MY NAME IS KEVIN

Kevin looked at his orange-faced Seiko watch. The Friday night AA meeting was at eight o'clock which was a great time for catching a lone visitor to an ATM machine. He had an unusual set of coincidences already today. This morning he bumped into one of the silent types from the AA meeting at the mall during his break. And earlier this evening he spoke to the old AA lady Danielle at the Shell gas pumps. Kevin's ultimate fear was that one of his holdup victims would be someone from AA and he would be forced to kill him or her.

He took out his mini binoculars and waited across the street from the ATM machine at the Prichard Danbury branch bank. Timing was everything in life, not only getting to the AA meeting, but  getting into the victim's face immediately after they punched in their cash request. Kevin looked at his watch. It was 7:15 and no ATM user had arrived. He would have to abort tonight’s caper if it went beyond 7:30.

A middle-aged woman in a dark knee-length winter coat and carrying a large handbag stopped at the ATM machine. He brought the binoculars up and watched as she fumbled through her bag and finally pulled up her ATM credit card. Because of his two earlier AA member encounters his paranoia level dictated a disguise was needed tonight. He would put on a pair of lens-less glasses with an attached large nose and mustache on top of the ski mask. He focused on the woman's face and categorized her as a total stranger. Kevin panned the binoculars to the ATM keyboard, pulled down the ski mask, and donned the nose-glasses. He moved quickly across the street as the lady punched in her dollar amount and fixed her eyes on the cash return slot. There were no cars on the road and no pedestrians in the area.

“I'll take the cash ma'am. If you make any loud noises this gun will go off.” He looked at the Danbury Bank credit card. “You can make one more transaction at this bank’s maximal withdrawal rate, which is $300. So do it again or you'll never walk this earth looking for another ATM machine.”

Kevin took the cash from the machine slot and saw the woman was shaking uncontrollably. “I'll make it easy for you. Hand me your card. I'll punch in your pin number, and after I get the next $300 you can go home. This bank machine will only give you two transactions consecutively in any 24-hours.”

The woman complied and Kevin handed her credit card back plus a $20 bill with his gloved hand. “Just in case you’re short, this might help. Let me have your cell phone. I'm going to leave it in the bushes across the street next to the fire hydrant. If you scream and start shouting I'll have to shoot you. Just go across the street and fish out your cell phone and then make your call to the authorities or whomever.”

▪

Kevin arrived ten-minutes early to the AA meeting at St. Raphael's. He left his theatrical glasses and the binoculars together with the ATM money, gun and mask in a small gym bag in the trunk of his car. He looked around at the AA smokers and the few non-smokers socializing prior to going into the church. Good. He spied the elder Danielle whom he had seen earlier and the tall, lanky Heath.