Robbery Trio

Jack Jenkins was forty-five this year. He had worked in a factory for twenty years, but three months ago, the factory's investment company pulled out of the United States, and he lost his job immediately. He had thought he would receive severance pay and simply find another factory job, after all, he was an experienced worker.

Unfortunately, times had changed too quickly. Although he was experienced, he had little education, making it difficult to find work. Over the past three months, not a single job had wanted him.

And just yesterday, his wife had run off with some old bastard from a bank. That guy was already over fifty and was supposedly a bank account manager. The two of them had gotten together because his wife went to repay the loan every month.

His unemployment had made his wife leave him for good. All he had left now were his three children. His eldest daughter was about to graduate from high school. Her grades had always been excellent, and she had a very good chance of getting into a prestigious university, an important turning point in her life. But her grades were not enough to earn a scholarship, so he had to prepare at least twenty-five thousand dollars in tuition. He simply could not come up with that kind of money.

If he had only one daughter, he would sell the house, scrape together the tuition, and send her to college. He would struggle on alone in New York, and he believed he could manage it. But he also had a son in his first year of high school and a daughter in middle school. He could not abandon them.

Roy froze after hearing Jack's words, then asked in horror, "Jack, are you insane?"

"No, I'm very calm right now. Roy, you're just like me. You're close to bankruptcy too. Your wife has always been in poor health, and you have a son who isn't young anymore. Have you thought about college? Your wife's illness has been dragging on. All you can do is keep her on medication; you can't cure her completely because you don't have the money. And how much longer can you hold on?" Jack's words were like a sharp sword piercing Roy's heart, causing unbearable pain.

"But..." Roy did not know what to say. After thinking for a long time, he finally said, "But we don't know how to rob a bank. We don't even know how to rob pedestrians on the street!"

"Yes, but the banks want to bankrupt us. They want to bankrupt every worker with a loan so they can make a killing, and our country turns a blind eye to it. What else can we do? Watch our families fall apart and die?" Jack's voice remained calm.

Roy was thinking as well. How long could he hold on? Or could he find some hourly work? But how long would he have to work before he could afford to treat his wife? The wages he had earned in the past were not even enough to buy insurance. His son was in high school now too. His grades were average, but could he really skip college? End up like him in the future?

Roy's mindset changed quickly, in only a few minutes. Ordinary people would find it difficult to understand how quickly such a transformation could happen, but when people were driven into a dead end, they would do anything.

"But what should we do? Just the two of us?" Though he had made up his mind, Roy still had no confidence at all. His voice was very quiet. And Jack?

"We... we need three handguns, and we need to find one more person. Jerry probably can't hold on much longer either. I spoke with him on the phone a couple of days ago. He hasn't found work either, and his savings won't last much longer. He needs a large sum of money too," Jack said. "Besides, he's a good driver. Once we succeed, we'll rely on him to get us away!"

"All right. I think we should meet and talk it over. We need a plan, at least!" Roy agreed, and Jack let out a breath. At last, there were three of them, and that was enough.

Jack set a time and called Jerry again. This time, things went smoothly. Jerry usually liked to drive fast and was a very bold man. He was at the end of his rope too, so they hit it off immediately.

In a small bar, the three men sat in a corner, each with a large beer. But they were all rather silent. Jack was the one who had started this, so he needed to break the silence. He took a huge gulp of beer before saying, "We can't keep waiting. Otherwise, we won't even have enough money to buy guns."

"Jack, do you know where to buy guns?" Roy looked up and asked him.

"Roy, this is Brooklyn, New York. You can buy anything from Black people!" Jack said as he looked at Roy.

"But we're white. We might not come back out alive!" Roy looked at Jack with some fear.

Jerry spoke up then. "Don't worry. I've got a way to buy them, so that's nothing to worry about. A cheap handgun only costs a few hundred dollars. We can still afford them now, but in a few weeks, that might not be the case."

"All right, then which bank are we robbing?" Roy asked again.

"The one we borrowed from. They want to bankrupt us, so why can't we rob them? These days, we all have debt issues. We'll take turns going there and figure out their situation, so it'll be easier for us to act." Jack did not actually have much of a plan. He had spent the entire previous night watching movies, all of them about robberies.

Three people about to reach the end of the road had formed the Robbery Trio. Though they still had no detailed plan, they had made up their minds. Of course, they still held on to hope. None of them had given up on finding work; they simply did not say so aloud. If any one of them found a job, perhaps he would pull out.

That was why this team was unreliable. Whether they had been provoked or had simply lost all hope, they had come together to pull off one job. But once hope appeared, they would immediately fall apart.

Over the next few days, the three of them began their preparations amid this conflict. Jerry went to buy three handguns, while Jack and Roy went to the bank every day. Their reasons were more than sufficient: the final contract compensation and their debt issues.

Mo Fei also met the "young lady," Jennifer. She was a young and beautiful white woman who seemed especially happy, chatting with someone through her instant messaging app.

"Mary, I got my acceptance letter! UCLA! I haven't told my dad yet. I think he'll be proud of me!" Jennifer shared her joy with her friend.

"Congratulations, Jennifer. But tuition there isn't cheap. Even though you got in, you're not a California resident. Even with reduced tuition, it'll still cost at least twenty thousand dollars. Didn't your father lose his job?"

Guard against fire, guard against theft, and guard against your best friend. The ancients truly did not lie—this was Mo Fei's conclusion!