Honors ELA 10
16 November 2014
Short Story Final Draft
Out of the Small Pound
I was heading home. There was just something about being fired earlier that day that dampened the rest of my evening. Today just wasn’t a good day. No matter how hard I tried I seemed to always come up short. This time I’m going to have to move back to my parents in Virginia. This is just the place I was trying to avoid and it seemed it was also the one place I couldn’t get away from. The small town I used to live in as a kid was filled with my childhood  memories that I didn’t reflect fondly on. I remembered the time I first went fishing with my Pop. 
“Pop don’t all these fish get tired of the same fish they see everyday, I mean it’s such a small pond” I said with curiosity.
“Well that’s just what they have to deal with a fish like these in the ponds don’t belong anywhere else. You can’t change it no matter how hard you try” Pop said. It sickened me how there was no one new to meet, that’s why I came to the city and that’s how I ended up here again… jobless.
I watched foot after foot step precisely over each crack in the sidewalk until I mistakenly stepped on one. I paused instantly in my place. Once people finally started to nudge me and walk around me in the streets of New York I proceeded into the New York State Bank. The 4 large pillars before the door seemed to stretch a mile high. Feeling small I walked through the Glass rimmed with silver door. The place was crowded with a thousand people who all seemed to be irritated as usual in New York. I went to the first bank teller that I set eyes on. She was a plain looking lady with big round glasses that looked like she was holding magnifying glasses over her eyes.
“What can I help you with?” She asked in a jersey accent.
“I need to make a $50 withdrawal”
“Ok just sign this” She slide a paper across the table “And I’ll get that money to you right now”
She opened the register typed some things into her computer and handed me the money.
Her eyes drifted past me and alertness immediately grew in her big eyes. I turned around to see three men with automatic guns in black masks.
“Alright everybody down on the ground!” shouted one of the men who seemed to be the leader. At the same time most of the people in the room ducked and the tellers went to the safety underneath their desks. Just a few people stayed standing with stern faces showing they didn’t want to be told what to do.
“So you’re not coming down easy then? I guess I’ll just have to make myself clear” Said the head thief. He whispered some orders to his men. They walked over to the three men and took turns pushing them to the ground and putting a bullet through their skulls. They fell with three large thuds to the ground each time. Their whole lifes was over like that. The big ocean wasn’t as great as I thought it would be.
“NOW! Someone go get the d--- money from the vault!” He said as he fired some shots into the domed ceiling of the bank.
“In the mean time I’m going to take some hostages”
One of the men grabbed the teller I was with 4 others, and me. He was holding his gun to us and nudging us into a corner.
“Make this easy and put your hands over your head” He ordered us. He going to slaughter us just like he slaughtered those rebels? If I died it wouldn’t matter would it? No one cared about me I was just a small fish in the big ocean. I looked towards the doors and I saw cops making barricades outside the doors. I thought maybe I could make a run for it and save myself. I would be leaving the others though. I knew if I ran fast enough while the man was turned away I could maybe make it to the door. The glasses girl looked at me with big eyes that showed nothing but fear for what was coming next. I jerked my gaze away and back on the robbers. There was some kind of commotion with the money and all three of them huddled by the bags of money. This was my shot. I Hears the sirens of the cops out side, every single one of them with their guns ready. With a few swift movement I Broke for the door. Five Shots came from behind me followed by five thuds. I knew he had executed the rest of the hostages but me. Shots came around me and I ran with all I had left down the steps of the bank and to the barricades of cops. The cops grabbed me and took me behind their lines. I couldn’t help, I could only help myself.
How the rest of this played out I still can’t remember to this day. I just remember those big eyes and those round glasses looking at me. I still see them everyday, everyday I feel the weight of the guilt I had from that day. Why didn’t I do anything to help her too? Everyday that went by I felt worse and worse. The doctor said I was in depression but the pills weren’t helping.
It was a month since the incident, I couldn’t take it anymore. I headed over to the gun store, stepping on every crack I could see in the sidewalk. I threw down all the money I had left on the counter and a bought a revolver. I went home and thought. People would come here and see me dead and they wouldn’t care. I was just a small fish and the small fish couldn’t take the horrors of the big ocean. I sat down loaded a bullet and pulled the trigger.