It was a beautiful June day as I drove my truck over to the bank. The site supervisor had passed out paychecks the day before and I was using my lunch break to replenish my checking account. I'd already written my rent check and I figured it might be helpful to have some money to cover the paper.
It was also a nice chance to say "hi" to my grandmother. She'd gotten the job at the bank after grandpa died, about ten years earlier. And, since I'd dropped out of college, gotten a construction job, and started receiving my weekly wages, she'd suggested I use her brank. It wasn't too far from my new apartment and having a relative keep track of overdrafts was a big help.
I parked the truck and bopped into the bank lobby. A lot of other people must have gotten paid the day before, because the lines in front of the teller windows were long. I waved to gran behind her window and joined her line. She smiled at me and nodded.
There were only two people in front of me when the lobby doors banged open and a deep, harsh voice announced: "This is a holdup. Everybody on the floor."
Things started happening in slow motion. All of the seven or eight people in the lobby, including me, swiveled our heads toward the trio of men in dark clothes and ski masks and our jaws dropped.
I was just turning back around to find grandma when the same voice barked: "On the floor, motherfuckers. NOW!"
Grandma's big green eyes - - stretched wide in shock - - met mine just as I hit the floor.
Three pairs of boots pounded past me.
"All of it," the same voice shouted. "Put it in the fucking bags."
My fellow customers were spread out around me, their cheeks pressed to the floor. Some were spinning their eyes back and forth. Others had their eyes screwed shut.
It was just about then that we heard the sirens. They were warbling closer and closer.
"Fuck!" A different voice muttered. "What the fuck?"
"Close the shades," the first voice shouted. "Get that door locked."
The wailing sirens were just beyond the glass windows of the bank. A pair of boots thumped past me.
After a back and forth, a voice commanded us: "Everybody, up. Everybody, up."
We all climbed to our feet. Two robbers stood in front of the teller windows. The third guy peered through the vertical blinds to the street outside. They were all armed with pistols. Red and blue lights strobed into the lobby.
"You, you, you, and you," the boss-robber growled, pointing to myself and three other customers. "Over here."
He banged the butt of his pistol against the plexiglass wall in front of the tellers.
"Open up," he snarled.
There were three tellers. All women. Grandma. A woman her age. And, a younger woman. I knew the older woman's name was "Shirley," and she was the one who, trembling with fear, stood and walked over to the door between the tellers' windows and the lobby. She unlocked and opened it.
"Come on, you fucktards," the robber said, gesturing to the door with his gun. "Get in there."
He wrangled us through the doorway and past the tellers. Grandma and I exchanged a quick glance. I could see her hands trembling with fear.
"It's okay," I mumbled to her as I passed. "Gonna be okay."
"Shut the fuck up," the robber said, pushing his pistol into my back. "Keep moving, shithead."
He herded us into a hallway and then he and his buddy moved each of us into a separate office. He pushed me forward through a door and I stumbled against a desk.
"Wallet," he grunted.
I fished my wallet out of my back pocket and handed it to him.
"Stay here," he said, slipping the wallet into the pouch at the front of his black hoodie. "Don't make a sound."
He banged the door shut.
I waited in the office, trying to catch my breath. A minute or two later, the door flew open and grandma came tumbling into the office. She staggered against me.
The robber behind her laughed. "You two are related?"
I nodded. "She's my grandmother."
He laughed again. "Perfect," he muttered before slamming the door shut as he left.
"Gran," I said, holding my grandmother's trembling body in a hug. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, Stan" she groaned. "Oh my gosh. What is happening?"
I hugged her. "It's gonna be alright, gran. We'll be okay."
------
Thus began the famous Bentonville Hostage Standoff, a 16-hour ordeal that changed my life forever.
Gran and I slumped together against the office wall. I held her little hand in mine and steadily reassured her. She kept nodding but I could tell she didn't believe me.
A half hour later, the office door opened and the head-robber reappeared. He closed the door carefully behind himself.
"Up," he said, waving his gun. "Stand up."
I helped gran to her feet.
He pulled two drivers licenses out of his hoodie pocket and peered at them.
"Stanley Wilkins," he read off slowly, glancing up at me. "Betty Wilkins." He looked at gran. "Grandson and grandmother, yes?"
I nodded and slipped an arm across gran's shoulders to comfort her.
"You're a big boy, Stan," the robber continued. "That could be a problem."
He stepped closer and I squeezed gran against me.
"And, you... Betty." His eyes bent down and he wagged his pistol. "Pretty good looking broad for a senior citizen."
Grandma gasped and turned her face away from him into my chest.
"Yeah," the man continued in a softer voice. "A regular Mrs. Robinson."
He chuckled. "Whaddya say, Stan. Is she a Mrs. Robinson or not?"
I squinted at him.
"Yes or no," he responded, pointing the gun at my head.
"Y - y - yesss, sure," I stuttered. "Please, man. Just let us go."
The robber nodded slowly and let his gun drop to his side.
"Sure, sure. But it's not up to me, dickhead. It's up to those men in blue outside."
He flicked his head over his shoulder.
"If they play ball, everything will be fine. If not...."
He clicked his tongue to finish his sentence.
"You two just hang tight here... Stan and Mrs. Robinson," he guffawed. "You play ball and you'll be fine."
He reached over and yanked the phone from the desk. After he left, gran and I slid back down the wall.
"It's gonna be okay," I mumbled to gran. "They'll get their money and we'll get out of here. Don't worry."
Gran sniffled and nodded her head against me.
An hour went by. We heard voices on a loudspeaker somewhere outside. At some point, grandma fell asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. I started getting antsy. I glanced out the narrow ceiling-to-floor office window. The sidewalk was empty but I could just make out a cop car parked at either end of the street.
It started getting hot and stuffy in the office. I remembered from a heist movie how the cops shut off the air conditioning in a bank to encourage the robbers to leave. I unbuttoned my shirt and wrangled it off my shoulders, taking care not to wake gran. My t-shirt was damp with sweat.
The door opened and the number one robber entered. He stopped and stared down at us.
"You work out?" He asked in a strangely conversational tone.
"What?"
"I asked you if you worked out, meathead," he replied.
Grandma stirred next to me. Her eyes blinked open and she grasped my arm when she saw the robber.
"Look," I answered. "Can't you just let my grandmother go? I'll stay here. She's scared."