fire the gun. Maybe he was just going to threaten me not to call the police for ten minutes after he left or something like that. Now that the cops are already on the way, we're all going to get killed in a shootout.
Responding to Craig's comment about staying open for the other man at the counter, Jasinda blurted out, "He's not a customer!"
The robber shot her a threatening look.
Jasinda continued quickly, "I mean, he's not just a regular customer. He's Trudy's boyfriend and he came to pick her up after work." Jasinda didn't breathe between sentences. Her mouth and her brain moved so fast that she didn't have time to second guess anything she spouted. She just hoped the lies made some semblance of sense. "He wanted a drink so I gave it to him while we were waiting for Trudy to finish dealing with the trash."
The robber shook his head in agreement. "Yeah, it hit the spot. I was real thirsty."
Craig gave the man a quick once-over, taking in as much information as he could in a split second. Even though he hardly knew Jasinda, he noted the difference in her expression and tone of voice from their brief interaction earlier. Craig also observed that Jasinda's co-worker's lower lip trembled as she bit it.
The football player feigned a relaxed attitude. "I love those large cups myself after a good workout. Although I usually stick to water to clear away the antioxidants from the exercise, you know?"
The thief barely smiled an acknowledgment. The quick flash of teeth revealed an empty space where one used to be.
"Since you're almost done here, Jasinda, I can just wait around and walk you to your car," Craig offered casually.
Jasinda saw the thief's body tense up. The last thing she needed was a nervous robber with an itchy trigger finger. "No!" The word flew out of her mouth with more force than she'd planned. "I mean, it's OK, I don't want to waste your time. I can walk out with Trudy and her boyfriend."
"Yeah, I'll see to it that they make it to their cars OK. I always take care of you, don't I, babe?" The thief shot a glance at Trudy who merely shook her head up and down affirmatively in response.
Craig played it cool. He turned towards the counter. His eye swept over the now empty tip cup. "One more thing, Jasinda, before I go. I want to make sure you got that text I sent you earlier about switching our lunch tomorrow to a dinner instead."
Jasinda had no idea what the handsome hunk was talking about. They hadn't exchanged phone numbers. She figured he was probably mixing her up with some other girl. He probably made so many dates a day he couldn't keep track of them!
That didn't matter now. She focused on her only goal – getting Craig out of there so the thief would take off too before the police showed up and someone really got hurt. "Yes, I got your text. Dinner is fine. See you then. Trudy and I have to finish cleaning up so we can get out of here. Our boss hates paying us all this overtime."
"See you tomorrow then." Craig finally pivoted away from the counter.
Jasinda let out an audible sigh of relief.
"Where are my manners? Nice to meet you by the way, Trudy's boyfriend," Craig said as he turned back.
The robber grunted an acknowledgment.
Craig started to extend his right hand for shaking. At the same time he swung the jacket in his left hand towards the robber's face. He quickly changed his right hand from a meet and greet gesture to a sharp uppercut aimed at the thief's jaw.
As soon as she realized what Craig was attempting, Jasinda screamed, "He's got a gun!"
- Writer
