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Anders, a cynical book critic with a nasty temper who is famous for his scathing reviews, is stuck in a long line at the bank. He is stuck in said line because he was unable to get to the bank until right before it closed. Anders is irritated by his situation, especially because he is stuck behind two women who are annoying Anders with their “loud” and “stupid” conversation. Anders's mood is worsened when one of the bank tellers closes her station because he knows that the line will move even slower with one less teller working. The two women in front of Anders are also angered that the teller is closing her station and sarcastically insult the worker to one another. They then turn to Anders and invite him to voice his own complaints. Anders is frustrated with the situation at the bank but he is even more irritated by the two “presumptuous crybab[ies],” who assume he will agree with them. As a result, he refuses to participate in their mockery and belittles the two women even though, technically, he was thinking the same things about the teller. He mocks the two women for talking about a minor inconvenience like it is the end of the world. One of the two women is offended by Anders’s unfriendly remarks and tries to fight back, but Anders dismisses her and mocks her for the second time. Disgruntled, the woman stops speaking to Anders and looks past him in the same direction as her friend. However, Anders and the two women do not have time to stew in their argument for long.
Anders soon realizes that everyone in the bank has stopped what they were doing and turned to the front of the building because two men in black ski masks and blue business suits have just walked through the door. The bank becomes eerily silent as everyone, from customer to teller to guard, stares at the robbers in fear, wondering what is about to happen. The two men are both armed; one carries a pistol and the other carries a sawed-off shotgun. The first man presses his pistol into the guard’s neck and demands total silence even though nobody was speaking. The narrator notes that the guard is clearly terrified because his eyes are closed and his lips are moving, presumably in prayer. Satisfied, the robber then turns to the tellers and says that they will all be “dead meat” if any of them hits an alarm to notify the police that there is a robbery in progress. Terrified, all of the tellers nod. Everyone is silent except for Anders, who cannot stop himself from making fun of the robber’s clichéd expression to the woman in front of him, saying “Oh, bravo… Dead meat… Great script, eh? The stern, brass-knuckled poetry of the dangerous classes.” Horrified, the woman looks at Anders and silently pleads with him with “drowning eyes” to be quiet and cooperate.
